Sign-In
Cart
The President's Pastor
Hardcover
Christian LivingGeneral United States History
Publisher: Anchor for Tomorrow
Published: Oct 1 2026
Pages: 242
Weight: 1.29
Height: 0.56 Width: 6.69 Depth: 9.61
Language: English
Hey, Tony, this is Jimmy. I just want to let you know we enjoyed your preaching Sunday. If you like us and we like you, I'd like for you to consider being my pastor.
Thirty-one seconds. A 229 area code. A voicemail Tony Lowden almost didn't play. He was a preacher from North Philadelphia now living in Georgia, driving his usual commute into Atlanta, running prison reform work for the governor of Georgia. The Sunday before, he had preached in a small church at the edge of a cotton field without knowing whose church it was - or that the congregation had been founded in 1977 by twenty people who walked out rather than keep a Black man from the pew. Within the year he would be its first Black pastor. Within six he would stand before the nation and preach the man's eulogy.
The President's Pastor is the account of that covenant, told in Lowden's own voice. It is Saturday after Saturday inside the compound at Plains: a president wrapped in a blanket printed with Psalm 23; gospel music played from a pastor's phone into a dark bedroom; orchids and butterflies set around the house so Rosalynn would remember whose house it was. It is Jimmy Carter planting wild roses along a fence so his bride would have flowers every Mother's Day. It is a ninety-nine-year-old man dragging himself to his wife's funeral and closing his eyes so he could hear every word said about her. It is a call from Bill Clinton, an apology forty years late and accepted on the spot, and a frail former president still asking whether he could be of use.
And it is eleven days in January - the hearse leaving Plains, pickup trucks lined up on the overpasses with signs reading He was one of us, and a kid from the projects riding in the car behind the body of the thirty-ninth President of the United States, carrying a eulogy he had been writing for six years.
Underneath all of it runs the question Carter handed to Tony every time they met - Where have you been? What have you done? Who have you helped? - and the one he asked of himself first: Why not the best?
Lowden hands both questions to the reader.
Also in
General United States History
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
Kendi, Ibram X.
Paperback
Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times
Sachs, Aaron
Hardcover
The Agrarian Seeds of Empire: The Political Economy of Agriculture in Us State Building
Bauerly, Brad
Paperback
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
Loewen, James W.
Paperback
What Every American Needs to Know about the Qur'an: A History of Islam & the United States
Federer, William J.
Paperback
Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made
Kobes Du Mez, Kristin
Hardcover
American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union: An Anthology
Meacham, Jon
Hardcover
Department of Fate: The Promise, the Power, and the Collapse of America's Most Consequential Institution
Maddow, Rachel
Hardcover
When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America's Black Botanical Legacy
Montgomery, Beronda L.
Hardcover
Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight Against Equality in America
Phillips-Fein, Kim
Hardcover
1,000 Days in America: An Illustrated History of the Moments That Defined a Nation
National Geographic
Hardcover
Miracles in American History: 32 Amazing Stories of Answered Prayer
Federer, Susie
Federer, William J.
Paperback
Freedom's Daughters: How a Generation of Black Women Resisted Oppression Through Literacy and Education
Headlee, Celeste
Hardcover
The East Wing: Power, Intrigue, and the Untold Story of America's First Ladies
Moaveni, Azadeh
Hardcover
Mysteries of the National Parks: 35 Stories of Baffling Disappearances, Unexplained Phenomena, and More
Bezemek, Mike
Paperback
The Elections That Changed the World: Fifteen Pivotal Moments That Shaped How We Live
Bash, Dana
Hardcover
The Promise of a Nation: Commemorating 250 Years of Patriotism, Resilience, and Aspirations from the National Collection
Smithsonian Institution
Hardcover
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
Smith, Clint
Paperback
America in 25 Revolutions: The Story of Our Imperfect Nation's 250-Year Quest to Become a More Perfect Union
Graff, Garrett M.
Hardcover
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
Loewen, James W.
Paperback
American Reich: A Murder in Orange County, Neo-Nazis, and a New Age of Hate
Lichtblau, Eric
Hardcover
Travels with Charley in Search of America: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Steinbeck, John
Paperback
The Price of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation in American History
Williamson, Vanessa S.
