About
Why did we choose the name Kairos Collective?
Kairos (KYE - ros) is considered “God time”. We live our lives according to “chronos” time in seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, decades. In different parts of our lives, time feels like it flows at different speeds. Then there are moments in our life when it feel like the Kingdom is breaking in. Moments when the world seems to be flowing differently because life seems to be aligned, where we deeply feel the presence of the Spirit at work…moments that feel justice is happening, where people’s lives are thriving, when we experience great joy. Sadly, those moments are fleeting. And throughout scripture, people speak of those moments as more than just moments…a time of jubilee, shalom, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. We hold up Kairos, “God time”, as a reality which we want to pay attention for, to be attuned to, and to follow Jesus in a way that lives into those moments.
Collective strikes us as an intentional, disciplined form of community. We seek to be more than just a random group of individuals with overlapping sets of interests. We want to live lives which challenge the dominant trends in our culture at this moment. Doing that will not occur by happenstance. We seek to build a community which is multi-racial and LGBTQ+ affirming. This is hard work of slow, intentional building of trust. We aspire to live out the beautiful lyric, “we get to carry each other” in lives full of disappointment, pain and suffering, as well as joy, love and laughter. We want to build a community which enters into intentional community as a gift and a privilege to share our lives together.
Our Mission:
Kairos Collective is re-imagining worshiping communities so people can lead God-centered lives in beloved community grounded in rich, intentionally diverse relationships, acts of justice and mercy, and deep contemplation.
Our Vision for Greater Milwaukee:
Grounded in our core practices of contemplation, relationships and just action, Kairos Collective strives to live out Jesus’ command to love God with our heart, mind, and soul and to love our neighbors as ourselves, with an understanding that everything else depends on this. By doing this, we seek to build a multi-racial, LGBTQIA+ affirming community which lives this call out through our daily actions, individually or collectively, quietly or loudly, depending on the context of each moment in pursuit of greater Milwaukee as Beloved Community.
Our Team
Mark Fraley is the organizing pastor for the Kairos Collective.
Mark began his career as a third grade teacher in Baton Rouge in the early 1990s. He spent the majority of his career in community organizing. He served as the founding organizer for Common Ground in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Action In Montgomery (Maryland). He has also coached organizers in Connecticut, California, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin.
After work in organizing and education, Mark felt a call to build a new different type of worshiping community. He graduated from McCormick Theological Seminary in 2021.
Married to Leigh Anne Fraley since 1995, they moved to Wisconsin in 2005 and have raised three kids here. Mark has a deep curiosity with a passion for learning. He loves to read history, theology, music, sports and has a growing love of fiction. He runs daily and is an avid soccer fan.
The Kairos Collective leadership team consists of volunteers from within our community. Abby Schumwinger, Dan Grandone, Dan Sidner, and Amar Peterman have generously offered to serve in this capacity as Kairos launches.