Jeffrey Munroe shows how great authors welcome readers to connect with compassionate community
By DAVID CRUMM
Editor of Front Edge Publishing
The bedrock of what we do each day is: Community.
We publish books—and our books build community. In two decades of publishing, as members of our Front Edge team meet new authors and consider new books, we always start with the question:
“Will the world be a better place if this book is published?”
Then, we always explain to prospective authors: “A good book is a community between two covers. Great books connect with real communities in the world and, in some way, make our lives better. That might be through sharing valuable information we can use, or through providing moments of much-needed relief and resilience in our challenging world—and, overall, we hope that our books will encourage compassion to flow through our readers’ lives and into their communities.”
Any prospective author who has met with our team has heard that mission statement in our initial meeting.
That is why we’re all so honored to be working with Jeffrey Munroe, Editor of The Reformed Journal online magazine—and founding Editor of Reformed Journal Books.
This column is an illustration of the many ways Jeffrey Munroe fulfills that shared mission
Let’s start with that early-May event, which was designed to host an in-person crowd as well as an online audience. If you read Jeffrey Munroe’s column about the event, you’ll see that he describes it this way:
We advertised the event on the RJ, and Kristin promoted it on her Substack newsletter. By the time May 3 rolled around, 500+ had signed up to attend the event live and 3000 had registered for the livestream. There were watch parties organized in several places and people watched the livestream around the world. The event struck a nerve—obviously the members of our little planning group weren’t the only ones interested in how we live faithfully in this moment. If you were not able to attend or watch the livestream, we’ll soon share the video.
But that’s just one way Jeffrey Munroe and his colleagues are reaching out—there’s more …
In addition to his work as an editor, educator, inspiring speaker and event organizer—Jeffrey Munroe also is an author. His latest book has been enthusiastically snapped up by readers nationwide.
What’s the evidence of that enthusiasm?
His book, Telling Stories in the Dark, continues to inspire glowing coverage across news media, more than a year after its debut.
Just last week—in May 2025, nearly a year and a half after this book debuted—the ProgressiveChristianity.org website published an overview of Telling Stories.
That shows the growth of the national community connected with this book about finding spiritual resilience in tough times.
And, here’s yet another way Jeffrey Munroe reaches out
In his very active role at one hub of what we like to call this “timely national conversation,” Jeffrey Munroe also takes time to encourage other writers and other communities—even beyond the scope of his own Reformed Journal.
Case in point: Jeffrey agreed to contribute a “Foreword from a Christian Perspective” to Rabbi Roy Furman’s new book, Torah Wrestling—Embracing the Marginalized in Jewish Sacred Scripture and Discovering Moral Wisdom for Today.
That Foreword is a way of welcoming Christian readers—both individuals and small groups in congregations—to discover the wisdom that Rabbi Furman gleans from the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.
Jeffrey not only wrote the Foreword, which is published in Rabbi Furman’s book. Jeffrey then followed up with a heart-felt column to his readers in The Reformed Journal, with the eye-catching headline: How Big a Jerk Will Your Reading of the Bible Allow You to Be?
This week’s Front Edge Publishing column is one way we can thank Jeffrey Munroe for the multi-faceted work he is doing every day—and it’s an illustration of what is possible for all of our authors—and our readers—if you catch a glimpse of our larger vision.
We simply want to make the world a better place, one book and one reader at a time.