The Clay Pot Conspiracy (Dave Harvey)

In The Clay Pot Conspiracy, Pastor Dave Harvey argues that for those in ministry, "leadership was never about exactling out strengths. God's plan was always to deliver his strength through our weakness." He delivers an equation:

Our Weakness + God's Power = Resilient Ministry

and then discusses what he calls 'seven wonders' that collectively show this to be true:

1. Store Treasure in Clay (see 2 Corinthians 4:7)
• Our "weakness reveals our inadequacy," and reveals that "it's about God's power, not ours. It's about God's grace, not our grit." "The perfection of Christ is greater than the cracks in your pot."
2. Make Death Produce Life (see 2 Corinthians 4:8-9)
• "Paul's vision of leadership was to carry death in your body so that God can display the life of Jesus." "What if the heart of leadership is more about becoming living displays of broken vitality?" What if God is "silencing one brand of confidence to cultivate another"?
• "Your burdens and pain are not obstacles to resilience. They're the means of producing it."
3. Let Repentance Stoke Resilience
• We always need to repent. When we see more of Christ, we see more of our sin—and it never ends. "The biggest threat to leadership resilience is our unrelenting battle against indwelling sin."
• "Sin always subverts God's good things with the promise that vice will deliver a greater delight." "Sin cons, then consumes. It deceives, then devours." We fight and fail and keep fighting. Ultimately, "our brokenness moves us toward humility and dependence, not moral perfection."
4. Learn Love When the Church Wounds You
• "We are limited and fallible—flawed shepherds leading imperfect sheep." "To truly love the church, we must come to terms with her imperfections." People will hurt us (and we them). Our love will be "misunderstood or unrequited. Or . . . our own wins [will] blunt the impact or intent of our friendship or service." "The church will disappoint you in ways that attack your faith to love and serve her." "Yet even when she acts ugly, she is still Christ's bride. You must see her, not simply by how she fails but in light of who she is becoming."
5. Remember God Uses Enemies to Enlarge Your Soul (see Psalm 56)
• "Leadership is a call to come under assault." "God will use our enemies to uncover our idols. He will use foes to build our faith." "God will help you embody what you have said to others about grace and love."
6. Build Strong Teams Through Weak Leaders
• We tend to focus on the wrong things when building teams. Instead, we should "aim for HEALTHY practices:"
• Honor others
• Encourage more than you want to be encouraged
• Acknowledge weaknesses more than parading strength
• Look to the interests of others
• Talk less, and listen more
• Help the weak
• Yearn for Christ
7. Run Together to Finish Well
• "God made us relational, and he made ministry a shared endeeavor." Like Christian in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, we are "never a stunning specimen of determined law-keeping." We are prone to wander and stumble . . . and yet we are never running the race alone. The Lord puts people in our lives to help us, and empowers us with His spirit. We will finish the race well, but we will not do it alone. We must run together. 

This book's content was outstanding; the delivery was okay. It would have benefitted from more exploration and examples. Some things were powerful mentioned in passing but could have been moreso if more deeply probed. Nevertheless, check this one out. 

Rating: A-