A transformational journey of discipleship focused on helping you develop vocational excellence in your current or desired context – all on your time and from wherever you are.
This context-based program provides the opportunity for students to engage in real-time projects and situational learning while developing personal resources. You’ll have the opportunity to work with a mentor team to craft a program of study that helps develop expertise in leadership that’s relevant to your specific vocation.
This new program is currently being offered as a pilot. Enrollment is limited.
By inviting Kairos to walk with you on this journey, you are taking hold of a unique opportunity to deepen your faith while simultaneously developing the knowledge to flourish in your vocation. We do this helping you develop a mentor team that walks with you throughout the entire program. Then, we invite you to integrate discipleship, vocational excellence, and proficiency learning.
The Master of Arts is 48 credit hours and consists of the following outcome-level courses:
Areas of focus: journey preparation, mentor team development
Areas of focus: personal formation and development, holistic development and the function of spirituality in the process
Areas of focus: aiding formation and development in others, acquiring personal integrative, management, and critical thinking skills and how to develop those in others
Areas of focus: vocation-specific collaborative leadership practices, self-awareness and emotional-relational intelligence, organizational systems, strategy development
Areas of focus: cultural perspectives, worldview, personal identity in vocation and in the world, understanding traditions and culture
Areas of focus: ethnohermeneutics, project research, project/thesis, practicing leadership in context, cross-cultural immersion
Areas of focus: high-level integration, diversity of perspectives, empathetic listening
Areas of focus: Christian discipleship, walking with fellow Christians, vocational resilience
Areas of focus: program reflection, building a community of support, and lifelong learning preparation
Mentors commit themselves to the student’s full educational process. Beyond evaluators and supporters, mentors commit themselves to being co-learners with students. Such effort takes a considerable investment of time and energy and they make this commitment in order to steward your journey of discipleship and to help you flourish in your vocation.
Faculty mentors are approved members of the Kairos faculty. Obviously, all faculty mentors are acquainted with academic standards and scholarly research. More importantly, they are skilled integrationists who have a desire to help students deepen their faith and flourish in their chosen vocations. Kairos assigns a faculty mentor to serve on each team.
Vocational mentors are aware of and often active in the student’s current context and/or role. In most cases, this means that vocational mentors are supervisors, leaders, experienced colleagues, or others familiar with or connected to the context and its requirements. Students are empowered to identify and invite the vocational mentor who will serve on their team.
Personal mentors are confidants or individuals from whom students wish to learn. They must have, or be willing to develop, a close relationship with the student. The personal mentor is able to provide spiritual companionship because he or she is rooted in faith and understands the Christian life. Students are empowered to identify and invite the personal mentor who will serve on their team.
While engaged in this program, you will walk with a mentor team through the following:
With a focus on leadership and the development of personal resources, the Master of Arts in Leadership invites you to develop and demonstrate proficiency in its nine integrated outcomes: Starting Well, Holistic Well-Being, Developmental Leadership, Collaborative Leadership, Culture and Context, Contextual Project, Reflection in Community I, Mentored Life, and Continuing Well. If you find yourself wondering, “What is an outcome?” then read our blog post about it here.
Learning experiences in Kairos are built around an invitation for you to explore some aspect of your vocation, Christian thought and practice, or the human experience. You have the opportunity to progress through these learning experiences in the way that is most helpful to you in your context and vocation. You also have the opportunity to work with faculty members to create entirely new or customized learning experiences that help you develop vocational excellence and expertise. Learn more about customized learning here.
As part of your Master of Arts program, you will complete a contextual project in which you integrate your learning, theology, and practice. In some cases, students complete a research-oriented thesis in preparation for future doctoral work while in other cases, students complete a project related to their vocational context after conducting research on that context. You will work with your mentor team to customize or concentrate in any area of interest. This means you can dive deep into missional theology, systems design and thinking, pastoral care, Clinical Pastoral Education, biblical languages, spiritual formation and direction, chaplaincy, finances, strategic leadership and much more. The choice is yours!
Throughout the program, you have the opportunity to work with your mentor team to design learning experiences that are entirely shaped by what you are doing (or will do) in your current or desired vocational context. Are you planting a church? Building a youth ministry program? Developing curriculum? Then use that in your program! Are you managing finances? Writing code? Building homes? Developing software? Leading teams? Then use that in your program! If an experience or project is connected to what it means to flourish in your vocation, then use it to make progress in your program!
We’d love to help you discern if this is the next best step for you. Start a conversation with us today or check out our “Discerning Your Calling” step-by-step guide.
Ready to move forward? Here are a few things you’ll need to get started (more details in the catalog).