The Basement: Fast-growing youth service moves to fastest-growing megachurch

Christian evangelist Matt Pitt preaches like a vocal machine gun, as fast as the flashing video images on giant TV screens behind him and the thumping rock soundtrack to what may be the most popular youth-oriented worship service in Alabama.

Pitt, 26, quickly has become one of the most influential youth leaders on the American religious scene, with a reality TV series set to air in October on the Inspiration Network.

“My message is hope,” Pitt said. “There are kids dying for hope. They come up crying.”

The former weekly worship service he dubbed The Basement began with Pitt and several friends meeting for Bible study in the basement of his Huffman home in 2004. It moved to Cathedral of the Cross in 2007 and grew to the point this summer that it reached the limit of about 7,000 people at Birmingham’s largest-capacity worship center.

“If it’s about filling a big building, we’ve done that,” Pitt said. “Now we want to be strategic. We want to focus more on discipleship.”

So it’s logical that Pitt moved The Basement to the Church of the Highlands on Grants Mill Road off Interstate 459, which Outreach magazine has named the fastest-growing church in America. The church draws more than 10,000 congregants to worship each week.

“All the kids they reach need to be developed and discipled so they can go to the next stage in their growth,” said Highlands Pastor Chris Hodges. “There are a lot of them that are still completely unchurched.”

Myriad ministries

Hodges said youth ministry leaders from more than 80 churches were on hand as Pitt led the first service of The Basement at Church of the Highlands on Aug. 25. The 2,500-seat sanctuary was packed, plus overflow areas with video feeds including into the lobby, teeming with teens and twenty-somethings. Hodges said there were about 3,000 at the weeknight service.

Since the ministry’s founding in his basement, Pitt had led weekly sessions of preaching and Bible study that grew from attracting dozens to thousands. With the move to Highlands, the services will now be on the final Tuesday of each month. The next is Sept. 29.

“It takes a lot of work for this one service,” Pitt said.

Pitt’s increasing national demands, including touring with evangelist Franklin Graham and various Christian music artists, made it more difficult. “The influence of The Basement has gotten national and international,” Hodges said.

“I’m traveling almost every weekend, in two or three cities a week,” Pitt said. “I was going, ‘God, is this what you want?’”

By moving to the Church of the Highlands and reducing services to one a month, The Basement will have a supportive network to spiritually train youth and youth pastors, Pitt said.

“I love the location; it’s in the middle of everything,” Pitt said. “I enjoyed what they did here.”

Mentoring ministers

The Basement worship services are run by Whosoever Ministries, with Pitt as founder and full-time employee. The ministry focuses on reaching the younger generation and helping church youth pastors adapt a high-energy approach to ministry.

“We have youth pastors from around the country come in and we mentor them,” Pitt said.

Pitt, a 2001 graduate of Hewitt-Trussville High School with an associate degree from Jefferson State Community College, has made pulling youth away from drugs and alcohol a priority. He had a seizure from a drug overdose when he was a student at the University of Alabama, and he advises youth to steer clear of drug use. Youth can relate to that, Hodges said.

“He was raised in church and rebelled against it,” Hodges said. “He nearly lost his life to a drug overdose.”

The youth see Pitt’s preaching as relevant to their lives. “This guy’s preaching to thousands of kids each week,” said Isaiah Hartsell, 18, of Hillsborough, N.C., who attended the Aug. 25 service. “I like the guy just for his attitude. He loves everybody. He truly loves the Lord.

“Seeing all those teenagers jump into the spirit with that strength, you wonder, ‘Is this real?’ There’s nobody holding up a sign saying, ‘Wave your hands.’ That’s God, man.”

‘I’m blown away’

What started in Pitt’s basement now operates like a large organization, but the core of volunteers who run it learned what to do along the way. “It’s not like we’re qualified to do this,” Pitt said. “We just did it. We saw a need.”

Pitt’s hyperactive personality drives the ministry. “I’ve always known I was going to be a voice to a generation,” Pitt said.

“He makes loving God cool,” said Lyndsey Duke, 24, who moved from Graham, Texas, in March to become a Basement regular.

“He has this incredible ability to make the room come alive,” Hodges said. “I’m blown away by it.”

But the epic growth of The Basement phenomenon can’t be traced to his personality, Pitt said.

“This is so big, you have to say only God can do that,” Pitt said. “We didn’t know what we were doing. Only God can get the credit.

“The youth are so captivated by God. You don’t see that every day.”

