Just as a potter uses a "rib" to apply pressure and give shape to clay vessels spinning on a wheel, Brian Williams argues that God has used mentors from the time of ancient Israel to the modern church to prepare leaders for service to his people. This book provides a historical and theological foundation for mentoring, and invites pastors, supervisors, and seminarians to step into this rich heritage of pastoral formation by offering vignettes of these relationships in the lives and ministries of such diverse pastors as Gregory of Nazianzus, St. Augustine, Catherine of Siena, John Newton, Karl Barth, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

By combining the wisdom of the classical disciplines of spiritual direction and apprenticeship Williams offers us a model that addresses the four main concerns of these pastoral mentors: moral and personal formation, pastoral calling and imagination, theological reflection and deliberation, and practical pastoral skills. The book concludes with a number of tools, forms, and suggestions to help shape and guide this demanding but rewarding practice. THE POTTER'S RIB will challenge experienced pastors and seminary students alike to take seriously the role of mentoring in becoming the pastors they are called to be.