Pastor, Your Weakness Might Be More Impactful Than Your Answers
Trust in Discipleship: Vulnerability builds trust, but honest stories of transformation give disciples confidence that change is possible.
Information Is Not Enough: Information alone cannot transforms; discipleship becomes effective when teaching connects with lived experience and faithful obedience.
Hope is KEY: Redemptive stories show how God meets people in weakness, giving struggling disciples practical hope beyond abstract principles.
Your Credibility: Discipleship credibility comes from trusting Jesus through real struggles, not from appearing perfectly knowledgeable or spiritually complete.
I was teaching a Personal Discipleship course at a Bible College when a student asked an unexpected question.
We'd been talking about vulnerability – how honesty about your struggles builds trust, how trust gives you access to someone's life, how that access is what makes real discipleship possible.
One young man in the class had been sitting with his hand raised long enough that I finally stopped and let him in. He was uncomfortable. I could see it on his face. But he got it out:
Want more from The Lead Pastor?
Sign up for a free account to complete reading this article:
Have an account? Log In
What if, in my vulnerability and talking about my weaknesses to build trust, the guy I'm discipling starts thinking, Why should I listen to this guy? He's as messed up as I am.
Why Information Isn't Enough
Many churches and pastors train disciple-makers like we train students – load them with content, teach them the right answers, send them out equipped. And content matters. The Word of God is alive. It changes people.
But content without story is just instruction. And instruction rarely transforms.
I told that student, and I believe it's true:
When you sincerely follow Jesus and have a growing relationship with the Holy Spirit, you will have stories to tell.
Use redemptive stories liberally! Tell stories about ways God has used Scripture or His people to give you victory over a sinful lifestyle, a secret, a strained relationship, or other personal problems Jesus has rescued you from.
Stories about ways the grace of God has used Scripture and His people to give you victory over a sinful lifestyle, a secret, loneliness in leadership, a strained relationship, or other personal problems Jesus has rescued you from.
Vulnerability builds trust. But redemptive stories build hope.
And hope is what most disciples are actually starving for.
When you share a redemptive story, you're not just teaching a principle. You're showing someone what the principle looks like with skin on it. You're saying, I was in the dark, and here's how the light came in.
I've prayed 2 Chronicles 20:12 more times than I can count:
We don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you, Lord.
2 chronicles 20:12
And He has come through - time after time.
Telling redemptive stories in a discipleship context won't undermine your credibility. It establishes it – because your disciplees don't need a mentor who has it all figured out. They need a mentor who has learned to trust the One who does.
After I shared a few of my own stories, I asked the class if anyone had a redemptive story to tell. One young woman told of her battle with addiction and how Jesus had rescued her. More stories followed until I had to cut the class off.
What This Means for You
If your discipleship seems stuck in information transfer, ask yourself when you last told a story... not a teaching illustration, but a real story from your own life.
Your disciples don't need more content. They need to see that what you're teaching them is something you've actually lived.
That's the thing no curriculum can give them. Only you can.
