Kairos Academy Pathfinders is committed to helping parents in congregations everywhere provide their children with an excellent education that is profoundly Christian in nature. What does that mean, really?
Great Christian education is built upon and around relationship with Christ. To use a food analogy, if a Christian education–or discipleship–is the carrot cake, then Jesus is the carrot. Like the carrot in carrot cake, Jesus is the essential ingredient that makes a Christian education Christian. But, His presence may be subtle at times, as shredded carrot is in a cake. Without the carrot, you just have cake. Without a relationship with Jesus that suffuses the whole experience, you just have education.
A relationship with Jesus is not built on a formula, though there are surely patterns of behavior that are helpful in building any healthy relationship. It is not built on a set of rules, though there are certainly choices that are more likely than others to draw a person closer to God and make that individual more like Jesus. It is not built on doctrine, though there are definitely core beliefs that are a necessary part of the Christian faith. But, if it is not built on a formula, on a set of rules, or on doctrine, what makes a relationship with Christ? In a word: Love.
God first loved us. Those who choose to receive His love are adopted into His family as sons and daughters. Inasmuch as we learn to receive that love, we are able to give it away. God's sons and daughters are formed by God – heart, soul, mind, and strength.
A profoundly Christian education is built upon a firm foundation of sonship, nothing more and nothing less. As we choose to live as His beloved sons and daughters we learn what it is to live a rich and fulfilling life. Such an education builds the whole person: heart, soul, mind, and strength. When all of these elements are built together, the resulting person is balanced and ready for whatever life brings. When one of these elements is emphasized to the neglect of the others, the resulting person is imbalanced and ill-prepared for life in the Kingdom–or for Kingdom life in this world.
When He says “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength,” Jesus is calling us to a way of life in which our whole selves are fully engaged in our identity as the Father’s children. The old man is dead. The new man is a new creation. The old woman has been buried in baptism. The new woman walks boldly with her Savior in His Kingdom.
At Kairos Academy Pathfinders we understand that parent-led education isn’t merely academic in nature. True discipleship of children involves their learning to use their whole selves (heart, soul, mind, and strength) for God’s glory. Intentionally showing young people what it means to live better in Christ is powerful. Those who know from experience what it is to see God change their lives are far more likely to walk with Him all the time and to stand firm in Him even when life gets ridiculously hard. Thus, we seek to make genuine discipleship the context in which academic education takes place. We are committed to supporting church leaders and parents in providing the tools for their children to experience such discipleship throughout childhood and beyond. We’re confident that in such a context children will excel far beyond today’s expectations, not only academically, but in every aspect of life.