The Kairos

Multiple words in the Greek language can translate to the English word for time. One of these words is kairos. Kairos is not the use of time that implies a sequential or chronological order. It is a moment in time, or an opportunity. A time when everything changes because you were in the right time at the right place hearing the right message with the right people. Mike Breen says:

“A kairos moment is when the eternal God breaks into your circumstances with an event that gathers some loose ends of your life and knots them together in his hands.”

Here are three key elements of kairos moments:

• They can be positive or negative.
• They can be identified by the impact they leave on you.
• They provide opportunities for growth.

A Biblical Kairos

The prophet Elijah wanted to hear from God, so he went and stood on a mountain. First, there was a crazy wind so strong it broke rocks into pieces. But it was not God speaking. Then, there was an earthquake. An earthquake! Still not God. After the earthquake was a fire. No God there. And finally, there was a whisper. It was in the whisper Elijah heard God speak (read here). Many times, when God is speaking, I’m just not listening. I tend to expect God to speak in some loud, audible earthquake or fire, like I’m on some sort of spiritual high. But, I forget that God can speak in a still whisper.

Responding to a Kairos

The greatest kairos of my life was when God said, “Go to Asheville and plant a church.” It was so simple and quiet, but so very clear. It was so clear, I wondered if God had ever spoken to me before. I wasn’t in an emotional experience at the altar. I wasn’t at youth camp or revival. I was reading alone in silence. This kairos moment has impacted my life forever. However, it wasn’t enough to just have a kairos moment. I had to do something about it.

There are two questions I like to keep in mind when dealing with a kairos: 1) What is God saying? and 2) What are you going to do about it? The truth is, we can experience a kairos moment and learn nothing because we do nothing about it. We must respond. Here’s how:

What is God saying?

Observe. When God speaks, we need to need to just simply observe what He is saying. I typically do this by writing it down so I don’t forget what He said or  exactly how, when, and where He said it.

Reflect. Next, we need to reflect on our observations. Ask questions. How did I react? Why? What brought up these emotions? Is my selfish nature opposing what God is saying? If we want to be used and changed by God, we need to be honest with ourselves.

Discuss. Life wasn’t meant to be lived alone, and a kairos isn’t meant to be kept to ourselves. We have to bring others we trust into the process. If your kairos is a sin issue, it is critical to have others who can discuss and reflect with you, but not flatter you. If it’s a life-altering revelation from God, you need to have others confirm and affirm.

What are you going to do about it?

Plan. After observing the issues, reflecting on why it happened, asking ourselves why we reacted the way we did, and discussing it with someone else, we must move to a plan, asking ourselves, “What are you going to do about it?”

Account. A plan is useless unless you have someone hold you accountable for it. Mike Breen says, “We cannot skip accountability and still say we are disciples of Christ. It is that simple. Being afraid to share with someone else because you think your thoughts or feelings are too private will keep you from growing and changing.”

Act. “A plan is made and a relationship of accountability established, the natural reaction is for action to take place. Faith always comes to the surface and always produces action. It cannot be contained. Thoughts and intents that are held within and not acted upon are not faith, no matter what we like to say. (“My faith is personal” is a favorite. But that is a self-contradicting statement. Faith is always acted out, never kept bottled up within.)” (Breen).

Final Thought

If there is one thing I’m willing to fight, it’s Christian apathy. If we have been given the greatest gift in history (salvation), how can we not respond? Even if God never spoke again, the statement He made with the cross is enough. By God’s grace, He is still speaking. We just have to respond. So, what is God saying to you?

*Another option is to skip this blog altogether and read Building a Discipling Culture by Mike Breen from 3DM.

I’ve believed Jesus Christ was the Son of God who paid for the sins of mankind since I was 7 years old, which means I’ve been a Christian for 20 years. Looking back on those two decades, I’ve realized I spent very little time actually following Jesus. While I revered Him as God and spent most of my days around people who had similar beliefs, I was never motivated to actually follow Him.

It wasn’t until my sophomore year of college that I began to realize this. My life had gradually become very church-centric. I was so involved in church that I just assumed I was actually following Jesus. But something was missing. So, I decided to go straight to the source and see for myself what following Jesus actually looked like. As I began studying the gospels, I saw that following Jesus was so much different than what I had been experiencing. And this is what I realized: To follow Jesus is to know Him. My problem was that I didn’t know Him; I only knew about Him.

Apparently, many Christians in the western world have had similar experiences and have had to figure out discipleship on their own. In his book, Building a Discipling Culture, Mike Breen puts it like this:

“We have become so acculturated in our Cartesian, Western world that we believe knowing about something and knowing something are the same thing. What we have managed to do is teach people about God. Teach them about prayer. Teach them about mission. The point isn’t that they would just know about it but to know it.

We don’t want to just know about God; we want to know God. In the same way that we don’t want to collect random facts and nuances about our spouses, we want to know them through and through…

Discipleship isn’t a random assortment of facts and propositions and behaviors, discipleship is something that is you to the core and is completely incarnated in you. If it is information, it is information that has worked its way into you and is now part of you…”

Over the past year, I’ve had the privilege of being a part of a discipleship network called 3DM. They are built around the idea that it’s Jesus’ job to build his church (which he promised to do), but our job is to make disciples. When we started Grassroots, we wanted to make sure the people God places in our care don’t just know about Him, but truly know Him. Discipleship should not be a compartment of our ministry, or simply a core value on a plaque somewhere. It must be at the center of every single thing we do.

In the next few weeks, I’d like to share with you some invaluable tools I’ve learned from 3DM that have completely re-shaped my view of discipleship and caused me to re-think what it really means to follow Jesus. Check back next week for Part 2 of Following Jesus.

*Another option is to skip this blog altogether and read Building a Discipling Culture by Mike Breen from 3DM. It will change your life.