If you’ve managed to find this site, there’s a good chance you’ve wondered about it’s name. At the risk of offending my Greek professor by not doing more thorough research, I would like to share with you a brief understanding of the word and why I chose it for this site.
In Greek there are multiple words for time. Chronos is the word for linear, chronological time, the type you count as the second hand moves around the clock or as you turn up a new page on the calendar. Kairos, on the other hand, carries the meaning of an appointed time, or a season; the right time for something to happen.
For the past 4 years I have been working as a Director of Christian Education in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. At different churches the focus of my job has shifted from youth ministry to children’s ministry and then to family ministry. I spend my days finding ways to try and equip families to better experience and connect with God’s grace and love. I love getting to do this, and I hope you will enjoy reading about some of my ideas.
One of my favorite things to do is connect family ministry resources with the church year. Starting with Advent (in late November to early December) and running for approximately a calendar year the liturgical church follows a flow of seasons, similar to fall, winter, spring, and summer, but with the purpose of walking through the whole story of God’s salvation. While these seasons pass through chronos time they are also rich with kairos time – opportunities for us to experience and learn something special about God’s story in connection with our daily lives. In Advent we learn to wait for Christ’s coming. In Lent we mourn our need of Christ’s sacrifice. In Easter we celebrate his triumph. When we keep these seasons, our logical understanding of Christ’s story has an opportunity to be lived out and experienced. When we keep kairos, we orient our lives around Christ’s story for our lives.
So what is keeping kairos? It is a way to connect with the church year, the historic way to measure a year oriented around our need for Christ, his coming, death, and resurrection.