Hardcover
This Haunted Land: Reckoning with Ghosts and the Stories That Shape America
Quammen, Betsy Gaines
Hardcover
We the Women: The Hidden Heroes Who Shaped America (Large Print Edition)
O'Donnell, Norah
Andersen Brower, Kate
Paperback
Aristocracy, American Style: Class Privilege and the Persistence of Elite Power
Isenberg, Nancy
Hardcover
The Girls Who Beat the Odds: Stories of Women Who Changed the Course of Sports History
Eder, Mari K.
Hardcover
The Lost History of Liberalism: From Ancient Rome to the Twenty-First Century
Rosenblatt, Helena
Paperback
Old Glory: Iconic Flags and the Stories They Tell of America's 250-Year History
Miller, Roland
Hardcover
Princeton Review AP U.S. History Premium Prep, 26th Edition: 6 Practice Tests + Digital Practice Online + Content Review
The Princeton Review
Paperback
Chosen Land: How Christianity Made America and Americans Remade Christianity
Sutton, Matthew Avery
Hardcover
Sunrise Through the Darkness: A Survivor's Account of Learning to Live Again Beyond 9/11
Jimeno, Will
Moats, Michael
Paperback
AP U.S. History Premium, 2027: 5 Practice Tests + Comprehensive Review + Online Practice
Resnick, Eugene V., M. a.
Paperback
Forever Stamps: 250 Years of United States History Writ Small
United States Postal Service
Anderson, Gail
Smith, Brian E.
Hardcover
American Soul: The Black History of Food in the United States - Including 40 Recipes
Malik, Anela
Wilson, Renae
Hardcover
American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America
Woodard, Colin
Paperback
Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America: Second Revised and Updated Edition
Gonzalez, Juan
Paperback
Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools
Pember, Mary Annette
Paperback
1000 American History Facts and 101 True Tales: A Journey Through America's Defining Moments and Figures
Publications, Ahoy
Hardcover
Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft and the Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership
Baker, Brea
Hardcover
This Land Is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U. S. History (Large Print Edition)
Gage, Beverly
Hardcover
Unusual Orcas Island: Ghost Stories and Other Legends from the Gem of the San Juans
Reigel, Joseph
Paperback
Erased: True Stories about Race and Racism in America That You Probably Weren't Taught in School
Korgen, Kathleen
Khanna, Nikki
Hardcover
Imperialist Realism: Politics and Culture at the End of the American Century
Bessner, Daniel
Paperback
The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran
Crist, David
Paperback
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
Smith, Clint
Hardcover
Watching the Girls Go by: A History of Street Harassment in the United States
Brookfield, Molly M.
Paperback
Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch
Freeman, Andrea
Paperback
Ohio Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff
Gurvis, Sandra
Paperback
Land of Hope Young Reader's Edition: An Invitation to the Great American Story Volume 1
McClay, Wilfred M.
Paperback
The Grift: The Downward Spiral of Black Republicans from the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump
Cane, Clay
Paperback
The Central Fire of the Iroquois: A Five-Hundred-Year History of the Onondaga Nation
Oberg, Michael Leroy
Hardcover
The Declaration Of Independence, United States Constitution, Bill Of Rights & Amendments
Fathers, Founding
Paperback
The Invention of Infinite Growth: How Economists Came to Believe a Dangerous Delusion
Jones, Christopher F.
Hardcover
The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink
Hartmann, Thom
Paperback
Colonial Williamsburg: The Guide: The Official Companion to the Historic Area
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Paperback
Frederick Douglass's American Founding: How the Nation's Fiercest Critic Embraced the Constitution
Rasmussen, Dennis C.
Hardcover
Not "A Nation of Immigrants": Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion
Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne
Paperback
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Celebrating the Spirit of America: 101 Stories about the Country We All Love
Newmark, Amy
Paperback
250 Great American Things: A Semi-Quincentennial Celebration
Kirn, Walter
Highway, County
Samuels, David
Paperback
Confronting the Presidents: No Spin Assessments from Washington to Biden
O'Reilly, Bill
Dugard, Martin
Hardcover
Re-Inhabited: Republic for the United States of America: Volume II The Story of the Re-inhabitation
Hertler, Jean Hallahan
Paperback
Miracles in American History, Volume Two: Amazing Faith That Shaped the Nation: Adapted from William J. Federer's American Minute [With 2 Paperbacks]
Federer, Susie
Federer, William J.
Paperback
A Student Workbook for Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story
McBride, John
McClay, Wilfred M.
Paperback