In this episode, Joey and Lynne sit down with Dr. Eva Bleeker, known to her students as Chaplain Eva, a board-certified chaplain who spent a decade doing pastoral care in hospitals and now teaches chaplaincy at Denver Seminary.
Her work centers on the power of story, and in this conversation she unpacks why simply receiving someone's story, without needing to fix it, can be the ministry itself. Eva walks through what she calls "narrative identity theory," the idea that the way we listen actually shapes the story a person is willing to tell, and how showing up distracted, hurried, or performative can push someone deeper into isolation.
She and Joey trade stories from years of sitting with people in crisis, talk through what it looks like to prepare yourself before walking into a hard conversation, and dig into why naming your own emotions is the first skill of good pastoral care.
After the interview, Joey, Lynne, and Jack stick around for a theological deep-dive, revisiting an old comment Lynne said about predatory pastors. They also all face the fact that none of them ever knew what CVS stood for. Until today.
Dr Eva Bleeker | Website | Instagram | Bio
Hosts | Lynne Stroy | Joey Svendsen | Jack Hoey III
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Producer/Editor/host: Joey Svendsen
Sound Engineer/Editor: Katelyn Vandiver
