As we said in the previous "What’s in a Name?" post (Kairos), each word in our name (Kairos Academy Pathfinders) was chosen intentionally, and we deliberately chose three words because a cord of three strands is not easily broken. Our whole name is more than the sum of its parts, but to understand the whole we must first explore the parts. In this post, we will explore the significance of the second word in our name: Academy.
Our Middle Name: Academy
An academy is a community that is pursuing education together. Education is the process whereby people are led from the darkness into the light. True Christian education involves the formation of disciples of Christ–people of the light. On the large scale, Kairos Academy Pathfinders is an educational community. At the local level, Kairos Academy Pathfinders is committed to building such communities in church congregations throughout Christ's Church. These communities are purposeful; their members work together to draw nearer, both corporately and individually, to Jesus Christ: The Way, the Truth, and the Life.
In Kairos Academy Pathfinders, an Academy will be a community in which Christian leaders work with parents under the Christian authority of a local church congregation to provide parent-led, discipling education to children. Each local group associated with Kairos Academy Pathfinders will be an Academy that is named for their Charter Congregation. (Thus, for instance, if a church called “The River” was to charter an Academy, their group would be called “The River Academy.”) Each local Academy will form a part of the broader Kairos Academy.
Academic training, as spoken of in modern America, is but a tiny fraction of the education we will help to provide through Academies. We understand that true education, discipleship in Christ, is a journey with a profound goal: to unlock the potential in each parent and child to live out the command to “Love the Lord Your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” At KAP we are partnering with churches to build the Academies that each congregation will need to equip parents to meet the needs of their children so that parents and children alike may learn to find their paths with Jesus–becoming Pathfinders. Come join the adventure.