What does Tribe teach about starting from rest?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on starting from rest begins with a detail most people miss in the Genesis account. Brian Hunter walked the congregation through Genesis 1 and 2 and pointed out that Adam was created on day six, which means his very first full day on the job was the day God had already declared as rest. God did not tell Adam to prove himself first or finish a to-do list before he could stop. Rest came before the work of subduing and cultivating the earth had even begun. Brian draws the conclusion plainly: rest is not a reward for finishing work, it is the starting point for it. Because of that, the impulse most people feel at the start of a new year, to hit the ground running and redouble their effort, is the world's rhythm, not God's. And as Brian put it, "as a different species, we have a different rhythm."
The same pattern shows up throughout Jesus's ministry. Before he began his public work he retreated into the wilderness. After John the Baptist was killed, when every human instinct would have been to act, he got in a boat and withdrew. Even on the boat in a storm, he was asleep. In Mark 2, when the Pharisees tried to weaponize the Sabbath as a rigid religious rule, Jesus pushed back and said it was made to meet the needs of people, not the other way around. Brian used that to argue that the form rest takes does not have to be a full day off to be real. The principle is the same whether it is a Sabbath day or a moment of quiet before a hard conversation. Brian describes the practice as finding a place of peace before acting, rather than reacting from stress. As he put it, "rest subordinates our will to that of the father."
The practical question Brian pressed into was direct: "Can you rest even on day one of the job?" People in the room shared what that actually looks like for them, including a worship song before pulling out of the driveway or stopping to pray before walking into a room. The congregation closed one of these gatherings by taking communion together as a way of practicing the very thing that had been taught, starting from rest rather than arriving at it after the work is done.
Taught from Genesis 1:26 - 2:3 · Mark 2 · 2 Corinthians 5:17
“As a different species, we have a different rhythm.”
From God's Rhythm
The passage taught · 2 Corinthians 5:17
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- January 5, 2026 God's Rhythm Brian Hunter opens 2026 by calling Tribe church to rest before striving, tracing God's pattern from creation through Jesus, and launching a 30-day group challenge.
- January 4, 2026 Ready, Set... A Wyoming pastor explores why God calls us to rest before we rush into the new year, drawing from Genesis and the example of Jesus.