Apr 26 / Jon Collier

Finding Your Spiritual Rhythms: Proclaiming

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There is something powerful that happens when a story is spoken out loud. What once lived only in our heads or hearts—often tangled with shame, confusion, or pain—suddenly takes on new shape. It becomes shareable. It becomes lighter. It becomes an invitation.

In the rhythm of Proclaiming, we learn to speak life into our community by telling the truth about where we’ve been, who God has been in it, and how hope is still unfolding. Proclaiming is not about preaching at people or performing spiritual success. It’s about bearing witness—to grace, to healing, and to a Jesus who meets real people in real places.

For those who feel broken, burnt out, or bored with church, proclaiming can feel risky. Many of us were taught—explicitly or implicitly—that our stories were too messy, too ordinary, or too incomplete to be shared. But in God’s design, your story is not a liability. It’s a gift. And when Jesus is the hero of that story, proclaiming becomes healing—not just for you, but for the people who hear it.

Proclaiming as a Spiritual Rhythm

Proclaiming is not a one-time event; it’s a rhythm woven into the life of God’s people. Throughout Scripture, God invites His people to remember and tell—to recount where they were, what God did, and who they are becoming. This rhythm keeps faith from becoming abstract and keeps community from becoming shallow.

At Unquittable, proclaiming flows naturally out of several of our core actions:

  • Encourage Speaking: Voices silenced by fear or shame are invited back into the conversation.
  • Actively Listen: Stories are received with care, not corrected or rushed.
  • Allow Engagement: Everyone has a place at the table, not just the most polished or confident.
  • Discover Passion: People often rediscover purpose when they see how God has worked in their own lives.

Proclaiming is how faith moves from theory to testimony. It’s how the gospel becomes personal without becoming self-centered.
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Why Sharing Your Story Heals You

Many people underestimate how healing it can be simply to tell the truth—especially in a safe, grace-filled environment.

1. Naming Brings Clarity
Pain often grows in silence. When experiences remain unspoken, they tend to blur together and define us more than they should. Speaking your story helps you name what actually happened, where God showed up, and where healing is still needed. Clarity is a form of healing.

2. Shame Loses Its Grip
Shame thrives in isolation. It tells us, If people really knew, they would turn away. But when a story is met with compassion instead of condemnation, shame begins to loosen. You don’t just learn that God is gracious—you experience it through His people.

3. You Reframe the Narrative
When Jesus becomes the hero of your story, your identity shifts. You are no longer the sum of your worst moments or greatest failures. You become someone who has been met, pursued, forgiven, sustained, or restored. Proclaiming helps move you from “This is what happened to me” to “This is how God has been at work in me.”

4. Healing Becomes Communal
God often heals in community, not in isolation. Speaking your story invites others into the process—not to fix you, but to walk with you. That shared burden reflects God’s design for the church as a body, not a collection of disconnected individuals.

Why Sharing Your Story Heals Others

Proclaiming is never just about personal relief. When done with humility and honesty, it becomes a means of grace for the listener.

1. Stories Create Permission
When someone hears your story, it silently gives them permission to acknowledge their own. Your honesty opens a door for their honesty. Your courage lowers the barrier for theirs.

2. Stories Make Hope Tangible
Abstract hope can feel distant to someone in pain. But embodied hope—hope with a name, a face, and a journey—feels possible. When people hear how God met you in confusion, grief, doubt, or burnout, they begin to imagine that God might meet them too.

3. Stories Build Belonging
Proclaiming reminds people they are not alone. In a culture marked by isolation and burnout, shared stories rebuild connection. They turn a room full of individuals into a community of fellow travelers.

4. Stories Point Beyond Themselves
When Jesus is the hero, your story doesn’t end with “look what I survived” but “look who was faithful.” That redirection gently points listeners toward God without pressure or performance.

Keeping Jesus as the Hero

One of the most important aspects of proclaiming is where the spotlight falls. This rhythm is not about self-promotion or oversharing; it’s about testimony.

