Recommended Reading: “Resurrecting Excellence” and “God’s Potters”
Make room on your bookshelf for two new volumes on excellence in ministry, just out from Eerdman's this spring: God's Potters: Pastoral Leadership and the Shaping of Congregations by Jackson W. Carroll and Resurrecting Excellence by L. Gregory Jones and Kevin R. Armstrong. The books are the capstone publications from a four-year study on pastoral leadership conducted by the Pulpit & Pew project at Duke Divinity School.
God’s Potters is a sociological analysis of pastoral leadership drawing upon Pulpit & Pew research, including one of the largest and most representative surveys of Protestant and Catholic clergy every undertaken. In the book, Carroll examines the many factors shaping pastoral ministry today and takes a hard look at who is doing ministry, what ministry involves, and how pastors are faring. Carroll is the Ruth W. and A. Morris Williams Jr. Professor Emeritus of Religion and Society.
Resurrecting Excellence, is a theological reflection on excellence that grew out of a Colloquium on Excellence in Ministry, also conducted as part of the Pulpit & Pew program. The book offers both a theology of excellence and portraits of pastors, lay leaders, and congregations that are embodying “a more excellent way.” Jones is dean and professor of theology at Duke Divinity School and Armstrong is senior pastor of North United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, Ind.
For more information, or to purchase the books, visit Eerdman’s Website:
God’s Potters
Resurrecting Excellence
