What’s in this Episode?

Jonathan Hardy, first-time author and co-host of the Church Tips podcast, shares tips based on his fresh experience writing, Arrow Striker, which is set to release on October 4, 2022.

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Read the Transcript

Dick Hardy 0:00
Pastor, if you’ve got a book inside you, this is the episode for you. You want to tune in today, because we’ve got a first time author that’s going to talk about the nuts and bolts of what it takes to take that which is inside you and make it a reality. Stay tuned.

Dick Hardy 0:13
Pastor, you got a book idea inside you. It’s been ruminating for some time. Well, today we have a first time author with us who’s written his first book, Arrow Striker, and I think you’re familiar with this guy, Jonathan Hardy. And we’d like to have you just walk us through a bit of the journey of how he got that book, to this, out of the inside. Jonathan, take it away.

Jonathan Hardy 0:38
Well, first, I gotta say, it’s fun to be back here in the studio with you. It’s been a little while since we’ve done this. And I’m excited to be able to do some more of these coming up here soon. We’ve got some good plans in store. But yeah, so there is a book, we have officially written a book and it is in print, it’s live and well, and officially releases on Amazon tomorrow. And I’m very excited about it, and the launch of it, and all that’s involved with it.

Dick Hardy 1:04
Yeah, it’s it’s gonna be a great journey. The pre-orders have gone phenomenal. We’re absolutely loving what we’re seeing along the way. Jonathan, it take some time and talk to a pastor who really does feel like they’ve got something inside them, but the the whole task of doing the book feels so daunting.

Jonathan Hardy 1:22
Yeah. Well, it is daunting, as you know, because you’ve written two yourself, and so he obviously knows, and then you’ve seen how I’ve labored through this process over the last couple of years. And it is daunting, but it is doable. And in fact, in one of the episodes coming up, we’re going to be talking about the busy pastors way to actually get the book written. You’ve got this idea, but you look at it and say, well, when’s this ever gonna happen?

Jonathan Hardy 1:48
And you know, truthfully, this book idea for me came 15 years ago. And so when you think about 15 years, most of that time I’ve sat on it. Every once-in-awhile I’d type up some notes. Kind of inspiration would come and so I get the computer, and I have this master document where I was saving stuff, but for the most part, you know, it just sat.

Jonathan Hardy 2:08
And, you know, if you find yourself in that place, I want you to be encouraged to know that you can actually get it done with a little bit of intentional effort. We’ll be talking about that throughout this week. And hopefully, you’ll find it encouraging.

Dick Hardy 2:20
Yeah. So, talk to us a little bit about the book itself.

Jonathan Hardy 2:23
Sure. Yeah. So, Arrow Striker is based on a Bible passage in 2 Kings chapter 13. You may be familiar with the story. It’s a very small story in 2 Kings, where the prophet Elisha tells the king of Israel, whose name was Jehovah ash, to strike his arrows, and the arrows represented victory over a Aram. They were in this big battle season, and Aram was very, very powerful. And Israel was on the brink of destruction. And, you know, obviously, they’re worried. They’re afraid. They’re concerned. And Elijah has a word from God to encourage the King who’s full of fear. He’s probably, you know, thinking is the nation of Israel going to fall on my watch, and gets to the point where Elijah encourages him to strike his arrows, and that represented victory over a Aram.

Jonathan Hardy 3:10
And well, if you’re familiar with the story, he stops short of all that God intended for him in terms of striking his arrows. And so I take that physical reality of the Old Testament and apply it to the spiritual reality for us today. Because all of us, we are part of the spiritual battle. It’s light versus darkness. It’s heaven versus hell.
And so we all are soldiers, so to speak. We’re in the Lord’s army. You know, I mentioned the old Sunday school song if you’re if you’ve been in church for any length of time. The Lord’s army you know, but and as funny as that might have been, or whatever, as a child, it’s true. We all are serving the Lord, to advance the kingdom. And that’s our mission in life, that’s God’s desire for us.

Jonathan Hardy 3:57
And so, figuratively speaking, I talk about how it’s our responsibility to strike our arrows and to not stop. To keep on going every chance we have, to share the love of Jesus, to be generous, to do acts of kindness, to give words of encouragement. I mean, the list can go on of the ways in which we can strike our arrows, so that we’re able to make a big difference for the Kingdom.

Jonathan Hardy 4:20
Because when it’s all said and done, we’re gonna stand before God, and we’re all going to give an account for how we lived our life and my hope and encouragement to you and to the people that you have influence over, those in your church, your ministry area, whatever sphere of influence that you might have, that God would use this book to inspire and motivate people to go all out. To not to do what Jehoash did, where he stopped short, but rather to keep striking those arrows figuratively, every single day. And that’s the subtitle, how to live with purpose and leave an eternal impact every single day. And that’s my hope and prayer that people will do as a result of reading the book.

