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Many of us have experienced it: the unexpected blessing when someone ahead of you in the drive-thru pays for your coffee or an unknown benefactor covers the cost of your restaurant meal.
Unexpected blessings. Random acts of kindness.
Since 1995, the U.S. has celebrated a national Random Acts of Kindness Day on Feb. 17. Today, churches are finding that acts of kindness need not be random at all, but rather, intentional acts to share the love of Christ.
Austin Cooper, outreach and connection pastor of Greenwood Baptist Church in Weatherford, has been leading kindness outreaches at the church for 15 years, even before he came on staff in June 2011.
As a college student, Cooper felt the call to ministry, but not as a youth worker, music minister, or lead pastor. A member of Greenwood since 2000, Cooper recognized the “outward-focused DNA” of the church and began small initiatives to reach the community through kindness in 2010.
“Simple acts of kindness show God’s love in practical ways … and lead to gospel conversations,” Cooper said.
The church started with small outreaches like dollar car washes. “People came in and we washed their car for free. Then we gave them a dollar,” Cooper said. “We told them that God’s grace is free but must be accepted like you are accepting this dollar. There are no strings attached.”
The kindness outreaches were a pretty big hit with the church right off the bat, Cooper said. Within a year, the church voted to call Cooper on staff.
Greenwood has found plenty of ways to show the kindness of Christ to its community. Raking leaves. Washing the windows of businesses. Handing out cold sodas at traffic lights. Giving away bottles of bubbles at the park. Even cleaning toilets at gas stations. Greenwood members have served Jesus by serving others, always making their purpose of sharing Christ known.
“We believe in getting churches outside the four walls,” Cooper said. Pastors and leaders of other churches heard about the kindness outreaches and asked for help in starting their own kindness ministries. Cooper developed materials and, with Greenwood members, offered training.
“We just started training churches as much as we could whenever we could,” Cooper said. “We trained churches in Weatherford, Tennessee, Florida, Louisiana, even New York City.”
“We learned some of the philosophy for outreach to care for people: how to serve them rather than getting them to serve you. It’s an outward focus to bless them, rather than getting them to bless you through attendance.”
Kindness as a tool
Around 2019, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention approached Cooper to assist in training church planters in kindness outreach ministry. When COVID hit, in-person visits shifted to online video training.
“COVID helped people understand that if they don’t reach out, they die as a church. Outreach became foremost in people’s minds,” Cooper said.
Today, Cooper offers a four-week Kindness Cohort training via a series of 45-minute video calls. He provides written materials to cohort participants, including suggestions for kindness outreach events. To date, pastors and leaders from more than 450 churches have been through the training.
Greenwood has seen significant growth as well, with 450 baptized over the past two years.
“We have seen fruit,” Cooper said. “This type of outreach can get your people excited about outward focused things.”
Bracken Arnhart, founding planter of Hope Church in Robinson, near Waco, said the Kindness Cohort training has been helpful in starting a new congregation. Hope Church launched formally in December 2023, and Arnhart participated in the Kindness Cohort training in early 2024.
“We learned some of the philosophy for outreach to care for people: how to serve them rather than getting them to serve you,” Arnhart said. “It’s an outward focus to bless them, rather than getting them to bless you through attendance.”
Hope Church, which averages 70 in attendance, has seen steady growth. Among the kindness outreaches its members have conducted are distributing flowers to moms with kids at the park on Mother’s Day and going door-to-door to bless dads with a candy bar and a card for Father’s Day.
“We have dropped off donuts at local businesses,” Arnhart said. Hope members also distributed solar glasses during the last eclipse, handed out animal balloons at Robinson’s National Night Out, and sponsored a student lunch at the local community college.
On Feb. 22, Hope members spent a Saturday at Robinson’s only coffee shop handing out gospel cards and greetings along with free cups of coffee to customers.
Some beneficiaries have visited the church, but that’s not the only purpose.
“We’re new here. We are building a rapport with the community, so the community knows we are here to serve them and we are here to stay,” Arnhart said.
Kindness as a bridge
Kindness outreaches at Sweet Fellowship Church in Yantis, north of Tyler in East Texas, began early on since its founding in November 2021 as a result of livestreamed sermons preached by Pastor Perry Crisp during COVID.
Once pandemic restrictions eased, Crisp found enough online followers to begin Sweet Fellowship on Lake Fork, where the resort community was ready for in-person contact.
The congregation, which today numbers around 120, first met in parks and a vacant church building practically gifted to them and which they have recently outgrown. They hope to build on 13 acres they bought.
Crisp participated in a Kindness Cohort in spring 2022 and was immediately drawn to the concept.
“I was fascinated by it. Starting a new church, you find bridges to the community. You have to find a way to have conversations with people,” he said. Kindness outreaches provided opportunities.
“In our East Texas culture, kindness is one of the last bridges we have left to enter into gospel conversations,” Crisp said, explaining that most East Texans—raised in a heavily churched culture—claim they are Christians already.
“We are able to almost shock people with kindness. It gets them off their usual pattern of conversation and makes people more willing to listen. You are not asking anything of them. You are giving something to them.”
“If that were the case, our churches would be full,” Crisp said, adding that Cooper’s counsel to “show God’s love in a practical way” resonates with people.
“We are able to almost shock people with kindness,” Crisp said. “It gets them off their usual pattern of conversation and makes people more willing to listen. You are not asking anything of them. You are giving something to them.”
Kindness outreaches have become one of the primary ways Sweet Fellowship does evangelism, Crisp said, adding that outreaches occur about once a month. They sometimes happen even on Sunday mornings during church time, which he said is a good time to reach the unchurched at home.
Sweet Fellowship kindness outreaches have included giving away bubbles at the park, Valentine’s cards with small chocolate candies attached in neighborhoods, flowers at the senior citizens center, and toys at Christmas.
“We go wherever we can find people,” Crisp said. Since the church is located at a lake community, they set up tailgate stations with cold water and soft drinks at boat launches, even offering to assist fishermen in getting their boats into the water. The helpful gestures ignite conversations.
“We want to show you God’s love in a practical way,” Crisp said. “It’s a soft pitch right over the plate so you can take a gospel swing.”
