--Romans 2:4 (NCV)

If you are a regular reader of Serve, that isn't the first time you have read or pondered that scripture.  A key point of emphasis is that it isn't our kindness--it is HIS.  We aren't like the banks of the last generation handing out toasters to get you to join our savings and loan program.  This isn't some perk for attendance.  It isn't a loss leader to get you to come to our store.  The reality is we are incapable of kindness. . .at our best, we might manage being polite to people.   Kindness belongs to God.  We are not bribing people.  We are not creating gimmicks or marketing devices.  We are allowing God's supernatural kindness to flow through us into others.

We are doing Micah 6:8.

Christopher seemed to finally get it, but I wonder how many folks out there are still confused.  Many may know that Ray Comfort used to be uneasy about our approach of kindness before "witnessing" or preaching anything beyond an explanation of God's love in a practical way.  Apparently he has gotten over his objections.  Check out this video from the head of his evangelism teams, Trish Ramos:

In thinking about this, it occurred to me that some church leaders may latch onto this and focus a bit to much on the actual outreach they are doing.  It is easy to fall into the trap that you need the perfect contemporary expression of God's grace to breakthrough to the unchurched world.  It isn't about what you hand people, it is about the power of God's kindness.  Meeting the felt need you have discovered is scratching the itch, it isn't feeding and caring for the dog.  It simply gets you past the bark and the bite.  If some folks want to call this marketing, they need to take it up with Jesus.  He created the model.  Look through the gospels and you will see evidence of this.  He would move from community to community, sense a felt need, meet the need--often in very dramatic and powerful, supernatural ways, and then he would begin to talk about the kingdom with his now attentive audience.  Hmmmm. . .changing water to wine, feeding the thousands with just a few fish and a couple of loaves, raising the dead, healing the sick. . .these were all powerful, immediate demonstrations of grace that ushered great kingdom conversations.

A cold bottle of water on a hot day works too.

We just need to be careful that we don't put so much effort into designing the water bottle and how we are going to distribute them that we forget to focus on God's kindness and demonstrating his love in a powerful, but practical way.

Anything less than this. . .well we might as well be tracing a message in the sand of a beach and hoping it will last beyond high tide.

Ken Glassmeyer is the Editor of Serve! Magazine.  He has been doing SE outreach in the midwest for over twenty years.  Ken is the author of a number of PDF guides available at Kindness Resources including the latest:  "Tactical Kindness." You can contact Kindness Resources LLC for more information on having him come to your church to coach, speak or consult.  To learn more about Ken, visit his site: SERVACITY