August 19, 2024
by Greg Henson, CEO Kairos University; President of Sioux Falls Seminary
Over the past ten years, as we have sought to discern the leading of the Holy Spirit, Kairos has grown from a disconnected set of legacy partners to a new kind of university. With offices in the United States and Canada, students and partner organizations on six continents, and one of the largest systems of accredited competency-based theological education, the school has become a global community of Christ followers. That wasn’t always the case, however. In 2014, the legacy partners of Kairos had not yet begun to work together. In fact, most of them were not even aware of the others and no one could have imagined what God had in store.
That begs the question, how did a disparate group of schools from very different theological traditions find their way to each other? And, how did that union lead to a university? Today, as we wrap up a reflection on the past ten years of stewardship at Kairos University, we are going to reflect on our transformation from a group of standalone seminaries to a first-of-its-kind university.
In 2014, the five legacy partners of Kairos University were not connected in any formal way. While Sioux Falls Seminary and Taylor Seminary were both connected to the North American Baptist Conference, they did not have a formal relationship and did not collaborate in any significant way. The other legacy partners, Houston Graduate School of Theology (HGST), Evangelical Theological Seminary (ETS), and Biblical Life Institute (BLI), were all busy at work trying to live into their respective institutional missions.
When Sioux Falls Seminary launched the Kairos Project in 2014, it began working with Taylor Seminary almost immediately, and in 2015, the schools launched a formal partnership. Over the next five years, Taylor and Sioux Falls were joined by HGST, ETS, and BLI. With the advent of a community of legacy partners, the schools began to think carefully about their collective work. Over that time, the Kairos Project had become the primary way in which students and partners chose to work with Sioux Falls Seminary and Taylor Seminary. That quickly became the case for HGST, ETS, and BLI, as well.
While the partnership between the five legacy partners was a wonderful example of what it looks like when schools lay down their institutional pride in favor of God’s mission, it also created an opportunity to imagine a new way forward, one that required an integrated approach to stewardship. As we noted a few weeks ago, an integrated approach to stewardship invites us to consider everything in terms of stewardship. While financial resources or physical assets are something we steward, they are far from the only things we should think about as stewards of God’s abundant blessings.
By 2019, this community of legacy partners had an array of opportunities in front of them. To recap, we had been blessed with a community of legacy partners, most of whom offered only graduate degrees in theological fields. Our global partners were having trouble justifying a seminary degree in their country but loved the Kairos Project. In North America, a growing number of partners were asking for undergraduate degrees that embraced the educational philosophy of the Kairos Project. And, while the collaboration among legacy partners was noteworthy, it was hard to describe.
In response to these opportunities and in light of everything we had been entrusted to steward, we stepped boldly into the future by opening an undergraduate program, expanding research doctoral degrees, creating programs for Christians in the marketplace, and launching Kairos University. Once again, God produced wonderful fruit through these efforts.
Today, we have transformed into a global university serving students across the entire educational spectrum. More importantly, given our status as a university, our students in countries outside of North America have no trouble enrolling in our programs or receiving local recognition of their work. By stewarding opportunities, relationships, and resources, we have seen God do “more than we could ask or imagine.”
Ten years ago, it would have been unlikely for anyone to imagine where God would take us. We are grateful for what we have learned over this period of time and, more importantly, for the ways in which God has moved, and continues to move, in the lives of those we have the privilege to serve.