Transition 3 – Kairos!
I’ve have spent much of the last several years researching congregational vitality, partnering with congregations and their leaders all over the country to ask what makes healthy congregations tick. The results have been fascinating…and encouraging. Part of what I’ve discovered is that every congregation has the capacity to flourish when provided the right support, guidance, and leadership.
This work has shaped my teaching tremendously, turning upside down some of the things I thought I knew and stretching me in all kinds of ways I would not have imagined even five years ago. It’s also strongly influenced my writing, both on and outside this blog, and has dramatically shaped the teaching and presenting I do across the church.
Lately, though, I’ve been wanting to engage congregations more directly with what I’ve been learning. Toward that end I’m pleased to announce that my third transition is to begin working with Kairos & Associates. Kairos is a consulting firm that helps congregations develop their stewardship potential and to raise resources for capital and mission campaigns. Their motto – Inspiring Generosity, Fulfilling Purpose – very much captures their mission, as they don’t only help congregations raise funds for important goals, they also help them clarify and strengthen their mission and purpose along the way.
As you know by my writing on this blog, I think that our relationship to, and use of, money is incredibly important, especially living in a culture that challenges us with 5000 images a day that suggest that true happiness and the abundant life come only from buying more things. I’m eager to learn from and with the great folks at Kairos about how to help congregations offer a strong and clear voice that articulates God’s promise that abundant life comes instead from recognizing and sharing blessing.
Kairos is also expanding its work in the coming months to include services that help congregations and their leaders think strategically and creatively about how to better tell their story, organize their efforts, and lean into God’s preferred future with greater vitality, capacity, and wisdom. This new Kairos venture is very exciting to me and I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it and will look forward to sharing more details about it as it unfolds.
In so many ways, this feels like a natural extension of the teaching and research I’ve been doing in recent years and I look forward to continuing to learn and grow in order to support Christian congregations in their efforts to respond to God’s calling to share the good news in word in and deed.
We have our first meeting with them this coming Monday night- their vision wasn’t just for a campaign, it was for a continual movement in the direction we feel God is calling us to go. We are psyched to work with them, and I’m doubly psyched to see that they will have such a powerful resource and fellow worker in you, DJL! Cheers 🙂
Hi David,
Good choice. Have had the pleasure of working with them on three ‘campaigns” since 2000. Very professional and certainly good value for the fees they charge. Clarifying mission is their forte and what makes them truly special.
Dr. Lose:
I have been thinking and praying about the teachers of preaching in ELCA seminaries when we began in 2000–and how many of us have been called to new ministries. I wonder if there is something our church might learn from this…
You are always in my prayers as i thank God I count you as my friend. Think of a way for me to get you to Michigan.
A humble bishop