Fabulous Friday Feature-Jerry B. Jenkins-Whatever God Calls Me to Do

Today we welcome author:

Jerry B. Jenkins

One commenter will win
a copy of Jerry's new release:

Empire's End

Mary here. My son and I read all of the adult Left Behind series. My daughter and I read all the Left Behind Kid series. These books gave me an opportunity to discuss Bible topics with my children. I've respected Jerry's writings for a long time and even took the apprentice writing course with Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild. The course jumpstarted my writing and taught me a wealth of information about the craft. When I heard Jerry was releasing a new book, I took a chance and asked him to join us here on Let's Talk. This busy man quickly made a space in his schedule for us! I asked him to share how God has led him in his writing journey. This is what he said.

Being the Best I Can Be
at Whatever God Calls Me to Do

When I was a kid, baseball was my life. The sport dominated my heart, soul, and mind, even to the exclusion of my childhood faith. I wasn’t a bad kid, but all I wanted was to become a big league ballplayer someday, and I didn’t realize how the game had taken over my life until I was injured as a freshman in high school and that dream ended.

I turned to sports writing to stay close to the athletic scene and realized immediately I had found my niche. I wasn’t any good at it yet, of course, but I had a knack for writing because I had been reading the sports pages religiously since I was a child.

I had to get a quarter million clichés out of my system and learn a lot about the craft, but I was an eager student and somehow realized perfecting this skill would be a lifelong pursuit. My mother became a convicting model in this because she was both a piano teacher and a piano student well into her 80s.

Looking older than my age was an advantage at 14 (not so much now), and I was able to talk my way into a part time job covering high school sports for the local daily newspaper. Still two years shy of qualifying for a driver’s license, I had to have my parents drive me to the ball games and to the newspaper office. Yet I was paid a dollar per inch for whatever of my copy made it into print each day, so I can say I’ve been a professional writer for more than 50 years.

Forced to free myself from my baseball obsession–at least as a player–I was able to get serious again about my faith and put Christ back on the throne of my life. This led to a summer camp experience where I felt a distinct and definite call to full time Christian work. I assumed that meant I would eventually have to give up my writing and prepare to become a missionary or a pastor.

However, a wise counselor advised me that God often equips a person before He calls him and that He might have given me my writing gift as the vehicle with which to obey His call.

Recognizing the beauty of that truth set the course for a life I would never have dreamt possible. And my own father wisely counseled me that I should never strive for success as defined by society–book sales, royalty checks, bestseller lists, etc.–but rather by being the best I could be at whatever I was called to do: in my case, following the call to full-time Christian work.

So, while my writing career has resulted in what many would call phenomenal success, even in the world’s eyes, I can honestly say that has never been my focus. Obedience has been the point.

I urge writers to:

*Never compare yourself to anyone else, but be the best writer you can be

*Never sacrifice your family on the altar of worldly success, because you’ll write
better without guilt when you put them ahead of your writing

*Make obedience to God, not success, your aim

You can control only the quality of the work you do. The vagaries of the marketplace determine all the rest. Obedience is success.

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Jerry and his wife Dianna

Jerry Jenkins has been steeped in the craft of writing for more than 40 years. With 21 New York Times bestsellers (seven debuting at #1), 186 books, and over 70 million copies sold, he has become one of the most commercially successful writers of our time.

Lucky guy? An overnight success? Hardly.

Jerry's from-the-trenches perspective on how to achieve success is quite the opposite of a conventional approach. He espouses working fiercely and with discipline and leaving the results to the marketplace.

"Left Behind was my 125th book — but not a lot of people realize that."

Jerry wrote that 16-title culture-shifting series for Dr. Tim LaHaye, and the publishing world now refers to it as "the Left Behind phenomenon." Several books in the series hit the New York Times bestseller list, selling over 62 million copies.

Jerry has seen unprecedented success in both fiction and nonfiction. His insatiable pursuit of great stories has led him to achievement as a biographer to icons such as Hank Aaron, Orel Hershiser, Walter Payton, Meadowlark Lemon, Nolan Ryan, Mike Singletary, B.J. Thomas, and many other men and women. The Hershiser and Ryan books reached the New York Times bestseller list, as did his most recent work, The Matheny Manifesto, with baseball's most successful young manager Mike Matheny.

Jerry also assisted Dr. Billy Graham with his memoirs, Just As I Am (also a New York Times bestseller), which he considers the privilege of a lifetime.

For the full list of Jerry's published books, click here.

Here is how you can connect with Jerry:

www.jerryjenkins.com

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ClICK HERE to buy or see
Empire's End

Empire's End

A Novel of the Apostle Paul

Jerry B. Jenkins’s new novel is filled with adventure, drama, historic people and places, and even romance. Empire’s End tells the story of a man who single- handedly turned the Roman Empire on-end. Only a few snapshots of Paul’s life are revealed in the Bible. In this fictional account, Jenkins tells of a devout Jewish scholar, who after only three years in the Arabian wilderness, emerges as the greatest Christian theologian in history. This novel explains how, after supervising the death of Jesus’s disciples, Paul would be moved to effectively conquer the Roman Empire with a message about a Jewish man named Jesus. You’ll be captured by the shocking “thorn in the flesh” that burdened Paul’s heart. Empire’s End will cause you to rethink whether Paul ever experienced the love of a woman or the embrace of a child.

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To enter the contest for a copy of

Jerry's new release:

Empire's End
(the book will be released June 9)

Comments

Caryl Kane said…

Hey Mary. I LOVE reading Jerry B. Jenkins! He is so AWESOME! Great interview. I can't wait to read Empire's End. It's sounds like a must read for today.

08:07

Mary Vee Storyteller said…

Hey Caryl :)
Good to see you this morning. Hope you helped yourself to some virtual tea or coffee. This morning I am drinking coffee with cream.
I, too, am excited to read Empire's End. I really like Biblical fiction, and Saul/Paul had quite the exciting life.
What I found interesting about Jerry's life was his love for baseball and intent to make that his career. I'm so glad he became a writer..although I have a feeling he watches many baseball games and has his favorite team.
Good chatting with you, Caryl.