As another calendar year came to an end, I took time to review the previous 12 months. There were many things to celebrate. Yet the list of the challenges and struggles our pastoral team had faced was long: physical exhaustion from the pace of life, the heavy needs of new believers coming out of dark backgrounds, spiritual warfare experienced by our children, increasing pressure on our church staff, the deaths of loved ones, and even a pastoral situation that required several arrests, a restraining order, and criminal charges.
The list left me feeling empty and fragile.
As I was writing the list, I was thankful for Dave Harvey’s The Clay Pot Conspiracy: God’s Plan to Use Weakness in Leaders. Harvey, a pastor and church network leader for more than 40 years, has suffered deeply and can now serve as a Paul-like model of God’s strength in human weakness.
As the title suggests, the book’s premise is that God has ordained a sort of conspiracy for Christian leaders: Our weakness plus God’s power equals resilient ministry. It’s a conspiracy because it’s God’s “covert plan to sabotage an enemy who manipulates human power and strength” (14). What the Devil, the world, and the flesh mean for evil—highlighting our human weakness—God transforms for our good and his glory.
Harvey’s short book is at once challenging and comforting because of the broken man who has written it and because of the timeless truths contained in it. It’s a modern example of facing the multifaceted trials of Christian ministry with the wisdom and perspective of the apostle Paul.
Grand Vision for Clay Pots
Second Corinthians is Paul’s weakness manifesto. He describes the immense pressure he faced in his missionary journeys—suffering until he even “despaired of life itself” (2 Cor. 1:8). But God allowed Paul and his colaborers to face this hardship so they would “rely not on [themselves] but on God who raises the dead” (v. 9). God’s plan for our weakness, then, is to teach us dependence on his resurrecting power.
Further, our great treasure—the divine beauty and power of the gospel—is held within such weak vessels as human beings. Why? “To show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (4:7, NIV).
Yet God is with us and has a purpose for our suffering. Harvey writes, “If dependence upon God is the point, weakness becomes an asset. Weakness is the space where reliance is built and grace is delivered” (51). This is such good news. God sees our weakness and is moved to compassion (Ps. 103:13–14). He loves to fill empty clay pots with his own presence and glory.
God is with us and has a purpose for our suffering.
Pastors need to embrace this clay pot conspiracy and let God’s power flow through our weakness. We must let repentance stoke resilience. We need to remember that God uses “enemies” to enlarge our souls. We should build strong teams and run together to finish well.
But most of all, we can be sure our tragedies and traumas don’t go unnoticed by God. Harvey concludes,
When God sees you, he is moved with grace and mercy. Yes, you—the doubting pastor, the struggling ministry leader. God has an unquenchable, unrelenting affection for you. (161)
When the Author Becomes the Message
Throughout the book, Harvey tells his own story as a display of Christ’s sustaining power in human weakness. In addition to providing a thorough exposition of Paul’s words on suffering in 2 Corinthians, he offers the highs and lows of his ministry to put flesh and blood on the issues we face as Christ’s followers.
After planting and leading a church for more than 20 years (even becoming his church network’s president), Harvey was removed from both positions when his grown children left the faith.
All of the ministry challenges were surpassed by the tragic pain in his family. His daughter moved further from Christianity and eventually lost her life after a battle with addiction. Losing a child is among the deepest wounds a person can endure. Amid mourning their daughter, Harvey and his wife, both in their 60s, graciously took their preschool-aged grandson into their home and adopted him. A blessing, but an unexpected complication at a stage in life when many people are slowing down.
Thankfully, most pastors won’t suffer as much as Harvey—either personally or professionally—but we can all learn from his integration of Scripture and experience. It’s a measure of God’s grace that “no leader knows the baseline of suffering drawn for him by the hand of Providence” (6). Yet Harvey relates how God strengthened him in moments of weakness: “Faith infused my soul as I remembered passages [of Scripture] packed tight with promises” (6–7).
Invitation to Weakness
Harvey’s message is so obviously biblical as he invites pastors to embrace our weak, limited, fragile humanity. It’s hard not to shine the light on our strengths and accomplishments. Everything in our culture teaches us to celebrate our wins. However, the light of the gospel was designed to be held and carried by weak, earthen vessels, not impressive, well-polished ones.
Most pastors won’t suffer as much as Harvey—either personally or professionally—but we can all learn from his integration of Scripture and experience.
Pastors need to resist the lure of the platform and power. “Leadership was never about exalting our strengths,” writes Harvey. “God’s plan was always to deliver his strength through our weakness” (5). Our weakness plus his power is the equation for God’s glory—and for our resilience in ministry. Accepting this truth is the surest path to a long and fruitful ministry.
As I reflect on the complexities of pastoral care, the constant spiritual warfare, and my physical exhaustion, Harvey reminds me that the solution isn’t found in doubling down and working harder. The solution is, as it was for the apostle Paul, to embrace my frailty and inadequacy. We’re all simple clay pots, designed to carry and display the gospel’s beauties. And what a relief: God’s power is made perfect in my weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).
Sometimes the most important spiritual lessons don’t come through detailed theological books. Dave Harvey’s story and his explanation of Scripture will encourage and comfort pastors worn down by the strain of ministry. The Clay Pot Conspiracy is a powerful reminder for church leaders that God’s grace is made perfect in our weakness.
The Gospel Coalition