Needs exist on every street corner—but put names and a reality show with these needs and you have a worldwide movement to serve others.
Serve the City is a mission that helps connect volunteers with the needs around them. As the project’s Web site (servethecity.eu) states, “Many people doing small things together makes a big difference.”
Carlton Deal, founder of Serve the City, said he felt God opening doors to Brussels, Belgium, where he started Serve the City in 2005. This project has spread to about 50 cities around the world like Cape Town, South Africa; Montevideo, Uruguay; Lexington, Kentucky; Livermore, California; and Amsterdam, Netherlands.
“It’s both a chance for Christians to get involved with social issues to help people around them and for people interested in social issues to get involved and maybe even lead them to faith,” he said.
Deal said Serve the City works to personalize people’s needs, as shown in its motto: We know them by their needs. What if we knew them by name?
“You see people with needs around you: homeless, poor, elderly, disabled,” Deal explained. “People of compassion should have personal interaction with people in need. We should act with compassion towards people. You have the sense that all of us are working together. The city really feels it.”
Serve the City volunteers serve people through sports, arts, food, beauty, social activities, kindness, and practical services. They give haircuts, manicures, take people to the zoo, paint homeless shelters, and work to show God’s love to those around them.
“Jesus enjoyed being around people,” Deal pointed out. “We’re meant to have personal interactions with people in need.”
Deal wants this missions project to grow and expand to major cities so they can promote more connections across cultures and diversities.
“We want to be a blessing, a gift, grace, kindness . . . that is the gospel,” Deal said. “Everyone has needs, and everyone needs to serve. That really exposes them to the gospel.”
Serve the City has done more than bring volunteers and people with needs together—it has given people with different beliefs a reason to work together: Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, and Atheists. It also has started a reality show. Maria Demeshkina Peek, executive producer of Auroris Media, met Deal in Norfolk, Virginia. She considered joining a church-planting team and moving to Brussels with Deal but decided to stay in the US for now to create media to impact others’ lives.
Peek and her husband created a faith-based reality show that highlighted what Serve the City was doing. The show, which runs on the Halogen network, followed volunteers serving people—homeless, orphans, abused children—as a part of Serve the City:
“We want Serve the City to expand so people will serve others, no matter what their background is,” Peek said. “Whether in their own city or by going to Brussels. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old. It’s about making a large impact on the volunteer community.”
The second season of Serve the City is in the developing stages.
“It’s hands on,” Peek said. Peek and Deal encourage people to get involved. “A lot of people want to make a difference, and they aren’t sure where to start. It seems intimidating,” Deal explained. “They think, ‘What difference can I make?’ If you can give an hour, a day, or a week, you can touch the needs of someone and get to know the person behind the need. It gets under your skin. It really reshapes who we are and how we live. We love for people to start this wherever they are,” Deal said with excitement. “Visit Serve the City somewhere and experience it.”
To learn more about this mission or to get involved, visit servethecity.eu.
Lauren Heartsill is a senior majoring in journalism at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa who writes for myMISSIONfulfilled.com.
Carlton Deal, founder of Serve the City, said he felt God opening doors to Brussels, Belgium, where he started Serve the City in 2005. This project has spread to about 50 cities around the world like Cape Town, South Africa; Montevideo, Uruguay; Lexington, Kentucky; Livermore, California; and Amsterdam, Netherlands..jpg)
Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, and Atheists. It also has started a reality show. Maria Demeshkina Peek, executive producer of Auroris Media, met Deal in Norfolk, Virginia. She considered joining a church-planting team and moving to Brussels with Deal but decided to stay in the US for now to create media to impact others’ lives.
“It’s hands on,” Peek said. Peek and Deal encourage people to get involved. “A lot of people want to make a difference, and they aren’t sure where to start. It seems intimidating,” Deal explained. “They think, ‘What difference can I make?’ If you can give an hour, a day, or a week, you can touch the needs of someone and get to know the person behind the need. It gets under your skin. It really reshapes who we are and how we live. We love for people to start this wherever they are,” Deal said with excitement. “Visit Serve the City somewhere and experience it.”
