Tuesday, September 17, 2019
The Kairos Story
The Kairos Course was developed in the Philippines in the early '90's to help equip the Filipino church engage the least-reached ethnic groups in their country. Until then, the growing church in the Philippines had been mostly focused on same-culture ministry, even though the Philippines is home to 200 distinct people groups of which over 30 were least-reached.1 The Kairos Course quickly found acceptance in the Philippines, and today all of the least-reached groups in that country have active efforts in them to introduce Jesus Christ's redemptive work in a culturally appropriate way. 2
News of this course began to spread, quite organically and unintentionally, to other countries, and eventually strategies and systems were introduced to help the course move into new regions more readily. Today the Kairos Course is active in over 80 countries and is offered in close to 30 languages!
Canadian Momentum
The first Kairos Course in Canada was held in Langley, BC in 2010. That small start led to the launch of Kairos in Canada in late 2012 when the second class was held. From 30 alumni on January 1, 2013, today there are over 3000 graduates across Canada! The Kairos Course is available coast-to-coast, and in seven languages—English, French, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, Vietnamese and Spanish. (Watch for Arabic and Farsi soon!)
Globalization has brought really big changes to our Canadian context.
In the past, a group of people who had never heard of Jesus might be found in remote or difficult places around the globe; but now those same people are making their home in our neighbourhoods. In the midst of all this change God is working in powerful and unprecedented ways, and he's inviting us to work with him.
Today more than ever, church leaders need to think like missionaries, and churches need to overcome cultural barriers to love their neighbours. Kairos offers a compass to navigate this new reality of cross-cultural mission in our own backyards.
What is Kairos?
At its foundation, Kairos is a discipleship course. It is a tool God is using to help transform the worldview of believers, so they see themselves as having been blessed in order to be a blessing. As participants journey through the material they are invited to consider who they are, where they are, and how God has uniquely qualified them to join Him in His redemptive work—starting right where they are.
Kairos impacts at a heart level by combining video teachings with hands-on activities, devotions and prayers. Between sessions participants invest in reading short selections from a wide variety of authors, reflecting on the material, and then processing what it means for their life in facilitated small group discussions. Kairos provides an environment for interaction and reflection, challenging participants toward tangible, ongoing action steps.
Kairos covers four areas of God's mission. Sessions 1 through 3 look at the overarching theme of scripture, tracing God's redemptive mission from Genesis to the end of the age. Session 4 looks at the history of the mission of God from the end of the book of Acts until now. Sessions 5 through 8 cover the cultural and strategic aspects of God's mission in today's world. The last session focuses on integrating all that has been considered so participants leave with more clarify on next steps and a good start on a plan of action.
Join the Story
The Bible is a book about God on mission and God has invited us, his people, to join him. We believe God's amazing mission will impact our changing neighbourhoods through ordinary people faithfully finding ways to share the love of Jesus right where they are. We are invited to write new pages into God's story as we reach out to some of the hardest to reach people who God has brought near.
Find a Kairos Course near you, and join the momentum! You can find out more information at https://outreach.ca/ministries/kairos.
1All people group statistics are from Joshua Project www.joshuaproject.net
2 https://simplymobilizing.com/our-history/
