Jeff Munroe and Stewarding Your Pain

Jeff Munroe is Executive Vice President of Western Theological Seminary and author of the book Reading Buechner. Today, Jeff shares the story of the bad advice he received about emotions, how Frederick Buechner helped him fix it, and looks back at the providence of God in leading him to Western Theological Seminary. Along the way, we talk about Buechner’s work and how it applies to today. Jeff’s story reminds us that the Lord is always at work and he never wastes anything.

Stories Jeff shared:

• Serving as an administrator at Western Theological Seminary
• Growing up in a Christian family and being discipled in a Young Life style
• His wife’s stroke one month before their wedding
• Losing touch with his emotion based on bad advice
• Discovering Frederick Buechner in a bookstore
• What he things of the person who gave him bad advice
• Finding peace with God through community
• Leaving Young Life during a difficult season
• Receiving a call to Western Theological Seminary
• How speaking at a workshop about Buechner and being asked to write this book

Great quotes from Jeff:

We go to books and we want lots of different things. But we want books that change our lives. That’s what Buechner did for me.

Pain is a universal human experience.

I spend the whole week figuring out the ways I don’t believe in God and then the community calls be back every week.

Resources we mentioned:

• Reading Buechner: Exploring the Work of a Master Memoirist, Novelist, Theologian, and Preacher by Jeff Monroe
• Western Theological Seminary
• The Clown in the Belfry: Writings on Faith and Fiction by Frederick Buechner

Related episodes:

• Douglas Groothuis and Walking Through Twilight
• Sarah Geringer and Transforming Your Thought Life
• Jay Holland and the Goodness of God