The Christian Century

In the tireless (and sometimes tiresome) debates over social media, I come down pretty firmly on the “pro” side.

During the day, her mother’s confusion was manageable, more or less. They would wake up, have their tea and toast and walk around the house, noticing which flowers were waxing and which were waning. After their mid-morning nap, they would have lunch and then settle into a long game of cards or—her mother’s favorite—dominoes.

This summer, my divinity-student wife is doing a unit of clinical pastoral education. As someone without any pastoral care experience, I’ve been fascinated to hear about the scenarios (real and hypothetical) that come up in CPE-related conversations. For instance, a classic: Would you baptize a dead baby?

I’m not much of a Rick Warren fan, but I’ve always appreciated his best-known catchphrase: "It’s not about you." The evangelical worship life I grew up with was chock-full of “I” language, with less roo