What does Tribe teach about rest from striving?

At Tribe, the teaching on rest from striving begins with the feast of Sukkot as a frame. Brian has described it as God's annual invitation to step out of ordinary life and stop running. After COVID, the Tribe leadership team chose not to jump back onto what Brian called a treadmill cranked to speed ten. Instead they asked what God wanted, and the answer they felt they received was to honor the feasts of the Lord. Sukkot, he taught, is where God specifically invites his people to rest from their own plan, from striving for their own salvation, and from trying to earn his love.

The theological ground underneath that invitation is that God's love is not a response to performance. Brian says, "He loves you not because of what you do or what you don't do. He loves you because of who he is." That same logic runs through his teaching on righteousness. In Isaiah 61:10, the speaker is described as being dressed by God in garments of salvation and a robe of righteousness. Brian pointed out that the Hebrew behind that image carries the sense of being completely surrounded, so that what is on the outside is all anyone sees. When people drag their past failures back before God, his response is to point to the outer garment, the righteousness that was given, not earned. Brian put it plainly: "My sin doesn't change my righteous nature anymore than my goodness changed my sin nature."

The practical shape of this rest, Brian taught, is celebration rather than effort. Real celebration of what God has done becomes possible only after people stop trying to manage things themselves. As he put it, "When we quit trying to do this on our own, he's like, okay, you've given me something to work with." The congregation gathered stories of exactly that pattern: moments when God provided, clothed, and prepared people who had stopped striving and simply showed up.

Taught from Isaiah 61:9-11 · Leviticus 23 · Hebrews 4 · Jeremiah 17:7-8 · Proverbs 3:3-5