Bill Prickett

Peter Broussard wants to make a difference in his new job.
He also hopes the move from California to Birmingham, Alabama will leave behind a troubled past.

He finds a different culture than expected.
Blatant bigotry, internal power struggles, the privilege of wealth, outdated traditions, obstinate bureaucracy, illegal drug use, child abuse, and plenty of sexual secrets.

And that’s just in the Southern Baptist Church where he’s now the youth minister.

Like any new job, his first weeks are spent acclimating to the new surroundings and getting to know the people in the church:

• His boss, the no-nonsense, change-resistant Senior Pastor;
• A beautiful neighbor who envisions more than ministry with him, forcing him to confront painful memories of his past;
• The array of teenagers who comprise the youth group, with more problems than he expected, but with more potential than he could imagine;
• An ever-efficient secretary who helps him navigate the church’s entrenched, exhausting bureaucracy, and work with those determined to see him fail.

But he’s also impacted by folks he encounters outside the church’s stained-glass windows: the director of an inner city mission actively involved in helping the predominately poor section of the city, a black, ex-junkie who befriends him—a friendship not popular in the church, and those wounded by the church’s inflexible dogma.

These people trigger challenging doubts Peter has about his life, his beliefs, even his career-choice. The nagging questions lead him on a personal journey to discover that Guiding Force he comes to identify as “The Wind.”

To make that happen, he must face the grief of devastating tragedies in his past in order to make the decisions required to shape a meaningful future.

Sow the Wind, Reap the Whirlwind is not a “religious” novel, but a story about people dealing with life situations and struggles in a deeply religious culture.

This is the Second Edition of Bill Prickett’s popular first novel, originally released in 2004, now expanded, with a new ending.