“Tribe: On Homecoming & Belonging”

I had the opportunity to join my friend, Nick Lenzi, on the Group Talk Podcast from the Small Group Network for an episode of Reading Lenz! We read a fantastic book by Sebastian Junger called “Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging”.

Tribe was an important book for me for two reasons.

(1)

It paved the way for a new understanding how deep the wiring for group identity is in our brains and bodies. We were built for it, and we have spent too long trying to unlearn something that God created for good.

(2)

It helped me see even more clearly that SO much of the abundant life that Jesus promised us actually evident, if only we would look carefully enough. Junger isn’t a Christian - but he can still recognize the way that God designed us. That paves an incredible pathway of evangelism - connecting with the mostly deeply human parts of people outside the church so we can reconnect them to the one perfect human.

Bonus third thing…

We hear a lot of trash talk about “tribal thinking” - political hate, schisms and factions, warfare… But our brains are designed for it. Group identity is such a complex and powerful uniqueness in human beings, and it’s something we deeply long for.

Jesus reconciled this dissonance for us. In response to the dangerous tribal tendencies of fallible humans, he didn’t abolish the idea: He created a better tribe, forever anchored to Himself.

A tribe that was obsessed with caring for one another AND would let anyone become one of the one anothers.

A tribe that would forgive quickly and deeply, because mercy changes heart forever.

A tribe that would lay down its comfort, pride, or victory for even its fiercest enemies just to prove that their love was real.

Jesus created the Church, and promised the gates of hell wouldn’t stand a chance as we stormed its darkness with the Light.