Here are a few guiding questions that help keep Jesus at the center:

  • Where was I before God met me in this season?
  • What did I learn about God’s character through this experience?
  • How did God sustain, correct, or redeem me—even imperfectly?
  • Where am I still growing or trusting?

Notice that this approach leaves room for ongoing process. You don’t need a neatly wrapped ending. In fact, unfinished stories often resonate more deeply because they feel honest and accessible.

Proclaiming Without Performing

A common fear is that proclaiming requires a stage, a microphone, or a perfectly crafted testimony. In reality, most proclaiming happens in ordinary moments:

  • A conversation over coffee
  • A small group check-in
  • A moment of honesty with a friend
  • A prayer spoken out loud
  • A reflection shared in a team meeting

Proclaiming is less about polish and more about presence. It’s about speaking life where you already are.

Healthy proclaiming also respects boundaries. Not every detail is meant for every audience. Wisdom asks, Who is this for? and What does love require in this moment? Sharing selectively is not hiding—it’s stewarding your story well.

Creating Communities Where Proclaiming Is Safe

For proclaiming to flourish, communities must actively cultivate safety. This is where the church plays a crucial role.

Healthy communities:

  • Listen without rushing to fix
  • Respond with empathy, not comparison
  • Protect confidentiality
  • Honor vulnerability as courage
  • Make room for silence and emotion

When leaders model this posture, it gives permission for others to do the same. Proclaiming then becomes a shared rhythm rather than a rare event.

A Simple Practice: Proclaiming in Three Movements

If you’re new to this rhythm, start small. Here’s a simple framework you can practice privately or with trusted others:

  1. Where I Was – Name the reality honestly.
  2. What God Did / Is Doing – Reflect on God’s presence, even if it felt subtle.
  3. Where I’m Headed – Share what hope or trust looks like now.

This practice can be done through journaling, prayer, or conversation. Over time, it helps you recognize God’s faithfulness woven through your life.

Speaking Life into Your Community

At its core, proclaiming is about speaking life—not hype, not denial, not spiritual clichés. Life-giving words acknowledge pain while pointing toward hope. They tell the truth while trusting God with the outcome.

When a community embraces this rhythm, something beautiful happens:

  • The broken feel seen.
  • The burnt out feel understood.
  • The bored rediscover meaning.
  • The gospel becomes visible again.

Your story—told with humility and centered on Jesus—may be the very thing God uses to bring healing, rest, and purpose to someone else.

So speak. Gently. Honestly. Courageously.

Not because your story is perfect, but because God is faithful—and His faithfulness is always worth proclaiming.

Share This With Someone

Discussion Questions

1. When you think about your own story, where do you most clearly see Jesus as the hero—and where do you still struggle to see His work?
 (How might sharing that honestly bring healing to you or hope to someone else?)

2. What makes proclaiming feel risky for you—fear of being misunderstood, shame, or feeling like your story isn’t “finished”?
 (How could a life-giving community help lower that risk?)

Tip for Mentors: Model safety before depth.

 Go first with a brief, honest story of your own—unfinished edges included—and then listen more than you speak. When mentors actively listen and resist fixing or spiritualizing too quickly, they create the kind of space where proclaiming truly speaks life.

5‑Day Devotional

Day 1: Remembering What God Has Done

Scripture
 Psalm 107:2 — “Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story…”

Reflection
 Proclaiming begins with remembering. Before we can speak life to others, we must slow down and notice where God has already been faithful in our own lives. Many of us rush past this step, assuming our story is too ordinary or too messy to matter. But Scripture repeatedly calls God’s people to remember and tell. Remembering reframes our pain and restores perspective.

When you look back, you may not see dramatic miracles—but you may notice quiet moments of strength you didn’t have on your own, people who showed up at just the right time, or hope that refused to disappear. These are not coincidences; they are evidence of God’s presence.

Proclaiming doesn’t start with polished words. It starts with honest reflection. As you remember, you begin to see Jesus not as a distant idea but as an active participant in your real life.

