“And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” – 1 Corinthians 13:13 (NIV).
In The Greatest of These, director Nick Nanton documents the story of one of Georgia’s most amazing Christian organizations, City of Refuge.
Greg Washington, known on the streets of Atlanta as “G the Drug Dealer,” wasn’t going to stop running. A chase for drug trafficking ended when his car crashed, and he was stitched back together by what could only be called a miracle. He survived, but he still walked into a 20-year prison sentence. That’s where Pastor Bruce Deel came to find him — not to judge, but to ask a simple question: what’s next? The Greatest of These is built around that question. In a city where growing up in poverty leaves a person with roughly a four-percent chance of ever climbing out of it, the film zeroes in on what happens when a community stops trying to lock its problems away and simply loves them instead.
The story of City of Refuge traces back to a dying church in Stone Mountain, Georgia, where Bruce Deel was assigned (more destined to be) and expected to let the congregation fade out quietly, but God had other plans. The first person who walked through his doors wasn’t a longtime member — it was a woman working as a prostitute who needed somewhere safe to land. He helped her, and word traveled. Others who were hurting began showing up, and the church became a magnet for the needy. His wife, Rhonda, launched a ministry for new mothers, and the building filled with laughter while the neighborhood just outside it stayed dangerous. Cars got broken into. Gunshots weren’t unusual. But Bruce and his team kept packaging meals and handing them out on street corners, every week, no matter what came.
“The first person who walked through his doors wasn’t a longtime member — it was a woman working as a prostitute who needed somewhere safe to land.”
One of their hardest cases was a man named Rufus, who was violent and broadly disliked, the kind of person most of the neighborhood avoided on sight. A woman he had once harassed came back with a gun pointed right at Rufus. Rufus only survived because Pastor Deel stepped in. He returned to the ministry after that, and over time, he became a different person entirely. Every white preacher who had ever come through before moved on and never came back — Bruce was the one who stayed. When it came time to grow, he set his sights on eight acres of land with an asking price of $1.6 million. He had nothing. Rejection followed rejection. And then, without much of an explanation, the owner handed it over.
With the world spinning out of control today, it’s hard to believe there are small glimmers of hope like City of Refuge. Filmmaker Nanton’s documentary is littered with stories of men and women willing to put their lives — and money — on the line to help someone in need without any expectation of a certain outcome.
Their entire ministry is built on “the greatest of these,” which is love. A love that accepts a person and shows compassion for them, regardless of where they are in life. No matter how far down the hole you are, there is a hand to pull you out, whether it is by God himself or through City of Refuge.
If I didn’t know better, there seems to be some force out there that wants you living in fear and despair. There is something out there for you, like City of Refuge. For some reason, looking for that help feels so far out of reach. There have to be two dozen or more stories in The Greatest of These that scream there are still good people out in the world, and they want to help.
Nick Nanton’s The Greatest of These is a timely reminder that the antidote to a world drowning in bad news isn’t a policy or a program — it’s a person willing to show up and love somebody. See this film.
"…it's a person willing to show up and love somebody."
