"What kind of ice cream is that?" (asked by a 10 year old)
"Beer ice cream. You have to ask your parents first before I can give you any." (me)
"Are you tellin' the truth?"
"Yup. Go ask your parents."
"Beer ice cream? Are you for real? Eew, gross."
(someone else - an adult)
"I can think of a lot of better uses for Guinness. Drinking it, for one."
** Edit **
For our Independence Day party over at one of our deacons' we made home-made hand cranked vanilla ice cream and hand cranked Guinness ice cream. I was pretty skeptical that the "beer ice cream" would taste ok, so I made a test batch the morning of the 4th, and it tasted remarkably like Guinness, so we ended up making 3 quarts of it for the adults. It was good, but Guinness is better unadulterated, and even better from the tap, and best from the tap with some mates at a pub in Glasgow (On tap with friends in a pub in Dublin may be the very best, but I've not had the joy of that experience).
** end Edit **
So as far as truth telling regarding issues of more importance than ice cream flavors, what are criteria for giving all the details in a situation vs. (non-deceptive) withholding or summarising details. When is it most loving to be silent or of few words? Are there cases where studying the peace and purity of the church would require silence or require speech?
Would it be considered divisive if, in announcing that my church called a pastor, I put the exact count of votes on my blog? How the vote turned out is a matter of public record; I assume that it will be in the records of presbytery--except that I don't think we have any official minutes, so perhaps I should put the vote here so that there's a record ;)
No, seriously though, I am wondering what is and isn't appropriate as far as distributing information about the vote count and things like that. Blogs aren't mentioned in the Book of Church Order, and we're supposed to be like the Bereans in discussing and double-checking things against Scripture, but I don't want to engage in what could amount to online gossip blogging.
This past Sunday after the morning worship service, we had a brief congregational meeting to vote on the pastoral candidate recommended by our pastor search committee, and he was called by about a four/fifths majority.
I'm glad that we've called a pastor, and am thankful for the work that the search committee has done. I don't agree with all the search criteria that were used, but on the central issues of having godly character and sound theology the man we've called seems really solid. Perhaps a little more time asking questions and getting to know this candidate would have cleared up some of my concerns and resulted in a unanimous recommendation from the search committee, but I believe that the Lord is sovereign and has worked through our search committee to bring us our next pastor.
I was hesitant to raise some of the questions and concerns that I've asked about with folks at church, but am really glad that I've talked with some folks about those things. Its imporant that as brothers and sisters within our congregation we talk through our (sometimes) differing views on theology, because it gives us opportunities to sharpen each other under the authority of Scripture, as iron sharpens iron, and gives us practice loving each other in spite of different convictions.
I'm also thankful that the entire time we've been searching--for almost an entire year--we've been priviledged to have an assistant pastor who has been pastoring us from week to week, preaching from 1 John, and setting a good example of befriending people with the love of Christ--even folks at the local Wendy's. Please join with our congregation in praying that the Lord will provide a call soon for our assistant pastor.