Every month, NBC13HD recognizes people in the community making a difference.

This month, we introduce you to a young man who has captured the attention of thousands in the Birmingham metro area with his energy and faith.

Matt Pitt draws some 6,000 people to a unique worship experience every Tuesday night.

Ironically, it was a drug overdose in front a huge crowd that lead him down this path.

Matt Pitt hits the stage every Tuesday night with an outrageous amount of energy. He says he’s competing with bars and clubs to pull in young people to learn more about God.

 

He grabs their attention with lasers, Christian rap, whatever it takes to make them realize there is a better path. Some 6,000 people show up every time Pitt opens what he calls The Basement.

“I feel like this generation hope has been pulled out, so we put on a service to pump them up and say you can do all things through Christ. That’s our message,” Pitt said.

Rewind almost six years ago, Matt was in trouble. He was hooked on drugs and selling them. His problems carried over from high school in Birmingham to college at the University of Alabama, where he hit rock bottom in front of a different audience. At a Bama football game in front of his parents, he collapsed from an overdose.

“He was screaming, ‘I need help for my son!’ and I remember seeing my mom in the distance crying, and I remember thinking, ‘Where is my life going? What just happened?’ I knew all the drugs and all the mess had caught up with me in my life,” Pitt said.

His parents brought him home and randomly drug-tested him. When he failed one of the tests, his dad gave him an ultimatum in the basement of their home.

Matt’s mother, Missy Pitt, said, “ Neither Larry or I was expecting what came out of his mouth that day when Larry told him to pack his bags. We were putting him under a bridge. I was just as shocked as Matt. We were pushover parents. We never in a million years would have done that.”

“Here I am, one step away from being homeless,” Matt said. “I have nowhere to go, nothing to offer, but I do remember my mom saying, one day God will use you. One day, you will be a voice to help others.”

He immediately dropped to his knees and asked for forgiveness. Then he started bringing friends to his basement to get to know God.

The basement group grew quickly. It’s outgrown several churches and captured attention nationwide. We told him we wanted an interview, but really, we, too, wanted to recognize him with a Making a Difference award.

“This makes me feel people are excited about what we are doing and pats me on the back from the city,” Matt said. “Feeling like I’m gonna rock it tomorrow night!”

Justin Standridge  grew up with Matt.

“When he gets up there, I’ve heard him a million times, but I’m just glued to him like, man, this guy, he is really making a difference … his whole life revolves around these kids, that’s it,” Standridge said.

Matt Pitt, thank you for making a difference for so many.

The Basement just moved from Cathedral of the Cross in Roebuck to Church of the Highlands. Matt says there’s even a Christian reality show is in the works.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — The Basement youth service may have started in Matt Pitt’s basement, but now it draws one of the largest crowds of any youth service in America.

When The Basement met at the 5,000-seat Boutwell Auditorium in July, fire marshals closed off access to the overcrowded venue and it moved across the street into Linn Park. As many as 7,000 people sang along to Christian music as the service went past 11 p.m. on a Tuesday night downtown.

So it’s likely that The Basement could fill an even bigger venue. The monthly service this month will be held on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at UAB’s Bartow Arena.

Since The Basement has always catered to a student-oriented crowd, it makes sense that it would end up on a college campus. Pitt said Bartow Arena, which seats about 8,500, has also been booked for The Basement’s Dec. 27 service.

“We needed a bigger venue for more people,” Pitt said. “I’m pretty excited about it.”

Bartow Arena could be a permanent home for The Basement, which has been drawing overflow crowds to Church of the Highlands.

“We’ll share hope to more kids now than ever,” Pitt said. “We’re putting on an event that gives hope to all ages. I think this is the start of something that will grow into an outside event in the summer. I’ll always feel pushed to reach more people.”

Having a secular arena as a setting may make it more welcoming to people of all faiths, Pitt said.

“It’s not a church setting, but the concept is to lift up God,” he said. “The message stays the same. Our message is that God loves you no matter what. We’re not perfect, just forgiven. The message is geared to love and hope.”

Although it has been considered a youth service, The Basement has always welcomed parents and people of all ages, Pitt said. “This is a family-oriented event. People are coming of all ages.”

The Basement has also been running a smoothie cafe in Trussville called B-Spot, open 7 to 8:30 p.m. most nights except Wednesday and Sunday in the former Smoothie Joes’ location at 5850 Valley Road.

