In this episode, Chad interviews Keith and Karen about their motivations, resources, and calling when they endeavored to start the institute.
Intro (Keith): Welcome to the Kanakuk Institute podcast, where we continue to equip leaders with biblical skills for a lifetime of ministry.
Chad: Well, hello! I am so excited to be with y’all today. My name is Chad Hampsch, and we are in studio for the very first time of the Kanakuk Institute podcast. The day has finally come. I’m in studio today with Keith and Karen Chancey, the founders of the Kanakuk Institute, and really the visionaries behind not only the institute, but the podcast as well. Hello Keith and Karen, glad to have you guys in studio.
Keith: Great to be here today Chad.
Chad: So we are going to talk this morning, just a little bit, about how the Kanakuk Institute started and really move forward towards why now to begin a podcast after 20 years of the Kanakuk Institute. So, Keith, I’ll start with you. You know, the vision for the Kanakuk Institute obviously just didn’t happen overnight. Would love for you and Karen to just enlighten us, why did the institute and where did the dream come from to start the institute?
Keith: You know, it’s so great that you asked that question, because, so many people ask, they say, “How did you start this thing?”, and, you know, and “how have you just… where did it come from?” And I have to say it’s a result of prayer. That, you know, Karen and I had been a part of ministry. We’d done K-life together, we’d gone on staff with Denton Bible Church, and we worked at Kanakuk Camp for so many years, and what we continued to see is about, you know, between a thousand to 2500 staff of Kanakuk staff come through Kanakuk every year. A lot of people in the church at Denton Bible Church, a lot of kids in K-life. And we saw all these denominations, didn’t matter what it was, but there was so many denominations coming with one thing: How do I fit into this world, and how do I make Jesus known? And so, we began to say, “You know what, How are we gonna do that?” And you know, we just said, “If there was a place, where is the greatest place in the planet that we could come; a pond that so-called we could fish out of. That we could begin to train up the next generation of leaders that could change our world.” And so here we came. We came to Branson. We asked Joe White of Kanakuk camp, one of my heroes of my faith and said, “Joe can we start this?” And he said, “you know what? Do it!” And we began to do this and we said, “You know what? We want to equip the next generation with biblical skills for a lifetime of ministry.” And over the last, Chad over the last 20 years, we’ve had over 1200 students come through here. And our goal with every one of them is that they could go into the world and have a biblical knowledge, an understanding of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. To be able to handle accurately the Word of truth. To be able to entrust into others that would also be faithful to, in turn, entrust into others also. But most importantly, our goal was to make disciples. And a disciple knows how to do that. They know, the reason they get with someone else is to take them the Word of God, teach them how to interpret correctly, in context, the Word of God, that they’ll more effectively make a difference in our world. So, that’s kind of how it started, and there’s a lot more to that, but that’s kind of a general deal there.
Chad: Yeah, that’s so good. Karen, you have done ministry now for 30 plus years. What convinced you that the Institute was a need, and how did you guys know that the timing was right?
Karen: That’s a great question. So, I’m gonna back up just a hair, and say that I was one of those Kanakuk Staff members that was hungry for the Word of God. And I was looking for a place to be adequately equipped and trained, because I knew I wanted to do ministry for life, and that led me to a really great seminary. Keith and I both graduated from Dallas seminary, and it was an amazing place, but we also realized, most of the people are not going to be able to go to seminary and they’re gonna have ministries all over, in marketplace, in education, in medical field. And so, we were like, “Ok how can we take those skills and apply it for the regular student that we were coming out of Kanakuk?” And so your question of “How did we know that was something we were called to do?” It came out of a hunger for, I think, both of us. And we looked at the need, and we thought, “This is… this may be impossible.” But with the Lord, right?, all things are possible. So, we started praying and asking for doors to open and finally left our beloved church in Texas and took a step of faith, and I will say, it was a huge step of faith for me. And, believing God was in it, trusting my husband. And, he’s a visionary, and knowing that those visions have to have feet put on them… It was a lot. You know. But there were people that came alongside that said, “I believe in what God’s called you to do, and I want to be a part, and I want to make sure you have a salary as you go.” But as you know, when you start anything, it’s not easy.
Chad: Yeah, that’s really good. Keith, you had seen… you know, you’d been involved in several ministries throughout the year. Had you seen anything like the institute, or where did you get the pieces, the models, that you and Karen decided to kind of start emulating as you pushed forward to develop the curriculum and the idea of the Kanakuk Institute.
Keith: You know that’s a great question. And, being a part of Kanakuk, we knew that… you know, we’d seen the excitement, the energy. I guess you’d call it the phoagnum (???) . Fired up and going nuts every minute lifestyle. But you can only be fired up and going nuts for only so long and then it runs out. And so we, you know, being at Denton Bible Church, and being with K-life, we knew what the end goal was: We’ve got to help others be discipled. And what true discipleship is, is exactly what Matthew 28:19-20 says, it’s the equipping. It’s really, not just going without aim, but it’s going there for to make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and teaching them always to observe all that was written. And lo, I am with you always even til the end of the earth, that God would be with you always. That this is not as good as it gets. Heaven’s what awaits, and that we want to equip as many people as we can, like Karen said, of the marketplace: doctors, lawyers, teachers, coaches. No matter what field you go into, we have got to do that. We saw that at Denton Bible Church some. Tommy gave me the privilege of really investing in those guys there. But the pond that we really saw that needed to be fished out of was right here in Branson, where 25-20 thousand campers were coming to Branson to be a part of. We said, “If we can get in there, and we can begin to impact these guys and these girls, we can change our culture.” And so, had we seen that? Somewhat. But, we just said, “Let’s just take something we’ve seen and make it even more than we ever dreamed imaginable, because it’s God’s thing.” And that’s what dreams are. They’re bigger than you. They’re God-centered. And so, thanks for asking that question, that’s a good one.