Unquittable Action
 Actively Listen — Listen to your own story with grace instead of judgment.

Practice
 Write a short timeline of your life and mark moments where God met you—especially during seasons of brokenness, burnout, or boredom.

Prayer
 God, help me remember where You have been faithful, even when I couldn’t see it at the time. Open my eyes to Your presence in my story. Amen.

Day 2: Finding Your Voice Again

Scripture
 Jeremiah 20:9 — God’s word is described as a fire shut up in the bones, impossible to hold in.

Reflection
 Many people have learned to stay quiet as a form of survival. Maybe your voice was dismissed, misused, or ignored. Maybe church felt like a place where questions were unwelcome and honesty felt unsafe. Over time, silence became normal.

Proclaiming gently invites your voice back into the conversation. Not all at once. Not loudly. Just truthfully. When you speak what God has done—or what you’re still wrestling with—you reclaim something sacred: your God-given voice.

Encouraging speaking is not about forcing vulnerability. It’s about creating space where truth can breathe. When your voice begins to return, healing often follows.

Unquittable Action
 Encourage Speaking — Allow yourself to speak honestly, even if your words feel incomplete.

Practice
 Share one sentence with someone you trust that begins with: “Lately, God has been teaching me…”

Prayer
 Jesus, thank You for giving me a voice. Heal the places where fear or shame have silenced me, and help me speak truth with courage. Amen.

Day 3: Keeping Jesus as the Hero

Scripture
 2 Corinthians 4:7 — We carry treasure in jars of clay so that the power is clearly God’s, not ours.

Reflection
 Proclaiming is not about presenting a cleaned-up version of yourself. It’s about pointing beyond yourself. When Jesus is the hero of your story, your weaknesses don’t disqualify you—they highlight God’s strength.

This kind of proclaiming resists performance. It doesn’t rush to tidy endings or spiritual clichés. Instead, it says, “This is where I struggled—and this is how God met me.” That honesty is what makes your story life-giving.

People don’t need your success; they need your witness. When Jesus stays at the center, your story becomes an invitation rather than a comparison.

Unquittable Action
 Allow Engagement — Let others meet Jesus through your story, not through perfection.

Practice
 Rewrite a part of your story using this lens: Where was Jesus present, even if I didn’t realize it then?

Prayer
 Jesus, be the center of my story. Help me tell the truth in a way that points to Your faithfulness, not my performance. Amen.

Day 4: Speaking Life Into Community

Scripture
 Proverbs 18:21 — Words have the power of life and death.

Reflection
 Proclaiming is never just for the speaker—it’s a gift to the listener. When you speak life, you help create the kind of community where healing becomes possible. Your story may be the very thing that helps someone else feel seen, understood, or less alone.
Life-giving words don’t deny pain; they acknowledge it while pointing toward hope. This is how communities move from surface-level connection to meaningful belonging. Speaking life is an act of love.

Unquittable Action
 Discover Passion — Notice how God uses your story to bring encouragement and purpose to others.

Practice
 This week, intentionally speak one affirming, hope-filled truth into someone else’s life.

Prayer
 God, use my words to bring life, not harm. Help me speak with compassion and courage in my community. Amen.

Day 5: Proclaiming as a Ongoing Rhythm

Scripture
 Revelation 12:11 — God’s people overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.

Reflection
 Proclaiming is not a one-time testimony—it’s a rhythm. As your life continues to unfold, your story continues to grow. There will be new struggles, new healing, and new insights into who God is. Each season invites a fresh proclamation.

When proclaiming becomes a rhythm, faith stays grounded in real life. Stories are shared. Burdens are lightened. Rest is protected. Purpose is renewed. This is how the church becomes a place of healing instead of pressure.

Unquittable Action
 Give Rest — Release the pressure to have a finished story. God is still at work.

Practice
 Commit to one ongoing rhythm of proclaiming—journaling, small group sharing, or prayerful reflection.

Prayer
 Lord, thank You for continuing to write my story. Teach me to proclaim Your faithfulness as a way of life. Amen.

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