This is the first in a series of posts from different perspectives on the role of religious communities in cities.
Evangelicals are coming back to the city, both figuratively and literally. The big change, as they are heralding it, is that they are now focusing their energy and new ministries on America’s urban centers. Some have even moved out of the suburbs and into areas of the city where they would not have imagined themselves living just a few years ago. They have come to the city, and people have noticed. A striking example of this occured when the Luis Palau Association began sponsoring a “Season of Service” in Portland, Oregon, a few years ago, garnering positive attention from a city famous for its secularism and progressive outlook. As USA Today columnist Tom Krattenmaker reported, churches were:
fanning out across the Portland area to feed and clothe the homeless, provide free medical and dental services, fix up local public schools, and support their low-income students with supplies, mentoring and other resources. All this with "no strings attached," [as the organizer Kevin] Palau emphasizes, meaning the service comes without the proselytizing that is often associated with Christian missionary outreach.
Krattenmaker’s piece also points out that this led to unusual coalitions, thrusting "the area's evangelicals into partnership with Sam Adams, who [the previous year had become] the first openly gay candidate elected mayor of a major American city.”
The Season of Service (now called CityServe Portland) was so well-received in Portland that the model has been replicated in Anchorage, Houston, Little Rock, Phoenix, Sacramento, and San Diego; within several evangelical denominations; and even in the State of New Jersey, where the Christie administration has called on citizens to volunteer “through local groups, houses of worship and civic organizations,” calling it a "season of service."
