God’s Potters: Pastoral Leadership and the Shaping of Congregations

Pastoral leadership is an occupation in flux. In this important and comprehensive study, Jackson Carroll considers the many factors - the changing roles of clergy and laypeople, the opening of ordination to women, and the increasing shortage of clergy, among others - that shape the work of twenty-first-century congregations and clergy. Building on Paul’s image of Christians as clay jars, Carroll provides a portrait of God’s potters - pastors whose calling is to form their congregational jars so that they reveal rather than hide God’s treasure. Carroll uses data from Pulpit & Pew’s National Clergy Survey, likely the most representative survey of Protestant and Catholic clergy ever undertaken, as well as focus group interviews and responses from congregations, to look at who is doing the work of ministry today, what this work involves, and how clergy lead their congregations. God’s Potters culminates with an account of pastoral excellence that leads into specific recommendations for building and sustaining excellence in ministry.