"smokin' hot wife"? = inappropriate

shameless product promotion = tasteless

"boogie, boogie, boogie" in concert with praying in Jesus' name? = sacriligious ... at best

In pandering to the crowd, I'm thinking that maybe he forgot Who he was talking to ...

I think Jesus said something about those who pray to be heard by men ...

And it wasn't good.

Did he pray to God before or after they sang the National Anthem?

How does this qualify as a prayer?

Praying before racing a car at 200 mph is about as appropriate as praying before jumping off the pinnacle of the temple ("don't tempt the Lord your God," Jesus said). Or praying for protection before playing with poisonous snakes, or drinking too much alcohol.

Praying for protection before doing something stupid sure seems to be "presuming on God's grace."

If you really wanted Jesus' protection, you wouldn't do those things at all.

M'yeh...my thoughts are "much to do about little."

That he finds his wife smoking hot, hey, his business, more power to him.
That he feels that the car companies bring a lot of jobs to his area, again, his business, and more power to him.
That he is thankful...sure, why not, for a lot of Americans who have a preening attitude of entitlement this is a good thing. It's nice to see someone thankful.

Me, no, I would never pray something like that, but then again, he is him, and I am me.
My expectations for myself do not apply to him, as his expectations of himself do not apply to me.

I see nothing wrong with it...and for the most part, probably the first time that pack of people whose main goal is to get stoned-stupid drunk while breathing in a heaping dose of carbon dioxide to further the separation between common sense and the darwin awards have ever heard a pastor thank G-d for things they take for granted.

Seems to me that prayers are to be offered to God as reverent displays of reflection.

This prayer tells me a lot of about this man's ministry.

I'm surprised at the comments here. If you read the Psalms there are some pretty diverse prayers going on there. People praying for God's wrath to overcome their enemies. Prayers that the children of enemies would have their head dashed against the rocks. Prayers of joy and prayers of sorrow. If the Psalms teach us anything don't they teach us that we can pray to God for anything?

We are called by God to give thanks in all things. Isn't this what Pastor Joe was doing? We're told to cast all our cares upon the Lord. Isn't this what he did?

I can't judge the motives of this man's heart and neither can anyone here. Only the Lord Jesus can do that. But it is obvious that he loves NASCAR and gave God thanks for it. Is that really so bad?

That was his second "smokin hot" prayer at the Nashville Speedway this year. God responded today by closing the track…

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110803/NEWS01/110803006/Nashville-Speedway-close-2012-?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cp

I cringe. I wonder if Jesus does also?

My guess is that I'm one of the only NASCAR fans that reads Out of Ur, or one of the only Out of Ur readers that follows NASCAR.

The mention of Dodge, Toyota, Ford and Chevy was not "product placement" as the reporter claims. They are the companies that produce the cars in NASCAR. Each manufacturer has their own fans, or "tribe" if you will. The criticism smacks of elitism, and we wouldn't be having this conversation if an "urban" pastor were to offer a prayer to the OG, or some other nonsense.

Some of us here in flyover country thought that was pretty funny.

Mark, I'm in "flyover" country as well. This is a pure gimmicky mess.

And if some urban hipster pastor were to thank God for The Gap or Urban Outfitters, yes there would be people grumbling.

Given that the prayer was ripped and modified from the movie Talladega Nights (including the "smokin' hot wife" line and prerequisite product placement), this seems to be self-parody along the same lines as the movie rather than a serious prayer. Judging by the laughing of the crowd and racers throughout the prayer, I think that's the way it was received. If it were indeed a moment of self-parody, it was pretty funny. If it were an attempt to be likeable in front of an audience in an actual prayer setting, it would be inappropriate.

What also bears examination is the beginning of the clip, when a user comment says "I hope he enjoys hell" or something like it. We as the Church need to get off that bandwagon. Praying a contextual prayer like his, while perhaps inappropriate, is not the unforgivable sin that banishes us from God's grace.

Very missional. Isn't that what christians are supposed to be about?

He reminds me of the Celtic christians way of evangelism and the Apostle Paul at Mars Hill: making references from the culture he was speaking to.

Run the race Pastor Nelms! Run with power!

Lot's of stone-throwing here. No surprise.

The content of the prayer is not to my taste or context. Did it strike a chord with his missionfield, perhaps even among those who might normally sleep through a prayer? Probably.

As entertainment, it's great. As prayer--well, it's not.

As an attention getter, he got it. As doing anything God-honoring with the attention he got--well, the Holy Spirit can work despite our failings.

It's certainly a tastless and self-centered prayer. In that respect, it's not so different from a few others I've heard over the years. Probably a good example of how not to appraoch prayer.

not surprising.
and it's not "elitist" to have an issue with this.

While it comes off as pretty gauche, the issue is how this reduces prayer to something trivial and trite.

It's in the same vein of ham-handed cultural identity construction as Tebow and his bible verse face paint, people praying in endzones or MMA fighters saying God deserves the credit for their ability to beat the living sin out of their opponent.

gimme a break.

but, if that makes me an elitist, then I'm happy to be one.

Reader, I don't know the original of which he is parodying, but your comment appears to put the "prayer" at least in its proper context--for good or ill. Thanks for that service.

On the other hand, I wouldn't call this true prayer either (since in this context it appears to more a performance for a particular crowd of people, and, by definition, this is not prayer). Only God can judge Pastor Joe's heart as to whether this action was in any way pleasing to Him (and I suspect in some aspects--at least as to intention--it might have been). On the other hand, others have--with reason I think--pointed out some problems.

