Pastoring in the modern era has a great many conveniences that were not available to God’s men in bygone days. I can only imagine (provided he did not play Pokémon Go) how much the great apostle Paul could have accomplished if he had lived in the era of cellphones.
I realize that they are a bit of a two-edged sword, but I truly love the pastoral benefits of the cellphone era. I regularly send a mass text to every member of my church who has a cellphone. I can reach the entire church body in a matter of seconds. I also use the phone to text individual, personal messages, bits of encouragement to those who are in need or bits of instruction to those who have questions.
My church members are just as active in this as I am. However, I have found that, as great of a tool as the cellphone and the text is, they can also provide for some incredibly entertaining moments
Sometime back, one of the great men in our church sent me a text. It was encouraging, something that he had gotten out of his personal devotions that morning and wanted to share with me. Like many of our folks, he was using talk to text.
Now, the problem with talk to text is that you do not usually really see what you have written before you send it. Compound that with the fact that our mouth often works faster than our brain, and you have the potential for hilarity. And thus it was that on that day I received a wonderful text that ended with the words, “Love you, babe!”