June 3, 2024
by Greg Henson, CEO Kairos University; President of Sioux Falls Seminary
A decade ago, Sioux Falls Seminary launched something called the Kairos Project. In one of our earliest blog posts about it in August 2014, we described it as an experiment or research project. At the time, we were unaware of the work God was doing to weave our story together with those of seminaries, churches, denominations, and theological educators around the world.
At the time, we would have no doubt said, “God is moving.” It is when we look back, however, that we can only truly see God’s hand at work. Over the next few weeks, we will reflect on the past ten years of stewarding this renewed vision. We call it a renewed vision because the past ten years are simply the most recent chapter in the story of the good work God has done in and through a community of people committed to developing followers of Jesus who flourish in their vocations for the sake of the world. The story includes a small group of German Baptists in New York, some Wesleyan farmers in Pennsylvania, a group of Quakers in Texas, young Baptist leaders in church basements in Edmonton, and many more. The past ten years have been an exciting ride that fits the image of the Holy Spirit being a wild goose.
We are a community of people committed to following Jesus into the world by the power of the Spirit and to the glory of God the Father. In practice, this means we are constantly discerning what God is doing and how we might join with God in that work. At the same time, however, it is important to take stock of how we are stewarding that with which we have been entrusted. Over the past ten years, we have shared that information through something we call a “stewardship report.” Here’s an example. Given the ten-year span of time comprising this stewardship report, we felt it was important to tell a story.
The past ten years only make sense in light of the work God was doing before that time. As such, we will share a few pieces of background information before jumping into the past ten years. Because Christ unites us with God and with each other, our walk through the past ten years will also include stories from those in our community. As we come to the end of this series, we will take a look at what God might have in store for the future.
Thanks for walking with us as we reflect on the foundation set by those who have gone before us, the good word God continues to do, and the future to which we are being called as a community of people who call Jesus Lord.