Last Saturday, Pastor Joe Nelm of the Family Baptist Church in Gladeville Tennessee gave the invocation at the Nashville Superspeedway NASCAR race. Ordinarily this is a mundane moment in the start of a race but Joe’s prayer has turned viral on youtube. During his prayer he thanked God for a list of things, including his “smoking hot wife.” At the end of his prayer he avoided the traditional “amen” and added a little spice: “In Jesus’ name, boogity, boogity, boogity, Amen.” (I guess this is from a racing car movie.) As a result the crowd went wild. Looks of amazement, gasps, and chuckle circled the track faster than any hot car.
How do you feel about this prayer? My first thought was that he somehow cheapened prayer. Surely God did not need to know that the pastor sees his wife as “smoking hot!” God already knew it since He created her. Not surprisingly he has drawn some criticism. He appeared on a television news interview this morning and was asked about the criticism. He replied that the prayer was unplanned and it just came out. In his view it helped people realize that Christians still have fun and that not all Christians are boring. In short, he seems to see that his thankfulness for his smoking hot wife was a form of evangelism. What do you think?
In searching the internet regarding this subject I read the responses of many people. Some criticized him severely. Others expressed amazement. Here are two samples:
-“Best opening prayer ever! I would go to church if this guy was giving the sermon. Way to go Joe.”
-“The guy is a clown. I wouldn`t want to go to his church.”
So what do you think? In my opinion, he is right in thinking that people outside the church view Christians as boring and humorless. I guess Pastor Joe showed them the other side! But is this a good approach or a bad approach to evangelism?
What do you think?
In case you missed it: http://youtu.be/OBt2mYnTumQ
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