Scum of the Earth

Last night Elizabeth and I attended Scum of the Earth Church in Denver. This was my fourth visit to Scum, Elizabeth's third. We go occasionally because we have a couple of friends who are pastors there and they often invite us when they are preaching. Actually, that's mostly why we used to go. Now we go largely because we love it.

Scum is a very special church. It's made up of a very ecclectic group of mostly young people. Many of them struggle or have struggled with different kinds of addictions. Many have been hurt by Christians/churches in the past. It's largely a group of people that you probably wouldn't expect to see in your church on a Sunday morning.

Scum meets on Sunday nights in a very old building that was a church a long time ago, but most recently served as the house of an artist in Denver who essentially used the building as his canvas. The walls, railings, stairs and other fixtures are all painted funky colors. In some places there are collages of photos all over the ceilling. The bathrooms have wacky tiles and sea shells and mermaids on the walls. If there was one word to describe the building where Scum meets I think I would choose funky.

Anyway, we've come to really love visiting Scum. I've come to realize that the way a church is between Monday and Saturday really tends to dictate what the church is like on Sunday, and if that's true, then Scum is a vibrant, loving community of people who meet regularly with one another to share burdens and triumphs, to get to know one another, to be released from the bondage of any number of troubles, and to love each other. Pastors at Scum have to raise financial support because the church is comprised largely of low- to no-income people.

Last night my friend Josh Cook gave a talk on "Healthy Single Sexuality." In my opinion, it was on healthy sexuality in general (because it was every bit as relevant for married people as it was for singles). It was a fantastic message. When I'm listening to sermons I tend to look around at the crowd and be curious, seeing who's here and who's sitting where. Last night I realized about 3/4 of the way through Josh's sermon that I hadn't shifted my view from Josh the whole night. I'm not sure I'd even blinked! Maybe that's weird, but it illustrates how captivated I was the whole time.

The church's web site is scumoftheearth.net and Josh's sermon will probably be posted there before long, if you're interested (at least I think they post audio of their sermons on their site).

Just wanted to let you all know that it's a really great church, and we'll probably continue to visit as long as we live in the area.