Let the Church Say Amen

Starred review from September 1, 2004
Rev. Simon Jackson has built up Zion Hill, one of the most respected churches in Houston, but his neglected family is spinning out of control. His 19-year-old daughter, Rachel, has two children by different fathers and is busy dreaming up schemes to win back her old boyfriend from his new fiance. Having developed a serious drug addiction after an injury ended his promising football career, big brother David has been banned from the family home. But the biggest challenge for the Reverend is his golden child: poised to join the ministry, Jonathan holds a secret that could permanently alter his father's affection for him. Somehow holding the Jacksons together is family matriarch Loretta. Creating full-bodied characters and a plot that avoids the heavy-handedness typical of this genre, Billingsley infuses her text with just the right dose of humor to balance the novel's serious events. Some mild talk about sex might turn off very conservative readers. Billingsley's second novel (after My Brother's Keeper ) will appeal to fans of Michele Andrea Bowen's Second Sunday and Pat G'Orge-Walker's Sister Betty! God's Calling You Again! Highly recommended. Billingsley lives in Texas, where she works as a Fox News reporter. [See a Q&A with the author on p. 132.]

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2004
It's hard to imagine a more dysfunctional family than the Reverend Samuel Jackson's, Billingsley's creation in " Let the Church Say " Amen. The oldest son, David, had a promising career in the NFL but was injured and now steals from the collection plate to support his drug habit. Nineteen-year-old Rachel has had two babies by different fathers. The middle child, Simon, is poised to become assistant pastor and might seem like a chip off the old block, but he has a secret that will prove rather awkward. Reverend Jackson himself pastors a black church he built up from nothing, but what kind of minister is he to his own family? Can his stalwart wife bring healing to this mess? Is prayer any good at all? Though Billingsley drifts toward self-parody, her community of very human saints will win readers over with their humor and verve. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)