The Basement

The Basement is a monthly Christian youth-revival service featuring popular music and energetic speakers. It was started by Matt Pitt in his parents' basement in Huffman in 2004. Pitt currently heads Whosoever Ministries which organizes the programs.

Held weekly at first, the program soon grew and was hosted at various churches, including Destiny Life Church in Springville and LifeChurch in Trussville. It moved to the 6,500-seat Cathedral of the Cross on Center Point Parkway from January 2007 to July 2009, and then to the 2,500-seat Church of the Highlands on Grant's Mill Road, where it switched to a monthly program to allow Pitt to travel with other Christian speakers and musicians. He also took The Basement on tour with an August 2011 date at the Atlanta Marriott at Centennial Park.

In July 2011 the Basement moved to the 5,000-seat Boutwell Auditorium in downtown Birmingham. That service over-filled Boutwell and was moved outdoors to Linn Park. During repairs to the ceiling at the auditorium, the service used UAB's Bartow Arena, but returned to Boutwell in February 2012.

The Basement aims to compete with nightclubs and bars for young people's attention. The services feature loud, high-energy music and sophisticated light shows. Regular acts include DJ Casey Holland, Tuscaloosa's Zig Zeigler, Atlanta-area gospel hip-hop artist Canton Jones. MLB pitchers Jason Standridge and Todd Jones are frequent guest speakers.

Whosoever Ministries operated a nightly smoothie cafe at 5850 Valley Road in Trussville in the early 2010s. The ministry's headquarters were on Railroad Avenue in Trussville until 2014 when they were relocated to 9094 Parkway East in Roebuck in space owned by CBF Ministries International, run by UAB chaplain Jhun Cook.

References

• Sisson, Carmen K. (September 17, 2007) "A young evangelist draws thousands to worship at 'The Basement'." Christian Science Monitor
• Hickerson, Patrick (September 13, 2009) "The Basement: Fast-growing youth service moves to fastest-growing megachurch." The Birmingham News
• Garrison, Greg (July 30, 2011) "The Basement youth service draws crowd at Birmingham's Boutwell Auditorium, Linn Park." The Birmingham News
• Garrison, Greg (January 31, 2012) "The Basement youth worship service set for Birmingham's Boutwell Auditorium." The Birmingham News
• Lloyd, Gary (July 21, 2014) "The Basement moves services from Trussville." Trussville Tribune

External links

• The Basement website