Dick Hardy 4:56
That really is and you know, you were blessed to have a number of endorsements. John Lyndell wrote the foreword for you and just a bucket load of endorsements here. What’s the feedback you’ve been getting from the people who have had the preorder and that kind of a sneak peek. What are they saying?

Jonathan Hardy 5:10
Yeah. Well, it’s been interesting journey. And maybe we’ll talk about this in a subsequent episode, but you know, the book officially launches on Amazon tomorrow. And yet, for whatever reason, once Amazon has their stock in and processed or whatever, if people pre-ordered, they’re receiving their books. And so we’ve already had people read the entire book, even though it’s not officially launched until tomorrow.

Jonathan Hardy 5:25
The ebook and audiobook actually come out tomorrow for people, so they can’t get it ahead of time on Amazon, like the paperback, but nonetheless, people have read it. And we have had some great feedback. I had a lady yesterday, messaged me on Facebook on how inspirational she felt the book was for her and her station in life. Someone else, the book just spoke to her about something. This one particular chapter just resonated. And then there was a third lady that comes to mind that she said she read the book in two days. And I was like, wow, okay, well, here we go.

Jonathan Hardy 6:07
So, you know, I’m thankful for these comments. You know, hopefully, if you pick the book up, which I hope that you do, you know, hopefully, you’ll find it easy to read. Dick and I like short chapters and so we both, in our books, have written short chapters. So I mean, pretty much every chapter is 10 pages or less, I think I might have one 12 page chapter. So, they’re very easy to get through. And and so I hope you find that helpful, if you like that sort of thing. And if you don’t, well then read two at a time.

Dick Hardy 6:35
There you go, there you go. Well, I tell you now tomorrow, we’ve got something very special for the grand opening or the launch of this thing. Talk to them about the special giveaway we’re doing. If you make your purchase before tomorrow night, or no, no, that’s not limited. But it’s launched tomorrow.

Jonathan Hardy 6:54
Well, there’s a couple of different things going on. So maybe try to explain both here for you. First of all, we are giving away what we’re calling the Ozark Mountain Getaway. And that’s a trip down to the Branson, Missouri area, where you have a three night stay at a condo. We will cover the flights for two people to go there, three nights day.

Jonathan Hardy 7:15
And and then we’re just throwing in some fun stuff. So like, passes to the Silver Dollar City theme parks during the Christmas time. It’s unbelievable. It’s the most mind boggling Christmas type thing I’ve ever seen. So if you’ve ever seen pictures or whatever, if you haven’t, it’s worth taking a look if you’re hoping to win it because it’s amazing. And then gift card to a really nice Steakhouse. And we’ve got another Branson show that’s top notch, that’s gonna be really fun. And my wife Ashley, and I would love to get coffee with you, as well. And then probably throw in some other little bonus things as well.

Jonathan Hardy 7:49
But the idea is there’s this big giveaway for people who buy the book, by the end of the month. However, and to do that, you just have to buy the book and then fill out a form at arrowstriker.com/giveaway. Again, that’s arrowsstriker.com/giveaway. Then for Tuesday only, this is October 4, Tuesday only, launch day. To celebrate the launch of the book, we’re also doing throughout the day five giveaways throughout the day, that’s going to be just super fun. And we’re going to do them at 11 o’clock, two o’clock, five o’clock, eight o’clock, and 10 o’clock, central time for all those. So that’ll be fun to just do those.

Jonathan Hardy 8:32
So basically the idea is, if you’ve already purchased the book and you haven’t signed up for the giveaway yet, you want to make sure to sign up for the getaway giveaway.

Dick Hardy 8:58
So they get that at arrowstriker.com/giveaway.

Jonathan Hardy 8:47
And so you have to sign up for the Ozark Mountain giveaway. And by signing up for that you’re also entered into the launch day special giveaway that we’re doing. So I know there’s a couple different giveaways happening simultaneously. But rather than having separate signups, it’s just one big enchilada.

Dick Hardy 9:02
And there’s a spot where you can validate your purchase.

Jonathan Hardy 9:07
You fill out a form, basically, so that we know that you purchased the book. So I’m excited about it. It’s going to be a lot of fun. And I would sure love to be able to get you entered in and maybe you’ll be the lucky winner.

Dick Hardy 9:20
Okay, well, it is going to be great. It really will be. Jonathan, as we wrap this thing up. What would you say to a pastor that says, okay, I’m going to get off the sidelines with this. How do I get started?

Jonathan Hardy 9:31
Well, we haven’t really talked a whole lot about this yet. But one of the things that I really encourage you to do is just start. You just have to start. So if you if you don’t know how to start, what I would encourage you to do is figure out how to work your schedule in a way where you can time block an hour a week, just one hour. If you can figure out how to get one hour a week and you block it off, you turn off your phone, you turn off your notifications on your computer, or if you if you rather write on paper or whatever, that’s fine.

