Friday, July 14, 2006

JFPs

At our weekly meeting this week my colleague and I discovered that in the last ten days we had both been invited to lunch by the same member of the congregation. Said member spent the hour unloading about (to our minds) relatively minor personal problems and airing legitimate but nitpick-y complaints about our church. As we tried to figure out if there were a deeper motive behind this pastoral care double-dipping, my colleague shrugged and said, "Maybe she's just jonesin' for pastors right now."

I thought this was a brilliant diagnosis of the situation and also a valuable addition to our "Guide to North American Pew Folk"

Do you have JFPs amongst your flock? How do you care for them lovingly without allowing them to eat up enormous amounts of available time and energy?

3 comments:

spookyrach said...

Maybe you could recommend a good teevee eeevangelist for them! Sorta like religious methadone.

Jules said...

No JFPs identified yet. I'm not sure that's trait of the Welsh.

LutheranChik said...

If the JFP's are going on about a particular person, my favorite response is, "That's interesting...s/he only ever says positive things about you."