Preaching The Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Racing Community and equipping others to do the same.
Being part of the car and racing community for 15 years now, most of the conversations I’ve tried to have with people about Jesus begin with them explaining in some way that they’re pretty good people. Most of the people we talk with have some knowledge of Jesus, often have even attended church with their family, and often mention things like “they said a prayer inviting Jesus into their heart or was baptized” Unfortunately most of these conversations continue with the fact that their present life lacks evidence of following Christ and their trust in forgiveness for their sins boils down to their attempts at being a good person.
Jesus spoke to the church of Laodecia in Revelation 3 and exposed their self-righteous deception, they weren’t overly sinful (cold) nor on fire and zealous for the things of God (hot) instead, they were disgustingly lukewarm to Jesus. Their idea of themselves was that they were healthy, wealthy, and had a need for nothing. Jesus exposes the true spiritual state that they were WRETCHED, vile, poor, blind, and naked, and needed to come to Him to obtain pure white garments (true righteousness from Him).
American Christianity has taught a shallow gospel of easy believism leading to this kind of spiritual blindness where people think they are good, and yet they don’t truly know Christ or His saving work. We preach on the sinfulness of man to show just how dark and bleak our state is before a Holy God apart from Jesus Christ. Only through complete surrender and devotion to Christ can we be saved from our self-righteousness, where he removes our dirty garments and gives us pure white robes, being clothed in the righteousness of Christ, the only acceptance before God.
In general, while I have been competing at car shows, races, and other events, I’ve never once experienced any other believers trying to talk to me about Jesus. Beyond our team, I have never heard anyone preaching or offering a gospel tract or ever offering a Bible. That’s why “Wretched Racing” exists. Christ is worthy! We want to reach those who are not being reached.
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Romans 7:24-25
The Gospel of Jesus Christ brings the joyful message that God’s love for the world led Him to give His only Son to die for our sins (John 3:16). Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are born again into a living hope, receiving an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, reserved for us in heaven (1 Peter 1:3–4). This good news assures us of our salvation, eternal life, and heavenly home through Christ (John 14:1–4).
“We preach Christ crucified -sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.”
1 Corinthians 1:23
I grew up in North carolina to parents who got divorced when I was 3 years old. I lived with my dad growing up who took me to church on occasion but I never saw him or my grandparents personally pursue and follow Jesus Christ outside of an hour church service on Sunday or various other “church events” I grew up being told I was a good kid who only did bad things because of the trauma I experienced with my parents divorce and constant custody battle. I often went to “christian counseling” that always treated me as the victim rather than a sinner who needed saving from the sin in my own heart. I lived for myself and whatever brought the most pleasure constantly, pursuing all kinds of drugs, partying and whatever other worldly desires that were available.
In 2007 I lost my father, when he had a heart attack while driving to buy cigarettes one Sunday morning. Even though i watched him struggle with depression and drug addiction i pursued the same path, angry at God. But as hard as I ran away from Him, God pursued me and allowed me to come to the end of myself, “coming to my senses” an seeing the vanity of the life I was pursuing. Shortly after he brought a guy into my life who invited me to a car club, and then subsequently to a church youth event.
Over the course of the next few months I began to understand the gospel and God destroyed my self righteous image that thought I was a good person and I finally saw myself as God sees me, a desperate sinner who deserves nothing good from God, only His Holy justice for my sin, and yet He offers me forgiveness and reconciliation through the salvation Jesus accomplished through His life, death, and resurrection. I gave up being the God of my own life and trusted Jesus to save me and give me new life to follow Him all my days. As I grew I began to have a desire to preach this same gospel message to the car community that I enjoyed so that Jesus glorious victory would be magnified and that others see and savor Him as I had.
– Elijah Nichols
Our team understands every presentation and conversation is an opportunity to share His Truth with someone who has not yet understood that they have a purpose waiting to be uncovered, God’s purpose for them.
We proclaim HIM, warning and teaching every man, so that we can present every man complete in Christ – Colossians 1:28
We are eager to represent Christ in all we do and share with others who have never heard or considered that God has a special purpose and plan of redemption for them. We hope to see you at one of our upcoming events.
Events:
We attend local car shows and racing events, both drag racing and road course racing throughout the year with the specific intention to preach the glorious gospel of Christ. Often we use our paintboard but we also will simply read scripture and explain it. We set up a booth table to hand out free Bibles, gospel tracts, and other discipleship materials. One of the tools we use to generate more conversations is a portable whiteboard on which we write up a verse or question to make an easy conversation transition to ask people who pass by.
Weekly:
While we aren’t at events we intentionally use our business to evangelize our customers at “Redemption Tuning.” Recently we started using the cars we build to make YouTube videos, wherein every car video we make we also add a Gospel centered devotional so that car enthusiasts across the world hear about Jesus while pursuing their passion for cars.
