Introduction to The Clay Pot Conspiracy

Yesterday, New Growth Press released my latest book titled The Claypot Conspiracy: God’s Plan to Use Weakness in Leaders. Below is the Introduction, a short beginning to the book designed to invite the reader to join me on a surprising journey of discovery. Please read it and see if it incites your interest. I hope it makes you want to read the book. Or maybe it brings someone to mind who will be helped by my story and study. Finally, pray God would use this book to forge resilience in pastors. May he use it to help leaders last!

Introduction 

This morning, according to the calendar, is a new year. I hope so. Last year was a hard year. The ca­boose to a long, hard decade. I listened for our grand­son, who sleeps like he’s training for the Olympics. Our little slumber-lord. Four years ago on this very day, I discovered our youngest adult daughter was pregnant. She was never able to raise her son. Several years ago, at the age of sixty, my wife and I were given custody and became caregivers.

I took a deep breath. Man, I thought, I really need a new year! Something with more wins. A factory-delivered, field-tested string of months that arrive with a little spar­kle. Maybe even a warranty. A cloud of gloom rose cast­ing a shadow across my soul. My emotions missed the brake and went spiraling toward the pit. I knew this pit well. “Hello darkness, my old friend . . .” Paul Simon had been there too.

The tears came slowly. Shoot, I knew it. When I sleep less, I weep more. Or maybe I weep more because I sleep less. Who knows? After four decades in ministry, the whole sleep thing still eludes me. The pit does not.

WEEPING ALONE

I weep a lot these days. It’s strange, but my tear ducts only work when I’m alone. Maybe it’s a guy thing. Maybe it’s because I want to control people’s perception of me. Or maybe it’s because I come from a long line of non-criers. Who knows? But when no one is around, I let the tears flow. It happens a lot, but it no longer scares me. Not anymore. The Bible has helped me to anticipate it. God has shown me his power through it. That’s re­ally important. We will come back to that thought many times in this book.

Last year was a hard year. I’ve had worse, but last year made the short list of “the worst of times.” The loss of my mom, leadership loneliness, relational conflict, ministry betrayal, unrelenting fatigue, shame from the past, double-pneumonia for a couple of months, the feeling that ministry is filled with feckless effort. Wow, some days I can’t even remember the names of my grand­kids, but that list rolled right off the tongue.

What a depressing start to the new year.

Do you ever feel this way? You know, where the past is like a magnet growing stronger with age. When I was a younger leader, even into my early fifties, I was very forward looking. But the older I get, the greater the magnetic pull toward the past.

Reflecting back, the tears flowed more freely. I wept over pain and loss. I wept for the disconnect I often feel between how life should be and how it is. I wept over my weakness. The impact of my weakness and the ground war it wins each year. At my age, it feels like limitations lurk behind every corner waiting to mug me; a thief swiping some asset I used to possess. Memory, stamina, resilience are all stolen away by time and trouble.

A strong breeze blew; that’s when I heard it.

OF CHIMES AND WONDERS

A set of wind chimes hangs on a tree in our yard. Five chimes dangle, like flutes suspended in space. Down the center runs a wooden ball attached to a fishing line. It hangs between the chimes. When the wind blows, the ball swings, and the chimes sing. A solid breeze creates a symphony of bells banging together, tolling for my attention.

I stopped ruminating to listen. The sound is distinct. Inviting. Beautiful and timely. Surprisingly haunting.

As the wind grew, the chimes soared with sound. Glancing over, a sunrise crested the hill and shafts of light beamed upon the musical mobile. Chimes swung back and forth like the pendulum on a clock, catch­ing the sunbeams as they rocked eastward before they swayed back into the shadows. Morning broke as the chimes rocked from darkness to light, swinging be­tween shadow and sun, clanging as it moved between blackness and beauty.

I closed my eyes and listened. That’s when I noticed it. The chimes pitched wildly back and forth, yet the music remained unchanged. Strong. Resonant. Consis­tent. I felt summoned to listen.

I can’t remember the last time I felt like an experi­ence formed a metaphor for my life as a leader. But in that moment—as the winds of the new year were blow­ing—I sensed the chimes were an invitation from God. A reminder that my story was not unique; my pain, not uncommon; my tears, not unexpected. I remembered something it took me years to learn. My weakness was part of God’s plot. His fruit-bearing plan. The hard, yet wonderful vehicle through which his power would flow.

Wiping my eyes, I thought about the new year. The winds will blow strong through ministry this year, I can already see that. Feel it. And the chimes of my aging body may swing wildly between shadow and sunlight. But sitting there, I realized that absent the wind and the turbulence of swinging, the chimes hang silent. There is no music. What a wonder that is!

GOD WANTS US TO CHIME FOR HIS GLORY

Be it good or bad times, weakness or strength, prosper­ity or adversity, God wants my life to chime for his glory. It’s why he calls us to lead. But God has an unusual way of producing the music. A secret way. A mysterious and wondrously covert plan he uses for extracting his glory from the life of leaders.

It’s a kind of incongruity that uncovers a conspiracy. I call it the clay pot conspiracy.

It’s a simple equation:

Our Weakness + God’s Power = Resilient Ministry

We’ll unpack this equation by looking at seven sur­prising wonders, but for now let me say that the leader can neither manipulate nor escape God’s counterintui­tive plan. Nor would you ever want too.

You see, gospel ministry carries a clause. Suffering and sadness? Trauma? Fatigue and feebleness? You bet! It’s all embedded in the call and part of the plan. You can’t avoid it. It finds you. Then it transforms you and positions you for power. It’s all part of the conspiracy.

God is not content to make us merely conversant about the gospel. Biblical leadership is a call to embody it. And the leader’s capacity to persevere is connected to their understanding of that glorious, empowering reality.

No leader knows the baseline of suffering drawn for him by the hand of Providence. He can only know it is designed to uncover the conspiracy. Your story will be different from mine. But the goal will be the same. To draw back the curtain on God’s plan to help you em­body the gospel. If you enlisted in service of the gospel, you too will be caught up in this glorious wonder.

WILL YOU JOIN ME?

Seeing the chimes swing away from the sun, I was re­minded of God’s plan. It inspired me. Faith infused my soul as I remembered passages packed tight with prom­ises. My tears evaporated. Learning how God works, sometimes surreptitiously, to ensure leaders understand and embody the gospel will change your life. It changes how you think about ministry and gives you a new arse­nal of faith for endurance. Connecting the dots to how God’s conspiracy helps us to last in ministry is going to transform how you move toward the future.

Our call is to make gospel music. Even as we swing between valleys and mountains, and shadows and sun­light. That’s still our call. We are part of the clay pot conspiracy. And the more you see the brilliance and beauty of this plan, the more your journey in ministry makes sense. Your ministry is the instrument. The wind and the swings make the music. Gospel music.

Are you curious? Let’s try this: Let’s start an adven­ture together; let’s explore the details and delights of God’s clay pot conspiracy. You probably need it now more than ever. I know I do. Take the next step by look­ing deeper into the details behind the conspiracy. See you in chapter 1!

Excerpted from The Clay Pot Conspiracy © 2025 by Dave Harvey. Used with permission of New Growth Press. May not be reproduced without prior written permission.