October / November 2015 - Vol. 82
Audacity On Mission
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by Michael Shaughnessy

“When they had prayed, the place in which they
were gathered together was shaken and
they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and spoke the word of God
with boldness”
– Acts 4:31

In the Book of Acts chapter 4 it says that the early Christians spoke the Word of God with boldness. The word boldness in Latin is audacia, from which we get the word audacity. Something audacious pushes the boundary. Indeed, the early Christians were persecuted for the audacity of their claims. They challenged the status quo and some were martyred because of it.

Kairos, the Sword of the Spirit related missionary network of students and post university aged people, is called to audacity, to be challenging. Some of what we must do should be offensive. Like the Gospel we should offend the "world, the flesh, and the devil."
Paul and Timothy proclaim gospel message

Kairos should also be offensive in the other sense of the word. Like the "sword of the Spirit" which the Apostle Paul talks about in Ephesians 6:17, it is meant to be a spiritual weapon of attack. We are commissioned to go, not to wait until others come looking.

As a ministry to youth, Kairos engages young people in mission from the beginning. They grow in faith when they engage in mission. They also overcome peer fear in the same way.

We must help youth to be bold, and not just bold, but audacious. We don’t want people just to say, “what
boldness!” We want them to say, “what audacity!”

Audacity has an appeal to youth. It carries a sense of cockiness, chutzpah, and nerve. Like daring, audacity has an impatience that is characteristic of youth. It seeks the adventure and it is energized by risk.

In future articles with this title, Kairos will highlight initiatives taken by audacious young men and women who are making a difference now.

Audacity on Mission

In the Spring of 2014 two young men from East Lansing, Michigan USA, John Michael Adelman and Stephen Giles, were at the YES retreat. James Munk, the Kairos Program Director, gave a talk that called those present not to wait until they were older to engage in mission.

When they returned home a Christian friend at East Lansing High School proposed that they
consider doing something together. They met with a couple of other Christian friends in their basement where they decided to do a bible study at their school and call themselves “The Christian Student Union” (CSU).

They had no real plan. They just invited other students they knew. They were surprised when
thirty came. Since then, they have had as many as fifty students at the bible study. They have also sponsored other school-based and off-campus activities.

Some of the CSU students have become involved in the Work of Christ community’s youth group and will be taking over leadership of the CSU this autumn.

John Michael, Stephen, and several others from CSU have graduated and are joining University Christian Outreach (UCO) at different nearby universities.
> See related articles and reflections on Kairos in this issue:
You can also get in touch with the Kairos regions:
Michael Shaughnessy Michael Shaughnessy is the Kairos director for the Sword of the Spirit both in North America and Internationally. He is the editor of the Kairos Youth Culture Newsletter.

Kairos is an international federation of outreaches to high school, university and post university aged people.
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