DEAR ABBY
Recently I found myself reading a Dear Abby advice column and began to wonder how this might be applied to a church relational problem. Consider the response you might receive if you posed the following relational problem and asked members to provide their best advice. You could call it the Dear Abigail Angel Advice column.
You can have some fun making up your own columns. Just go to any Love Advice column and rework it around a church and its members. Here are a couple of my attempts.
Dear Abigail Angel:
I fell in love with this wonderful person. I’ll call him/her Chris Church. After a whirlwind courtship, we decided to move in together. However, after the first thrill wore off, I find that I am beginning to have some doubts. I find my eyes beginning to wander towards other attractive potential partners. There is Gary Golf, Sally Sleep-in, Suzie Shopping, Troy Television—There are numerous possibilities that seem very interesting.
So my question is, does this mean I should break it off with Chris? If not, how should I go about trying to rekindle our relationship?
Confused
OR
Dear Abigail Angel:
I’m in a relationship with this wonderful person. I’ll call him/her Chris Church. When we first met, I was thrilled by his/her ideals and uplifted by a spirit of optimism. But after we’d been together for awhile, I began to notice that Chris was always asking for money or wanting me to do something extra for someone else. I began to ask, “What about me?” “Don’t I have needs too?” “ If Chris really loved me, wouldn’t Chris want to focus on meeting my needs?” So I ask you, Abby, is it wrong to want my needs met first and then worry about other people.
How would you suggest that I approach this problem? Any advice would be welcome.
Love Hungry
OK, you get the idea. Try printing some columns in your newsletter and asking members to compose answers. All of you could have some fun and the church might learn something.
Very clever, with interesting possibilities.