The 100-year anniversary celebration of Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church is approaching-scheduled for the Second Sunday, one of the main worship Sundays in small traditional Baptist churches. When the pastor dies, no one knows how the church will pull itself back together and find a new pastor in time to prepare for the church centennial, let alone survive one more day. It seems as though everyone in the church has an idea about who the new pastor needs to be and what direction he should be going. In the tradition of Gloria Naylor's The Women of Brewster Place, Bowen weaves the hilarious stories of several church members as they plan, plot, and connive to have their choice installed as the next pastor before the anniversary celebration.