and is described as a local Christian church unaffiliated with a denomination, although it is a member of a church association in the United States, the Alliance for Renewal Churches. SOTEC's pastors and others have described SOTEC as being evangelical in its theology, perspectives, and approach to ministry. The parent church is located as of this date, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Denver, Colorado. In 2006, Bob Whitesel, in preparation to write Inside the Organic Church, described his "first encounter" with the church as seeing a "parking lot was filled with urban youth playing basketball, skateboarding, smoking, or just hanging out. And while I have visited organic churches across North America and England, the congregation assembled here was one of the edgiest. He goes on to describe SOTEC's congregants ("audience") as being the Rather than on the broader of these demographic descriptions, the church, at its founding, indicated concern for specific disenfranchised groups, e.g., skateboarders, goths and others with piercings and tattoos, and punk rockers. In 2007, SOTEC was described by Sean Cronin and Naomi Zeveloff of Westword, who noted that most present at their visit were individuals in their 20s, most with piercings and tattoos, further reiterating the church's draw of the homeless, and of "punks, ravers ... people who might otherwise feel isolated from typical Sunday morning services." These observations were echoed by English observers from The Economist, John Micklethwait and Adrian Woolridge, whose 2009 catalogings included "homeless people, punks, skaters, and ravers" and "bikers, gays and dropouts." The church's pastor, Mike Sares, was quoted by CBSs Lee Cowan and John Kreiser in 2006 as saying that SOTEC had looked "to build a place where folks who didn't fit in other church settings would actually feel welcome"; the CBS report continued that "Scum of the Earth uses many tools to accomplish that goal, including podcasts ... creative writing ... cooking and sewing classes, comic book ... and bible study groups, [and] exhibitions of poetry and art by church members ..." Sares is noted as saying that the message is not new, though the approach is: "It's just church ... It's not nearly as radical as you think it is—I mean there's no moshing during worship." Westwords Cronin and Zeveloff go on to describe SOTEC service content: concluding that SOTEC was "no frills" but "not radical either," "not a free for all, [and] not a fundamental redefinition of