The ROI of AoK (The Return On Investment of Acts of Kindness)

2014 was a big year of community outreach for The Redemption Movement. By doing a church-wide act of Kindness every Sunday, along with other various outreaches like designated driving, welcome-back-to-school week, rock shows, holiday care packages, the Town & Gown Gala, and much more, we directly reached more than 1,000 Oneonta residents with "a small act to show God's big love." With so much of our time, money, and resources put into this AoK ministry (45% of our current church budget), we have a responsibility to ask ourselves, "Is it worth the investment?"

More than 1,000 kindness cards passed out in 2014.

The Return On Kindness 

Businesses have a formula called ROI that helps them determine if an investment is profitable or not. Essentially, companies compare the total cost of their investment to the amount of revenue the investment brought in. If all goes well, the ROI formula will show a profit.

Due to the fact that churches are non-profit, it's difficult to apply this financial ROI formula to church expenditures. Instead, for a church, a more appropriate ROI-type question to ask would be, "Are these investments furthering the goals and mission of the organization?" For our church, these acts of kindness furthers some of our goals, but not all of them.

Goal #1: Church Growth

Like any organization, every church desires to grow and will use much of its resources to meet this goal. For the majority of Christian churches, the goal of growth is spiritualized and made the primary goal of the organization. This is due to the fact that adherents to the faith believe that church growth is directly tied to Jesus' Great Commission. This is true of the mission of The Redemption Movement, and it's one of the defining traits of what it means to be an Evangelical Church.

Therefore, let's first take a look at how much our kindness efforts in 2014 have impacted church growth. Pastors and leaders from other churches who are considering doing acts of kindness for the sole purpose of growing your church, take note.

50 care packages with candy and a $2 bill given to people working on Christmas.

Concerning the 2014 acts of kindness completed by our church, the ROI for church growth is rather dismal. Of the more than 1,000 Oneonta residents reached by acts of kindness (and 1,000 is a conservative estimate, the actual totals for the year include a few hundred more), not one of these people visited our church. Zero, zilch, nada; not one person that we directly showed the love of God to with an AoK in 2014 stepped foot inside of our doors. This includes the dozens and dozens of people that enthusiastically received our kindness and replied, "This is great! This is the nicest thing that anyone has done for me. I'll be sure to visit your church!"

Granted, we weren't trying to use our AoKs as a heavy-handed method to invite people to church, but the conversations often went in the direction of a church invite, and every kindness card we passed out includes our church address, meeting times, website, and contact information. Therefore, I want to communicate to my fellow church leaders that, if you're considering doing acts of kindness for the sole purpose of growing your church, then you will be disappointed with the results (or the lack thereof).

Goal #2: Reputation Improvement

In today's headline-driven culture, people outside the church don't have to look very far to find a story about something rotten a Christian leader has done; or worse, a person may have had something rotten or judgmental happen to them at the hands of someone belonging to a church. Unfortunately, a far-too-common reaction to these negative stories and experiences is for a person to write off all of Christianity as rotten to the core. If somebody who makes such generalizations about Christians only surrounds themselves with others that share their negative worldview, then they will have no reason to believe otherwise about the faith.

Donating 1,200 pounds of concrete mix to our friend Jo for an AoK.

The beauty of reaching out with acts of kindness is that it breaks unexpectedly into a stranger's life and lovingly challenges negative and false generalizations about Christianity. For us, the ROI for kindness concerning improving the reputation of Christ and His followers has been very good. Thanks to all the outreach and kindness that we've shown, our community thinks very highly of our new church, and we've forged positive relationships with several individuals who strongly disagree or may even feel hostile towards the faith.

For The Redemption Movement, improving the reputation of Christianity and the church is a huge goal that we've met through acts of kindness. In fact, we feel that our church is called to sow goodwill and the good news in a community known for having a hardened heart. Therefore, we will continue to do this work of reaching out and loving people in practical ways, knowing that it's a much needed first step towards healing, and that this healing must happen before a person would even think about visiting a church or seriously consider the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Goal #3: Showing the Love of God

Free funnel cake!

Showing God's love with acts of kindness is the primary reason we do them. For us, showing kindness is all about being obedient to God's commands to, "Love our neighbors as we love ourselves."

As Christians, we feel like it's our duty to display God's character to those around us, which means loving others sacrificially. When it comes down to it, continuing to show our neighbors kindness isn't a matter of, "If there's an adequate return on the investment or not;" instead, it's a matter of being obedient to the commands of our Lord. And regarding obedience, one never questions the cost of doing what they're supposed to. After all, Jesus Christ our Savior invested everything he had for the sake of our salvation, which meant being obedient to death on the cross. For Jesus, He didn't get to see the return on His investment until His resurrection. As followers of Christ, we've been given the promise that we will one day see a great harvest (i.e., a reward) on our investments of kindness that we've shown.

In conclusion, instead of calling this ministry "Acts of Kindness, or AoK," perhaps a more accurate description would be IoK, or an "Investment of Kindness." Be on the look out Oneonta for more kindness invested in you for 2015!