Papa Roach, Scum Of The Earth Church and the F-Bomb

Last Sunday I read the lyrics from Papa Roach's song, Last Resort. The words are a little colorful so I edited them as I read it aloud and also when I posted the message on Monday's blog.

While I was speaking to one of our students from church on Wednesday night, he remarked, "I have that CD from Papa Roach at home. I was surprised to hear it in church. My CD isn't edited though."

He was quiet for a moment and then added, "Pretty much all teenage music has some of those (questionable) words in it."

Those events reminded me of a situation that raised some eyebrows awhile back at one of my favorite churches, Scum Of The Earth Church in Denver. A young woman asked to share a poem that she'd written for the Christmas Eve service last year. It was quite flowery in tone and the pastor wrestled with it for a time as to allow it or not.

Ultimately Mike Sares realized that he would take some heat for permitting it in the service, but that reading Lost & Found unedited was the best way to go. A caution was given just before the poem was read aloud in the service. People flocked for the exit! (Just kidding about that part!). Below is a link to the reading.

http://www.scumoftheearth.net/v2/sermons/lost_&_found_PG_rated.mp3

SOTE Church is a unique church to say the least. Read their own description of the church:

SCUM OF THE EARTH CHURCH IS A CHURCH FOR THOSE WHO DESIRE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT JESUS, BUT FEEL THEY ARE EITHER NOT WELCOMED, OR ARE UNCOMFORTABLE IN A TRADITIONAL CHURCH SETTING. IT’S A CHURCH FOR THE RIGHT BRAINED & THE LEFT OUT.

http://www.therefuse.net/

Their sister church is The Refuse. I like that one, too! It seems to me that we at Community of Hope could be a part of the same network, right? Listen to what Len Sweet says about a pile of refuse, otherwise known as a compost:

A compost heap- this stewing, shredding, steaming, smelly caldron of leaves, garbage, earthworms, insects, sawbugs, fungi and bacteria- is a thing of beauty. The gospel of grace is a waste aesthetic: there are treasure chests buried in trash cans. Grace moves us from buried trash to buried treasure.

How do you feel about the meshing of youth culture in the church? How do we communicate timeless truths about a God who loves us within a culture of cynicism and raw emotion that spawns Last Resort and Lost & Found?

1 Corinthians 4:11-13
To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.