July 22, 2024
by Greg Henson, CEO Kairos University; President of Sioux Falls Seminary
In part four of this series when we reflected on the past 10 years of stewardship at Kairos University, we described the nuanced meaning of the phrase “affordable, accessible, relevant, and faithful.” One of the common themes in the descriptions of those words was “time.” Those of us engaged in the work of theological education tend to underestimate the role that time plays in the lives of the students we serve.
For his book, Students First, Paul LeBlanc interviewed me to learn more about Kairos. The book features several case studies of schools that have thought differently about the role of time in education. Kairos University is one of those case studies. LeBlanc suggests that time is a privilege, and people have varying degrees of it based on their context, stage of life, economic realities, and general life circumstances. In addition to the fact that all of us have different amounts of time to invest in the various activities we pursue, mounds of research reveal that time is often a terrible means by which to measure learning or formation. Time is both a poor means for designing educational pathways and an unevenly distributed resource. Despite those realities, the world of education has used time, specifically chronological time, as the primary means by which educational pathways are structured, learning is assessed, and students are required to engage in degree programs.
In 2014, we launched an experiment called the Kairos Project in an attempt to shift the focus of theological education away from chronological time and toward moments in time (i.e., Kairos time in Greek) that naturally encourage integrated learning. We embraced a philosophy of education that we now call competency-based theological education. We found new ways to meet students where they are and walk with them to where God is calling them to be. To make this work well, we needed to develop alternative ways for students to pay for tuition and for us to evaluate the learning and formation of students.
For tuition, we pioneered a subscription payment model wherein students pay only $300 per month. At the time, this represented a 76% decrease in the price students paid for a Master of Divinity program. Ten years later, that price remains the same, effectively lowering tuition over that time as a result. By using a subscription model, the pace of learning was driven by the student, not the academic calendar. The model also invited the school to reconsider some of the assumptions it made about how a school should operate. By challenging some of those assumptions we were able to dramatically lower our costs, which is another key tenet of affordable theological education.
For the evaluation of student learning, we embraced the concept of mentored teamwork. Now serving as one of six principles of competency-based theological education, mentored teamwork provides an innovative way for the school to assess student learning and formation. It creates the atmosphere for what we call trustworthy assessment. In this approach, each student is accompanied by a team of mentors as she or he progresses through their journey with Kairos. Not only does this enhance the potential for deeper learning and formation, it reinforces the reality that this is a journey of discipleship because discipleship is something that must happen in community.
With the advent of CBTE, the integration of mentored teamwork, and a revolutionary approach to financial operations, Kairos University was able to integrate educational and operational stewardship. We began to have a more holistic understanding of stewardship that encompassed everything we do from teaching and learning to strategy and financial management. By God’s grace, we have seen this approach produce amazing fruit over the past ten years. Here is a glimpse of what we have seen.
Over the past ten years, we’ve taken an integrated approach to stewardship that leveraged an innovative educational philosophy and a revolutionary financial model. Over that time, we have seen God do great things in and through Kairos University. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this is that we have had the privilege of doing so with a multitude of partner organizations. Let’s talk a bit about that next week.