My rating for Preacher on the Run: 5 out of 5 stars

Preacher on the Run is a book you won’t want to miss out on if you love stories based heavily on faith, adventure, and love of freedom!

About Preacher on the Run

STANDING FOR TRUTH COULD COST HIM HIS FREEDOM. FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM COULD COST HIM HIS LIFE.

It’s 1771, and North Carolina is at war. On one side stands the power of the Crown. On the other side stands a dangerous freedom of conscience.

Former circuit rider Robert Boothe has spent the last four years leading the tyrant-hating Regulators against North Carolina’s corrupt British government. All he wants is a safe place for his little Baptist church to worship God.

But when Colonel Charles Drake arrives in town, Robert becomes a target. The Church of England wants him to shut up. The governor wants him dead.

Now Robert’s church and family are caught in the crossfire. And that safe place is farther and farther away.

My Thoughts

In a culture where courage is lacking and few men are willing to stand strong, we need more books like Preacher on the Run. With a beautiful message of truth, this is a book that belongs on every family’s bookshelf. As a matter of fact, now that I’ve read it myself, I think I need to recommend it for my family. It would be a fun book to read together.

When I first began this book, I thought it might be a challenge. I don’t mind a challenging read every once in a while, but I do like to spread them out.

While Preacher on the Run is rich in historical detail, especially about the Regulators and the Baptist church, it was not a difficult story to follow. The adventure kept me on the edge of my seat, constantly wondering, “What’s coming next?” The blame lies in all those ways that Jayna put to work the saying that, “When things are bad, they can always gets worse.”

I can’t emphasize enough how refreshing it was to read a book that aligned so well with Scriptural values.

And the characters! Robert’s little ring of inside friends kept me chuckling at the scrapes they landed in–and when they got an idea into their heads, the governor’s men had every right to be shaking in their boots.

Preacher On the Run makes the perfect family book, and I can almost guarantee that reading it will fill your heart with encouragement.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book, but my thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.

Grab a copy of Preacher on the Run!

About the Author

Jayna Baas, pronounced as in “baa, baa, black sheep,” is the author of Preacher on the Run and a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and The Christian PEN: Proofreaders and Editors Network. She lives in northern Michigan with a great family of real people and the family of pretend people who live in her head. (Yes, she does know her characters are not real. No, she does not want you to tell them she said so.) Although she enjoys multiple genres, her favorite story is this: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Learn more and sign up for a free short story at www.booksbyjayna.com.

A Note From Jayna About Preacher on the Run

Freedom is risky. If people are free to make up their own minds, they might discover they’ve been lied to. They might discover the truth and then act on it, and they just might turn the world upside down.

That’s a story that’s been happening ever since Christ freed his first followers from the law of sin and death. They shared that freedom all over their world, and the hierarchy didn’t like it, from the Pharisees on up to Nero. It’s a story that happens over and over again. And it happened in eighteenth-century North Carolina.

Almost all of the Thirteen Colonies had an official state-sanctioned church that could banish, imprison, or even execute those who did not conform. The most common “state church” in the southern colonies was the Church of England, and that’s what we find in North Carolina at the time of Preacher on the Run.

Imagine you’re a dissenter preacher in this time and place. Up the street is the local vestry, which you’re taxed to support, while you’ve been threatened with jail for preaching without a license. One of your church members is about to be dispossessed for not paying taxes—taxes he can’t afford and has probably already paid once. No one dares go to court; everyone knows the courts are nests of extortion, and you could be charged with felony if you stay at a meeting after an official deems it seditious.

Now the governor’s new agent comes to town—a man who is hungry for power, a man who knows you’re a leader not only in your congregation but also in the grassroots resistance that is rising against the government’s corruption. To him, your belief that people can go to God directly through faith in Christ without the state church is blasphemous. And your belief that all men are on equal footing before God and the law is unthinkably dangerous.

What would you do?

This is a scenario that set my story-loving imagination on fire. This is the story of Preacher on the Run. It’s the story of a spark that ignited and spread throughout the colonies until it was a blaze of revolution—not the rejection of authority but the restoration of rightful authority. It’s the story of countless men and women who faced persecution on American soil for the sake of truth and freedom. Truth never needs to be forced on others, because it can never truly be defeated. And only where there is freedom can truth flourish and spread and turn the world upside down. Because, as Robert Boothe says in Preacher on the Run, the truth will hold its own.

This is his story, and ours.

Jayna Baas

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