I shouldn't have answered the phone

So this morning I ran some errands for the church and went to the Christian book store... I found myself reading some Jonathan Edwards and Oswald Chambers (The two books I picked up today). As I WAS READING... I got a call from Lyle. Lyle is a Coastguardsman in our church who recently had a son named Joshua. (Pictures below in a previous post)

Well, Lyle calls me and says "Hey Tally... Wanna play golf this afternoon?" I said "Sure" (I mean I want to be a good Pastor who tends to the flock and what better way to minister to someone than to spend several hours walking and talking... --sarcasm--) So from 2-5 Lyle and I found ourselves out on the linx.

Now it would so happen that as I'm pulling up to the course I get a call from my boy Tadd. --By the way Tadd, I'll be the first to come to your conference one day-- We talked for a little while but I kept thinking in the back of my mind "Great, Tadd calls and I'm headed to the golf course... I'm killing my street cred."

Then about halfway through my round I'm near the lake looking for my ball (a seagull took it and dropped it in there... really... okay, not really) and I get a call from of all people THE Ben Arment! This is the guy who Pastors one of the churches on Tony Morgan's Radar! Anyway I take the call only to have to report to Ben that yes... I'm on the golf course. I struggle to come up with some brilliant way to defend myself but it was too late... we both knew it... it was over... again I became a shadow of myself if only for a moment... I was a Pastor on a golf course...

So there you have it. I've golfed maybe 3 times in 3 years and today two friends call and their whole perception of me changes in an instant. They have now lumped me into the category of "typical Pastor". Dispite the fact that my score would have been better if I could have kicked my ball around... I'm going down as the Pastor who was on the golf course in the first week of February.

As if THAT weren't bad enough... my friend in ministry Mr. Ben Arment threw me under the bus today on his blog over our 1 minute conversation... :) His readership is in the millions so if something were to ever happen at Focal Point, I would never be able to work in ministry again... Hmm.... maybe this is a direct attempt to get me on his staff..... hmmm...

I hope to redeem myself by attending a few conferences with Ben in the upcoming months. Between Orlando and D.C. I hope to justify my existence as a Pastor to my friend Mr. Arment...
By the way Ben... should I bring my clubs to the conferences? :)