Living Well Church in Rotorua, New Zealand,  believes that campaigns are useful for focus and for raising energy and excitement. There are also wins for body life from doing things together and watching God move! 

This year, inspired by Steve Sjogren’s book Conspiracy of Kindness, pastor Andrew Parrington decided they would invent their own campaign, rather than take something ‘off the shelf’. He put together message material based on the precepts in the book, then presented the congregation with a list of 30 ideas that could be done by individuals, by small groups and by ministry teams. He also encouraged them to come up with their own ideas and to start praying daily for divine appointments, God-ordained opportunities to serve someone. 

The name they came up with for the campaign was “KISS’d”. The word is a well-known acronym for ‘Keep It Simple Stupid’, and they really did want to make it so simple that anyone could do it! The church gave the acronym new meaning – ‘Kindness in Simple Service’. 

“KISS also speaks of love,” explains Andrew. “We’re talking about deeds of love, underpinned by a message of love.” 

The campaign ran for the month of August, culminating in Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Day on 1 September. “What is good about a month-long campaign is that you get a few more cracks at it,” says Andrew. “We are trying to create a shift in the hearts and thinking of our people, and to do that you need more than a one-off event.” 

One of the things his church did over the four weeks of the KISS campaign was to feed parking meters in the city. Those fortunate shoppers who were spared a parking fine received a little card on their windscreen telling them that they’d been KISS’d as an expression of God’s love to them. 

The church also challenged each of their ministry areas to become involved. 

Kids’ Church baked gingerbread men over two Sundays. The first Sunday they baked them, the following Sundaythey decorated and bagged them. Then the kids went down to the supermarket to give away gingerbread men and offer to return trundlers to the trundler park for shoppers as a way of serving. “It’s amazing how possessive people are of their trundlers!” laughs Andrew. “That part didn’t go so well, but it was a lesson learned and everyone loved the gingerbread men!” 

The church’s youth ministry came up with an event they called The Big Kiss, based on Oprah Winfrey’s The Big Give. Three teams of young people competed to get done as many jobs as possible within the three-hour time limit. The jobs ranged from housewashing to gardening to cleaning ovens and taking stuff to the tip. 

Andrew has a vision for the church remaining in outreach mode over the summer. “We tend to wind down over the summer, but we can wind down to the point of not doing anything.” He is thinking of doing once-a-month Saturday events, such a free car wash, or a free oil change for solo mums. “If we’re meeting a real need for folk out there, we can find people of goodwill in the community to come out and help us do this.What a wonderful opportunity to build relationships with volunteers from the community who already care about some of the things that Jesus cares about!” 

If the stories that come out of the KISS’d campaign prove that it was of benefit in the life of the church, Andrew would like to see the concept go city-wide with a number of churches working together. 

“As the churches of Rotorua we are looking for opportunities to work together. We have always thought that unity was established around joint services, but perhaps we could establish an even more dynamic unity around serving together? This stuff is easy to organize, and different churches could pick up on ideas that they are gifted for. I think the concept has real potential for bringing us together as churches to bless and serve our city.” 

We speak about the role of the media in all of this. Andrew thinks that, on balance, media coverage is a good thing. “Clearly we do not want to blow our own trumpet and say ‘hey, look at us.’ But the advantage of the campaign being known about is that it creates safety in a fearful world. When people have heard about something they are less suspicious and more accepting and we look less like weirdos!” 

“At the end of the day, we are just motivating people to do what they naturally want to do because they’ve got Jesus inside of them. They just need opportunity and encouragement.”