Growing

The youth service known as The Basement has grown steadily over the past seven years. Pitt started The Basement in the basement of his parents’ Huffman house in 2004. Within a year, there were 100 cars parking on the street for the meetings and then Destiny Life Church in Springville began hosting it.

It outgrew that and moved to LifeChurch in Trussville for a year, drawing attendance of more than 1,000 for weekly meetings.

In January 2007 the weekly service moved to the 6,500-seat Cathedral of the Cross in Center Point. In August 2009, The Basement moved to Church of the Highlands off Interstate 459 at Grants Mill Road, and scaled back from weekly to monthly services as Pitt began to travel as a national speaker at youth conferences.

Pitt, with his rapid-fire, excitable preaching, makes light of his Attention Deficit Disorder.

“I’m an ADD kid trying to reach an ADD generation,” he said.

Even if The Basement doesn’t fill up Bartow Arena, it’s still a dramatic turning point for the ministry, he said. As usual, gospel hip-hop artist Canton Jones and other musical guests will take part in the service.

“It’s going to be high-energy, intense; we’re planning on The Basement to take it up a notch,” Pitt said.

“You never fail trying to make a difference. If one person is changed, it’s a success.”

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — A youth worship service called The Basementbe­gan meeting in a Roebuck basement seven years ago and now draws thousands to its monthly service, which will be held in down­town Birmingham for the first time tonight.

The Basement, founded by Evangelist Matt Pitt in the basement of his family home, will be held at 7 to­night at Boutwell Audito­rium.

“We have an experience — it’s The Basement,” Pitt said. “We try to mix hip-hop to contemporary and techno music, with old clas­sic hymns,” said Pitt, a high­strung, energetic preacher who often takes the stage in shorts and flip-flops. “It’s about people coming to­gether and having one heart, one mission, one pur­pose.”

Gospel hip-hop artist Canton Jones, worship leader at World Changers International Church in At­lanta but also a regular at The Basement, will lead the music.

The Basement will go back to its usual meeting place, The Church of the Highlands in Irondale, on Aug. 30. The crowds in the 3,000-seat sanctuary there have been so large there on the last Tuesday of each month that the service has had to use video feeds to the 1,000-seat youth building and other overflow rooms.

“It’s still amazing, seven years later,” Pitt said. “The Basement is still catching wind. It’s proven to work and change hearts.”

Pitt decided to have one of the highly attended sum­mer sessions at Boutwell for a change of pace, a down­town setting, and a larger seating capacity.

“You want everybody to have the same experience and be in the same room,” Pitt said. “It’ll be a lot bigger facility for one service, and it’s a secular venue, so hopefully we’re going to get a lot of people who might not attend at a church.”

Pitt also expects to get a more racially inclusive crowd at Boutwell.

“We always step over de­nominational and racial barriers,” Pitt said. “I love to see people unite. It would be cool to see people come out and worship. Maybe ev­ery summer we can start building on this.”

Pitt said he may lead the congregation across the street to Linn Park. “I would love to see everybody go out in the street,” Pitt said.

Meet Jason Carner, creator and owner of Blue Torch Fabworks. Jason is a Basement Business Partner as well as an Advisory Board member for Whosoever Ministries. His company, Blue Torch Fab., specializes in building world class off-road vehicles and providing quality custom off-road parts and accessories. They also make do-it-yourself parts for the off-road enthusiast at all levels as well as bolt-on body armor and custom tabs and brackets for suspensions. Blue Torch can fully customize your off road vehicle as well as your daily driver. They also sell wheel and tire packages & apparel.

Jason has created and provided custom parts and vehicles within almost every industry you can imagine including the U.S. Government, National Forestry Association, racing industry, mining industry, and the list continues. His innovative designs have revolutionized the off-road racing industry and put his blue building off 31st Street in downtown Birmingham, AL on the map! He fabricates and distributes parts around the country and across the world.

Jason’s passion for fabrication and the off-road industry is only trumped by his passion to reach people. He was invited to a Basement Business Luncheon, and ever since that day, Jason has jumped on board and taken on many tasks and offered innovative ways to help support and even grow the ministry’s outreach capabilities. An entrepreneur at heart, Jason’s business background has been a huge blessing to the movement, and his heart for people has been even more inspiring. Check out Blue Torch Fabwork’s website and Facebook to catch a peek on his latest projects and to see if he can customize your next ride. Thank you Jason for your heart for outreach and your commitment to the Gospel and The Basement!