Yes, God uses even such misguided efforts to His purpose many times. In this and other similar instances, some are quick to point to Balaam's donkey to drive home the point of the unlikeliness of the instruments through which God sometimes deigns to speak. On the other hand, there is no-one suggesting we ordain donkeys and put them into positions of spiritual leadership. :-)

So I have been thinking about this prayer more and I must confess that I (a pastor) have used public prayer as a means to look good (flowery language, intricate images, etc). And so my comment is not meant to throw stones, nor is it to deny God's mission. It is merely to note that a) this prayer is based on a movie and b) we ought not be to condemning.

This sounds like point for point copy of the hilarious prayer from Will Farrell's "Talledega Nights" (thanking God for smokin hot wife, product placement and praying to the baby Jesus). The movie was about the NASCAR culture. He had to know he was copying that movie prayer. I certainly don;t mind paying homage to prayers said by others... but Talledega Nights?

My wife says, here's a pastor who probably has a great heart, is involved in the community and includes a movie reference to let the people know that he can relate to him. A little 'wink' to the crowd that he is ministering to (everyone there would have gotten the reference). Obviously, we missed the reference. Maybe we're not who the prayer was for.

God, in His infinite wisdom and grace saw fit to have this guy pray in front of thousands of race fans - and not us. God is the only one who knows this pastor's heart and therefore the only one with the wisdom and grace great enough to judge him. After reading the comments I'm sure glad some of my fellow pastors aren't judging me at the bama seat.

If he wanted to make his statements before his prayer, I don't see anything wrong with that. Once he begins praying, though, he needs to remember who he's praying to. He turned our most solemn, holy privilege, namely communicating with the most High God, in to a comedy routine.

He was, indeed, speaking to the most high God. But he was also speaking to his Daddy, who delights in him and loves him deeply. Makes a difference, to me, at least.

He got people talking about God and Jesus. We need people to think about Him and I'm all for it! Well done for bringing our God to the forefront! Us Christians need to be more BOLD and imaginative in challenging the world to think about their place in eternity!

In our Church our prayers are meant to worship God and His Son Jesus. Our individual prayers in private can be and usually are pleas for others and ourselves.
As a worship prayer, it wasn't. As a private prayer, it was. I, because I don't watch car movies, wouldn't have gotten the prayer, which I didn't, and think it's not appropriate in a crowd where you might end up with the majority not getting it. Just because it's a car race doesn't mean everybody has seen the car movie. Nice that a man after years of marriage still thinks his wife is hot and can say so. Has he got a Brother?

I think it was great!

I think it's a great prayer. We serve a big God, whom I'll bet got a big Tennessee chuckle over this, along with all the other good-hearted folks there that day. This Pastor is pure Americana. Love him or leave him alone.

We worship the holy God of the Bible who demanded that Moses remove his shoes when approaching, and struck dead the man who tried to steady the Ark of the Covenant to prevent it from falling when it was being moved. I am definitely not God, but I don't think God likes the irreverence of a prayer that ends with "In Jesus’ name. Boogity, boogity, boogity. Amen.”

Many might insist that God has a sense of humor, and I'm sure that He does, but He never approved of irreverence towards Him in the Bible.

As a pastor I can't say I would have prayed that prayer (publicly), but I won't be one to judge him. I am fully convinced that God has a sense of humor since that is a characteristic of people who are made in His image. He also knows the motives and intentions of all our hearts. I'll leave the discernment of motives up to Him.

Mark, you aren't the only NASCAR fan who reads Out of Ur...

To be transparent I must confess, that in my more private moments of prayer, I am extremely grateful to God for human gifts like NASCAR and divine gifts like my own smokin' hot wife! :)

Absolutely love it! Let him pray again - he sounds like a lot more fun than a lot of other religous people I have heard pray. Some people pray to long - some people pray to short - some people pray like they are pharisees. This man prayed with enthuasism and honesty. I wouldn't do it but I am glad he can. There is no wrong way to pray either in public or private. I believe Jesus would smiled like Carl Edwards.

OK, just one more in "flyover" country who follows Jesus and likes NASCAR. To be honest, I think the prayer in Talladega Nights was great and wanted to use it when preaching on the "realness" of prayer but unfortunately couldn't find a clean enough segment for use in worship, so I just referenced it. Our congregation connected with it.

I say let folks who want to judge do so, but to be honest, while I wouldn't have prayed this way I bet my prayer would not have generated cheers from the crowd, nor conversations about the purpose of public prayer in the weeks that followed.

Oh yeah, and the CNN segment above slices and dices the actual prayer, inserting comment and controversy along the way, but if you're like me and care to see for yourself, check this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J74y88YuSJ8

Oh, and it's been songified here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZnDt2wEFjk

Is that spreading the Gospel and making Jesus known? You decide.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

A prayer isn't supposed to have us talking about the prayer. Because the pastor is a called and ordained servant of the Lord, he has legitimized other like-minded prayers at dinner tables around the country. He had the opportunity to reach millions internationally with a well thought out prayer, instead he took his cue from a scene in a movie and made it his own.

I was ashamed of this "prayer" and the ridicule it brought upon Christians. The pastor should be ashamed for using a prayer to bring attention to himself rather than focusing on God, which is supposed to be the object of prayer.

When president Obama called on Americans to organize a prayer vigil, he wanted our country to spiritually prosper and do well in other physical dividends too. That was his campaign.