Consider your life

The following was shared by Dawn Reed in a Facebook post. It is a powerful reflection on the church as the bride of Christ, and our need to love her deeply. Dawn was a involved in the campus ministry I led. She and her husband Stacy are dear friends. Dawn serves now as the BCM Campus Minister at Lyon College, and Stacy is the pastor at First Baptist Church of Batesville, Arkansas.

God’s bride (the church aka the body of believers) is God’s design. It is His plan for every believer to be connected to each other. You have a purpose. This is not about US. I think back to my friends Jeff Noble’s book Super Center Savior. We are not to be consumers of church we are to serve the church. 

We had the opportunity to go to Fordyce First Baptist Church (where Hannah and Hudson spent their formative years) this weekend. Stacy worked a DiscipleNow, and Hudson was a participant. The church has helped mold and shape my children, my husband and myself. Where would I be without the family of God? It has restored me, encouraged me, discipled me. God’s BRIDE! You can’t love God and not love His bride! Imagine that I tell you I love you but don’t love your spouse. Would you want to be my friend? Would we grow in our walk? No! Emphatically no!

I understand church hurt… it’s real, it happens. It breaks my heart and it breaks God’s heart! 

If you are not in, have fallen away, have never connected… it’s time. Look at the world around us. The world needs the body of believers to be united and help minister God’s love to a broken world. 

What are you doing today for God? 
CONSIDER YOUR LIFE!






New publisher – Westbow Press

Update: As of August 2015, the book has a new publisher – Westbow Press!

It’s unsettling for a self-published author when your publisher announces they’re closing their doors. Thankfully, Westbow stepped in and coordinated with Crossbooks. My book was sucked over into their system with no hiccups at all. They were incredibly easy to work with.

You can find the book again at all online retailers.

As always, I’d appreciate you leaving a review on Amazon, Goodreads or the online bookstore of your choice. It helps! If you’d be willing to leave a review, leave a comment below, and I’ll send you a free copy! – JN






New publisher

We learned in April that Crossbooks, the company we chose for publication of Super Center Savior would be closing its doors. The news was sudden and disconcerting. They were somewhat helpful in connecting their authors with another self-publishing agency, Westbow Press, but the transition process has not been smooth.

This means that at present, the book is not available for purchase in any of the online retail outlets. Westbow has yet to notify us of the timeline for getting Super Center Savior back into production.

If you’d like a copy, I have a number of copies available for direct sale for $8 each. Please feel free to contact me. I apologize for the inconvenience.






Happy two-year anniversary

Today marks the two-year anniversary of Super Center Savior’s publication. It’s been a humbling journey the last two years with a lot learned about three selfs:

  1. Self-publication. I chose Crossbooks as my publisher, and they have been great to work with. If I were to self-publish again, I would have no hesitations in choosing them. The only thing I regret doing is buying 500 copies of my own book. Their sales person talked me into it, and at the time, I thought, “It will be easy to sell that many copies around town.”It wasn’t. I still have a couple of cases. Moral of the story? Don’t buy your own book! It’s good to have 50 copies available, I would say, but beyond that, unless you have opportunity to speak to various groups, I would encourage you to just buy what you think you need at the time.
  2. 2-year-logo-squareSelf-promotion. I wasn’t prepared for the amount of publicizing a book that self-publishing requires. I still have folks tease me about my promotion of it. You need a thick skin in the self-publishing market. There are very few people outside of your mom and a few friends who will continue to talk up your book after a week or so of its publication.Initial enthusiasm and early Amazon rankings are great. On its release day, it climbed to #5 under Inspiration, #86 under Spirituality, #31 Kindle Inspiration under Best Sellers. However, it’s sustained help from friends and others that help a self-published author get noticed and contribute to the success of a book.
  3. Self-IE. The “IE” here stands for initiative and effort. Be prepared to work. That should be obvious from the self-promotion topic above, but coordinated book signings with bookstores, recruited blog reviewers, set up book giveaways on GoodReads, etc. Unless you have an incredibly proactive champion in your corner, no one else will assist you or guide you through the months after the book’s release.

THANKS

I can’t thank all of you enough who have read the book, shared it with others and encouraged me personally. It’s still surreal when someone new mentions the book, leaves a review on a website, or contacts me about it. One amazing thing about a “book” is that its message sits there quietly, within its bound pages, just waiting for someone new to pick it up. It doesn’t matter when it was released. As long as it’s available, there’s content within that can impact lives.

May you discover and enjoy a love relationship with Jesus that leads you into 24/7 living for His glory and other’s blessing.

-JN






Why the book appeals to senior adults

We continue to hear anecdotes of senior adults in traditional churches who thoroughly enjoy Super Center Savior. It’s an interesting observation and trend, and we wonder if you’ve heard similar feedback from family that may be in this demographic.

If you have, we’d love to hear about it in the comments. In addition, we’d encourage you to give a copy of the book as a gift to a grandparent or friend and ask them to let you know what they think.