Howard pastor to give Obama invocation

HOWARD - Troy Murphy got a call of a lifetime last Friday.

"Anytime you get a White House call, it's pretty interesting," said Murphy, who is the Lead Pastor at Green Bay Community Church in Howard. "My kids saved it on the voice mail at home."

He found out he was selected to give the invocation during President Obama's town hall meeting in Green Bay.

Murphy has been in the area for about four years, but only the Pastor at the church for about 10 weeks. He says there was no real application process and his nondenominational church, with a congregation of roughly 5,000, was selected from about five other large churches in the state.

"From the spiritual side of it, for me to be able to pray for our country is a privilege, just an honor," he said. "And I know there are probably hundreds of people who are more qualified than me, but for some reason I get to do it. And I take it as a privilege."

The California native has been a chaplain for the Green Bay Packers for the past three years. He is also a former marine.

"Being in the service for six years and loving this country, anytime you can meet the president, for anything, it is an honor," he said.

Murphy says he is still waiting on most of the details from the White House, and with much of that still up in the air, he says he doesn't have much planned yet either.

"I think I'm purposely going into this praying like I'd always pray to God and not make it a political agenda in my prayer," he said. "Just pray. Just pray my heart."

And before that prayer, there just might be a chance for an introduction.

"I was joking with my kids that I'm going to fist pump him," he said with a laugh.