A Message from Andrew Kern

When I wrote in November, you replied with grace and generosity. I’m writing today with a heart full of gratitude for how you have stood with the CiRCE Institute through your prayers and love.

I’m also writing to invite you deeper into the heart—the solemn joy—of CiRCE’s vocation. I have a growing sense that grace is near and active in the most earthly details of the ministries we share. I want to express that sense in this twofold invitation.

First, please receive this invitation to enter our joy.

Thanks to you, we are rejoicing in three developments: First, our new model for a school, The Village School, is steadily taking shape: Theophany Academy has been named, one teacher has been hired, we are interviewing for a second, a board is formed, documents are being developed, a project management team is vigorously engaged, and potential locations are being sought out and reviewed, all with two eyes, one for The Village School Program and one for Theophany Academy in particular.

Second, we rejoice in the growth of our new model for teacher development, the CiRCE Apprenticeship, with two new startups launching this fall. The Apprenticeship is our heart, and hearing it beat while enabling our broader focus on teacher development through consulting and conferences that serve both schools and homes, brings us joy.

Third, we rejoice in our new model for curriculum, The Tapestry, our age-integrated literature and language resource. Level one is at the printer! Level 2 is in final editing; Level 3 is nearly completed, and we will initiate Level 4 in April! In addition, our graduate apprenticeship for curriculum development is building a team of well-trained teachers who are developing resources that enable teachers who love teaching to teach the things they love to the students they love.

And of course, by new model, I mean ancient and eternal.

These three areas—Village School, apprenticeships, and curriculum development—are the focus of our strategy. They bring me a sense of completeness for CiRCE, and that sense of completeness has been deeply energizing.

At the same time, please RSVP to this invitation to share in our challenges.

By God’s gracious hand, we are confronted with two such challenges, one that I mentioned in the December letter: our strategic shift toward building a robust curriculum has caused a short-term regression in revenues, one that we are confident will cure itself as the curriculum resources reach the classical community.

The second challenge has not exactly snuck up on us, but it is a challenge nonetheless. Small not-for-profits experience staff turnover. My posture has always been to help people grow and 2 then be ready to follow our Lord’s direction for their lives. In the coming year, we have been informed that we must prepare for that life-altering direction. This is the kind of change that, while challenging in the moment, leaves me grateful for the courage and integrity of our team.

We feel both the blessing and the cost, the cost and the beauty, of these transitions, and we want to enable these moves with gratitude and generosity.

Nevertheless, navigating staff turnover is expensive. The time spent recruiting, interviewing, onboarding, and training new people (and learning how to dance together) is good and necessary work—even joyful—but it is time not spent writing, speaking, attending conferences, spreading the word, developing curriculum, or doing the things that help generate the revenue we must steward faithfully.

Therefore, my call to you:

Will you help us raise $75,000 by June 1? This will do three things quickly and cleanly:

• Accelerate curriculum development, turning revenue positive faster as new resources come online.

• Fund a timely staff transition to maintain our momentum.

• Support a carefully mapped out operational shift to move through this transition stronger and wiser than ever.

As I said in my end-of-year letter, this may be the single most strategic time to stand with CiRCE. We apply every dollar you provide, from $25 to $10,000, to areas that multiply your gifts. Gifts that have helped us reach this joyful moment in which we are watching the birth of a new and ancient model of education in the Village School, a renewing model of teaching through the growing apprenticeship, and a new model for curriculum in The Tapestry. Now I am asking you to participate again in this challenging but promising season to enable this soul-nurturing work to bear everlasting fruit: transforming moments of illumination on the pattern of the temple through deep discipleship.

To participate, you can give securely online at www.circeinstitute.org/donate. Or mail a check to: CiRCE Institute 6125 Lumber Lane Kannapolis, NC 28083.

For larger gifts or to discuss other ways to help (including non-financial roles), feel free to reply to this email or contact me directly at akern@circeinstitute.org.

Thank you for standing with us. Thank you for the joy you’ve sown.

With deep gratitude and hope,

Andrew Kern, President and Founder, CiRCE Institute

PS. If you would like to see the previous letter, which goes into more detail, please visit
https://circeinstitute.org/donation-letter/.