Ministry Mentorship: Why Leaders Must Stay Teachable with Bryan Stupar

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Jan 6, 2026

Bryan Stupar, a seasoned pastor and ministry mentor, discusses the importance of mentorship in spiritual leadership. He emphasizes that mentorship is essential, not optional, rooting it in the Great Commission and the relationship between Paul and Timothy. Bryan highlights the need for lifelong learning, humility, and relational investment, contrasting self-centered leadership with Jesus' model of service. He also explores cultural challenges leaders face today and shares practical mentoring stories, underscoring the profound impact of grace-filled support on personal and spiritual growth.

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INSIGHT

Mentorship Reflects Jesus’ Discipleship Model

Mentorship mirrors Jesus' model: guidance in wisdom, cultivation of gifting, and replication across relationships.
Bryan Stupar argues discipleship requires proximity, humility, and lifelong learning as central to ministry formation.

INSIGHT

Scripture Makes Mentorship Mandatory

Jesus' Great Commission roots mentorship in Scripture: go, teach, baptize and make disciples.
Hebrews shows even Jesus 'learned obedience,' so leaders must remain teachable throughout life.

INSIGHT

Follow The Mentor’s Trajectory, Not Only Teaching

Paul and Timothy model life-on-life formation that includes conduct, faith, and endurance, not just content transfer.
Bryan emphasizes observing a mentor's aim of life and long obedience, not merely their teaching.

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Ministry Mentorship: Why Leaders Must Stay Teachable

with Bryan Stupar

In this episode of the Expositors Collective podcast, Bryan Stupar reflects on pastoral and ministry mentorship, not as a leadership technique or growth strategy, but as a deeply biblical, historical, and relational pattern of discipleship.

Drawing from Scripture, church history, and decades of pastoral experience, Bryan argues that formation in ministry requires proximity, humility, and a posture of lifelong learning. Mentorship, he suggests, is not optional for Christian leaders because even Jesus, in His humanity, learned obedience through suffering. If growth and formation marked the life of Christ, how much more must leaders remain teachable.

Bryan begins by rooting mentorship in the Great Commission, showing that discipleship necessarily involves teaching, modelling, and replication. He then explores the relationship between Paul and Timothy as an example of life-on-life formation that extends far beyond content delivery to include conduct, character, faith, and endurance.

The episode also addresses the cultural challenges facing leaders today, particularly the pull of expressive individualism and self-centred leadership. Bryan contrasts this with the way of Jesus, which calls leaders to humility, service, and continual growth rather than performance and self-promotion.

Along the way, he traces the historical roots of mentorship, from Homer’s Odyssey to pivotal Christian relationships such as Ambrose and Augustine, showing how faithful investment in others has shaped the church across generations. He then turns practical, highlighting the benefits of mentorship: growth through feedback, grace-filled support, and guidance through modelling.

Bryan closes with personal reflections from his own pastoral journey, sharing how mentors shaped him through honest conversations, observation, and lived example. His encouragement is simple but challenging: none of us grow alone, and faithful ministry requires inviting trusted voices to speak into our lives.

This conversation is a reminder that Christian leadership is formed over time, in community, and always with Jesus as the aim.

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