IT is the sexiest church in America. Correction: it was the sexiest church in America.

A youth ministry at Panama City Beach in Florida has been revealed as an “X-rated” venue hosting “Wet & Wild” parties and spring break soirees where clothes are optional, according to local news outlets.

The Life Center: A Spiritual Community is being investigated by police for running a seven-days-a-week party schedule promoting alcohol abuse, sexually-explicit T-shirts and “a night you won’t remember”.

Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen wrote on Facebook earlier this week that Reverend Markus Bishop “converted” his church into a nightclub and purchased a bright green ATM so revellers could access cash for their “love offering”.

Local news outlets reported the group hired to provide the fun, “Amnesia”, quickly pulled its website amid controversy it was encouraging anti-social behaviour in a traditionally-wholesome environment.

Local police chief Drew Whitman said he had “been to a lot of nightclubs and a lot of churches” and The Life Center “isn’t a church”.

The “fun, safe environment” as it was promoted online reportedly pushed naked paint parties, slumber party Sundays with “the sexiest ladies on the beach” and sold T-shirts depicting stick figures performing sex acts on one another and the text “I hate being sober”, the Panama City News Herald reports.

When the Spring Break Amnesia website relaunched on Tuesday it did so with the following message: “The Tabernacle is a community that serves NO alcohol and bans illegal drugs for the youth to go during spring break at night to interact with each other in a fun safe environment up to 5am”.

To its credit, a sign on the front of the church stated the events were alcohol and drug free and donations — $20 a head — would go back to the church.

But local law enforcement is having none of it. To make matters worse for the church, it will likely lose its tax exemption.

The church has been tax-exempt for years given that it was believed to be operating solely as a church. It does not have appropriate licenses or alcohol permits.

McKeithen said it was a “blatant slap in the face” to taxpayers and law enforcement.

“They’re trying to get around the laws, and they’re using the church to get there,” he said.