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Case Study: The Darker Side of Mable, the Ministry Mom

Case Study The Darker Side of Mable, the Ministry Mom

Photo: ©Dean Drobot via Canva.com

Mable is the “go-to” gal in her church. When someone is struggling, Mable is the one who gets the call. Mable’s husband is passive and preoccupied. Biff checked out a long time ago, settling to be the breadwinner.

You can imagine the shock of Mable’s friends when they saw her yelling at Biff in the hallway of the church building. No one had ever seen the darker side of Mable. They knew Biff was a quiet, passive man, and it was not polite to pry into people’s business. Besides, they must be doing something right, look at Mable: her love for God was well known.

To compound their growing family problems, Biffy and Biffina are rebellious teenagers. When they were young, Mable kept them preoccupied at the church building. She shuffled them around while she taught Bible studies, counseled, led kids’ events, and fulfilled other leadership roles.

Biffy and Biffina were always role models. Their clothes were perfect. They excelled in Bible drills. The church was their life. What their “non-prying” friends did not know was that Biff had checked out of the marriage and the kids were modeling the hypocrisy of their mom.

Just before Biffina’s seventeenth birthday, Biff and Mable found out that their daughter was pregnant. Mable’s worst fear had come: her ambition for ministry was collapsing.

Case Study Questions

  1. How would you counsel this family?
  2. How would you re-envision the church about biblical priorities for the home?

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