A Quiet Roar by Randall Arthur

Book description:

At a Baptist Church in rural Georgia, male leaders are taking turns filling the pulpit in the absence of a pastor.

Two weeks before Easter, one of the leaders—an eighty-year-old millionaire—looks out over the congregation of sixty people. “I’ve decided not to teach this morning,” he declares. “Rather I’m going to make an announcement. And it’s going to upset many of you. But at this point I honestly don’t care; I’m angry. The two previous pastors have nearly destroyed our church. So, I’ve decided to do something about it. Before I make my announcement, I should remind you that my brother, when he was still alive, and I built this church building on our property with our money. The agreement at the time was that when my brother and I are deceased, the deed to the property and all the buildings will transfer to the church. But I’m not dead. And I still hold the deed to the property. Therefore, I’ve made a unilateral decision. And there’s nothing anybody can do about it.”

Eyebrows all across the auditorium instantly lifted.

“In two weeks from now, on Easter Sunday, I’m bringing in a lady pastor. I’m going to pay her salary. I’m going to furnish her a home and a car. All I’m going to tell you at the moment is that she’s a widow, and she has served as a long-time missionary in Africa.” The old man paused and pointed an aged finger toward the foyer. “If you don’t like my decision, you know where the doors are.”

My review:

 A disclaimer before my review: I personally have never been for women pastors. It isn't something I make a big deal about, and have interacted with and respected women pastors at a Christian bookstore I worked at for 5 years, and at the hospital I work at. I have listened to female evangelists as a kid, and my church's first pastor was a woman way back in 1954, and was named for her for many years.


  I read three of Randall Arthur's previous books several years ago, and was especially impressed by Wisdom Hunter and Jordan's Crossing. Even with the somewhat controversial subject, I was eager to review this newest book when given the chance. I'll break it down what I thought of the book:

1) The writing: As Arthur has proven in his other books, he is a great writer. The book was an interesting and suspenseful read - not in the mystery suspense kind of suspense, and was a page turner in its own way. I didn't want to put it down, and wanted to see what happened next.

2) The characters: I loved the characters in the book, good and bad. The preacher lady was an awesome character you had to like, and even the ones who fought her were great characters, even if you didn't like them.

3) Content: This book had a lot of Christian content, Scripture, sermon content. I thought that through the fictional female pastor, the author presented some great arguments for female pastors.

What I didn't like:
1) I caught one use of the "d"word, and I am one who have always disliked curse words in a Christian book. It IS the only one I caught.

2) The ending. I won't give any spoilers, but I love happy endings. I thought the book was heading one way with a happy ending for two people......but.....

   I did enjoy the book, and it was a fascinating read. Though it is fictional, the book shows how easily Christians can get radical and show bad attitudes and actions over a verse that may not necessarily mean what we hold it so rigidly to mean. Also through fiction, the author addressed racism in the church, and brought out ways to befriend people and possibly get them to our church by just being friends and not putting on pressure.


I was provided a copy of this book for review purposes. All opinions in this review are my own.

About the author:

Randall and his wife have been career missionaries since 1975. They have planted churches in Oslo, Norway; Munich, Germany; and Berlin, Germany. In addition, Randall has coordinated and led over 100 short-term mission trips.

Randall is an Atlanta native. He became a believer at the age of 12, and surrendered his life to be a preacher and missionary at the age of 15.

Randall’s first novel, Wisdom Hunter, was penned in the late 1980’s. The volume was born, not out of a long held ambition to write a novel, but rather out of a therapeutic need to put into writing the painful lessons he learned as a young legalistic missionary in Norway.

The purpose of the book was to illustrate in a real-life drama the destructiveness of legalism in the body of Christ. The novel proved to be too controversial for Randall’s legalistic camp. The president of the mission agency with which Randall served demanded Randall’s resignation the very day he read the book.

Randall later wrote Jordan’s Crossing, Brotherhood of Betrayal, and Forgotten Road. These books were also born out of personal struggles and/or partial real-life experiences.

Randall’s goal as a writer is to rip the mask of pretense from American Christianity and present stories that portray true-to-life struggles, true-to-life thoughts, true-to-life reactions, and true-to-life journeys.

A Quiet Roar is his latest, and perhaps most controversial, offering.

Check out his website at RandallArthur.com, where all of his books can be purhcased.