Jonathan Hardy 10:03
But you just start brainstorming, you just start thinking you just start trying to figure out, okay, what do I need to do? And then and then start writing. So, if you’ve gotten the book idea in you already, some people, some pastors, I know, they write sermon series, and they think, Oh, the sermon series can be a book, well go back to those notes from that sermon series, and just try to start breaking it up and take an hour a week. An hour a week, over 52 weeks, 52 hours, okay, that’s better than zero. So you might not get the book done in a year, but at least you’ve started.

Jonathan Hardy 10:36
And we’ll talk more about in the, in the busy pastor episode coming up here in a couple days, more about some nuts and bolts of that. But the point is, you have to start. Now, some people want to write a book, but they don’t know quite what idea they want to write about yet. And what I would encourage you on that is to just start thinking about, well, what what are you passionate about? When you think about a sermon that you’ve preached. When you think about something that people ask you about at the church, or the ministry area that you’re a part of?

Jonathan Hardy 11:10
Number one, what is it people often ask you about? Because then that means people look to you as someone who maybe is an expert, or has a lot of knowledge and feedback in that particular subject. If you don’t have any particular thing like that, then then think about what’s the things that you’re passionate about? Or like if you are going to go special guest speak at another church, what’s the sermon that comes to mind for you that you’d say, oh, you know, that’s what I want to preach on? That all of a sudden is a way for the light bulb to come on and say, Okay, well, then you’re probably passionate about it. Maybe God’s giving you some inspiration about that particular subject.

Jonathan Hardy 11:41
And so then you say, okay, let’s go ahead and dive into this a little bit and see if we can’t explore further what that is. Now, I know, for a lot of pastors, they’ve already got the idea. It’s in them. And you just need to start, you just have to get going. And so that’s the first thing I would say.

Dick Hardy 11:55
Just get started. This statements as old as the hills. But the way you eat an elephant is one bite at a time. And the way this is, this is 17 chapters, Jonathan didn’t sit down and say, okay, I’m going to craft 17 chapters today. There were times that he would start on a chapter, there were times along the way where he would edit and modify and just go back and forth on another chapter. And it’s a piece at a time. And by the time you’re done with, as Jonathan, you know, reflected on, if you took 52 weeks, you’d be amazed at what you’ll have when you get to that point.

Jonathan Hardy 12:34
Yeah. So just just get started. And then, you know, if you need nuts and bolts ideas on, well, how do I start? What is the writing process look like? We’re going to be talking about that in a couple of episodes where we’re really breaking down for you what, what to do. Because the reality is you’re busy, we’re all busy. And so we’ve got to figure out well, how do we do this, despite our busyness. Because it’s not as you can just cut a bunch of stuff off your plate all of a sudden, most likely, you know, unless you’ve got just a massive team who can cover all your responsibilities, which, you know, that would be a dream for all of us. Right? But, you know, the reality is, that’s not the case. So you’ve got to figure that out.

Jonathan Hardy 13:10
We’re going to talk more in the next couple of episodes, about what all of that looks like. How do you how do you get started? How do you practically write the content? Maybe you’ve need some help? Maybe you get that blank page syndrome and you’re just stuck? And then after that, what do you do to publish it? What what are the options? We’re gonna make that very simple for you. Because there’s so much out there. There’s blogs, there’s podcasts, there’s all kinds of stuff.

Jonathan Hardy 13:35
And so we want to break that down very simply for you, based upon, you know, what our research and what we’ve done, hopefully, we can collapse time for you, and get that off to you much quicker because you don’t have to do all the research and reading. We’re gonna talk about then marketing the book and launching the book and what does all that look like for you? If you’ve got an idea in you, hopefully, over the next week, we can help you to get started and, and get implemented.

Dick Hardy 14:01
Absolutely. Jonathan, thank you very much. This has been very helpful. And I want to encourage you to pick up the book, Arrow Striker. You can pick it up in paperback, audiobook, or ebook. Just go to Amazon and pick that up. And also, I mean, do that and then go to arrowstriker.com/giveaway. And you’ll be entered into the Ozark Mountain Getaway, and you’re gonna love this. I’m telling you, we’re gonna fly you in here, we’re going to take care of you put you up in a beautiful condo. And that time in Silver Dollar City and the other shows and anyway, and just to be able to hang out with Jonathan and Ashley.

Jonathan Hardy 14:45
Hey, there we go, that’s what I’m talking about. The links will be in the show notes, and there’ll be the show notes.

Dick Hardy 14:48
Yeah, they’ll be in the show notes, so just grab a hold of that. But really, thanks very much, Arrow Striker, you’re gonna love it. We’ll look forward to seeing you next time. Be blessed.

Show Notes
Enter the giveaway by:
1) Purchasing Arrow Striker.
2) Filling out the form using the link below.

Ozark Mountain Giveaway:

Arrow Striker Giveaway

Learn more about Arrow Striker:

Arrow Striker

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