An article entitled, "XL Worship Center Wants To 'Pimp Ride'," appeared in the religion section of the Rome News-Tribune, (Rome, GA), on November 18, 2006, p.9A. Apparently, the West Rome Baptist Church is sponsoring a new program designed to reach young people. However, the new outreach attempt is based on MTV's show "Pimp My Ride" which apparently involves giving a "makeover" to someone's car. The show is hosted by a rap artist named Xibit. Never heard of him nor have I watched this show.

According to the article, the XL worship center is under the direction of a Jarrod Roberts, who is a youth minister for the West Rome Baptist Church. He states the reason for having this program as the following, "Our goal is to reach young people who don't want to go to a traditional church setting." The contest to do a makeover on a car is open to anyone in the Rome area.

Many attempts have been made by Church people over the years to reach people with the Good News, but this one crosses the line of everything decent, pure, holy, morally and spiritually. It's one thing to try to be as the Apostle Paul said, "all things to all people" but this is just flat out wrong for a Church to be using the word "pimp" in connection with something as holy as the Church.

We all know that a pimp is associated with the sordid practice of prostitution. This is something so far beyond the realm of what is acceptable that I am astounded that this particular church would allow such a thing to be associated with God and His Church.

What's next? Have sex with a hooker in order to "witness" to her? Do drugs with an addict in order to share the Good News? Commit armed robbery in order to go to prison in order to start a prison ministry? I know that seems a little ridiculous but so is the idea of using the word "PIMP" in connection with any church ministry! The verses at the beginning of this article should be enough to show how immorally wrong this idea is. Someone has used very poor judgment in allowing this to take place in the Church.

Ephesians 5:8 says, "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. Verses 9-12 add even more weight to the argument, "for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth. And find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret." Did you catch that last sentence? I know it's not popular to challenge anyone on anything they try to do in order to reach the Lost. But it's never right to do what appears to be evil and wicked just to win people to Christ. We don't have to stoop to carnal thinking and man-made cleverness in order to win people to Christ. The end never justifies the means, especially if the means are illegal, immoral, and unethical.

People are prone to say, "Don't be quick to judge. I'm sure their intentions are sincere." Well, as others have said before, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." I'm not judging anyone, nor am I questioning the sincerity of Mr. Roberts. What I am questioning is the poor judgment on his part and the leaders of this Church. But I am also disturbed by the trend in the church today to do whatever it can to get more people in the church, even if it means doing that which is immoral or unethical. People don't seem to have any problem with allowing the world to rub off on the Church.

In many instances, the modern-day church has been seduced by the pop culture of our day and has succumbed to the demon of "popularity."

But the Church is supposed to be rubbing off on the world, not vice versa. We are supposed to be the "Salt" and "Light of the World." But sadly, we have lost our savor and have sunk back into the Darkness when we resort to the latest and greatest church growth techniques. The Bible repeatedly warns us of worldliness, (see I John 2:15-17) as well as avoiding the appearance of evil. Ephesians 4 also adds support to the idea that we are to live differently now that we have become a Christian. We have left the darkness of sin to live in the light of Christ and seeking to be pure and holy is not to be a casual pursuit. The problem with far too many is that they were never really converted to Christ in the first place and true, godly repentance is a foreign concept to many church folks today. Our churches are full of uncoverted sinners pretending to be Christians. By most indications, all is well in the church today with all the large crowds that are attending church services. But appearances can be deceiving.

I believe that the church has become inwardly corrupt in most places, and that what we see on the outside is akin to a skeleton with skin; but its' movements are as a puppet. A puppet master, (a preacher) is directing the movements with a few strings; the strings are the gadgets and trendy ideas used by the puppet master, but "the body" is actually a dead and lifeless object.

We must do what it takes to reach the Lost, but we must not resort to carnival festivities and all the worldly gimmicks that have become the latest trend. Sideshows and Madison Avenue marketing have no place in the Church. Maybe we as Christians should do a better job of doing the things that we have been called to do instead of resorting to every gimmick that comes down the pike. Maybe we need to be smarter, wiser, and more diligent in doing the real work of ministry, than in resorting to popular trends and dramatic sideshow theatrics. How many people seek to reach the Lost through 1st century methods found in the book of Acts? Most say it's because the methods for reaching our culture today dictate doing evangelism differently. When did using your mouth go out of fashion and stop being an effective method for evangelism? When did using your feet (or car) become ineffective for visiting the Lost? Most of the reasons for doing things differently today is just a smokescreen for laziness, and wanting to do whatever the person in charge wants to do. Usually it involves doing something popular and easier than using your mouth and going to talk to people about Jesus Christ.

We do things to attract people to a Church service and then try to witness to them through a spectacular worship experience. Many hope that the emotions a visitor feels coupled with a bombardment of friendship and fellowship activities will convince the visitor to keep attending, and eventually make some sort of membership decision. Many are practicing open membership without expecting repentance or baptism by immersion into Christ. Is that how the early Church evangelized the Lost? They went door-to-door telling everyone who would listen about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They witnessed in the home, in the workplace, in the marketplace, and anywhere people were assembled. That takes, in many instances, a lot more work and a lot more courage to do than to stay in our four-walled castles while we construct super-fabulous worship experiences. We put the cart before the horse when it comes to evangelism today.

Many folks in the 1st century were converted to Christ before ever attending a worship service.  We do just the opposite hoping they will "like" the worship services. What tends to happen as a result of making worship services appealing to unbelievers? We water it down and make it more palatable for their sake rather than using the worship service for what it was originally intended for: to worship God and to seek to make it pleasing to Him, not to Man. We seek to make it pleasing to man and the result is often that we offend God! And it doesn't even seem to bother most folks! Worship is more for God's sake than ours but we have the audacity to cancel an entire slate of worship services just because it happens to fall on Christmas day! We wouldn't want it to interfere with our family get-togethers and other worldly pursuits! What a sad state of affairs that worship has fallen to in America!

Oh, we have lots of numbers and multi-million dollar worship centers. I even helped to construct one myself once. But along the way, most have turned them into entertainment centers, and the atmosphere is more of a high-society country club or a discotheque or nightclub bar scene setting, rather than a place where people can come to offer worship in spirit and truth. We need to be able to confront our sinful self as we approach a holy God, but that is impossible to do in these "I'm Okay, You're Okay" settings. Preaching has often been watered down and made to be more palatable.

People are not often confronted with their sin anymore, nor are they encouraged to repent of it and get rid of it by submitting to Christ as both Lord and Savior. Many claim Jesus as their Savior, but few live as though He is truly Lord of all their life. Too many lifestyles are not changed at all by these modern-day worship "experiences." Lord, help us when He returns to find an unconverted church which is no church at all! "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."

(Matt.7:21, NIV)

Lyle W. Lipps, is Evangelist with the First Christian Church of Adairsville, GA.  Visit the church's website at www.adairsvillechristianchurch.org