Chad: Yeah that’s good. Karen, had you seen any kind of model or specific examples or even pieces, whether it had been in seminary or in other places that you and Keith and landed that you went, “I know we need to do this,” or “Here are some things that we need to do to really maximize and to build upon the experiences you guys had.”
Karen: We saw some discipleship models, and I think that’s one of the reasons that we were really hungry for truth. We had hoped that there would be a little bit, maybe a lot more, of Biblical training. And that’s what really led me to seminary, was, I didn’t see it modelled. I know that Focus on the Family did a really great job with the Focus Institute, and they had some aspects of worldview that we wanted to capitalize on. And so, we really felt like we took, you know, little pieces from several places to incorporate what we wanted the outcome of the institute to look like.
Chad: That’s good. That’s good. So Keith, I know as you and Karen were dreaming and praying, you were going to God’s word as kind of a source, and I think I remember early on you sharing with me a couple of key passages. I think one you probably already shared. But was there anything else that was just kind of an anchor for you guys that you went, “We don’t know exactly what we’re doing, but we do know, you know, we’re going to do this.”
Keith: You know, when I was in seminary I got this plaque one time, and it’s 2 Timothy 2:2, and it says, “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” And I think that word right there was so good for me, because, I didn’t just want for myself to be excited. In fact, what I recognized quickly, is that me doing it all by myself was no good. But to take everybody in the world and see them as important. To find their gifts, their talents, and whatever their calling is in life, and to equip them with the Bible and to send them out. If we could do that with the local mechanic, the local bull rider, the local, you know, electrician. And then, whatever your gift was, if we could get them excited to go out and make a difference for Christ, we will… it will be a win-win deal. And so, those, you know, just understand it, “entrust to other faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” When I took my eyes off of what I thought a Christian looked like, and started seeing for what Christ said it was. Man, it was unbelievable that everybody became important. Everybody’s value began to be esteemed, and I began to go, “Wow God, thank you for everybody’s hurt and everybody’s pain! We want to help them come to a point of confession, of forsaking their sin, and true repentance. And when we watched people really come to Christ, and they really had a desire, they had a desire for the next step of God’s Word. And boy, that was so fun to see. Is that, and that, so when Karen and I are down in Denton, and we began to go, “This is what we want to do.” And I told my wife, “Hey, let’s sell our house, let’s move to Branson.” She thought I had gone nuts. OK? And so the next part of that was crazy because it wasn’t easy. You know, and I know you guys understand this. Raising funds and bringing a vision to life was not easy. Because it cost us. You know, my kids were young. We moved up here to a fishing house that was a two-bedroom house, and Chad, you were one of my tenants. You know? You and.. You lived in one of the rooms with Chris Lovacheck (???) and you weren’t married yet, and it was right there at the time of 9/11. We’ve got one room that y’all live in and the other room that my two kids and Karen and I lived in. And my kids thought it was the greatest thing ever because we had mattresses all over the floor. And my kids are bouncing off the wall. And they’ll never ever think of anything other than that was the greatest time in their life. Because, you see, they were a part of a dream. Before we came, the number one thing that we did is we asked our kids, “Can we go there? Would y’all be a part of this dream? We’re gonna up your roots. Cameron, you’re not going to graduate from Denton, you’re not going to be a football player there, but you’re going to be a Branson pirate.” And you know what, he and Callie both said, “You know what? Let’s go.” And Karen said, “Let’s go.” And coming here, it was unbelievable. We got here and we go, we knew the vision, the purpose that God called use here for, but we had no money. And all of a sudden now I’m a fundraiser. It’s no longer polishing a vision, but now it’s putting feet on the ground that’s going to ask people for money, and that was not easy, but you know what? As always, God showed up. Oh man, I cannot tell you how exciting it is today, every dollar that was given. I had this one lady that was giving 10 dollars a month and you’d have thought that I won the lottery, because every dollar that was given was the greatest blessing ever given to the institute. And it still is today! I love to be able to pray over those people that give to this ministry because they believe in what we’re doing. We’re sending out leaders into the world that are going to change our world. And we’re truly doing it because of what God has told us to go do. We’ve got to equip.
Chad: Keith, that’s so good, and I’ll just close our time here with maybe one more question for y’all and you can pick who goes first. But it seems like one of the challenges in that particular passage says that not only will people be able to teach, but to teach others to teach also. And really, that seems like the heartbeat of the institute. It’s not simply to have a bunch of teachers come in and share information, but that the students could actually take the information, apply it to their own life personally and then go out into the world. What have been the biggest challenges in not just the transfer of information, but actually the transformation of hearts? What has been maybe two or three of the biggest hurtles that y’all have faced in that regard?
Karen: I’ll just say that we try to impart to our students that we don’t want smarter sinners. We want lives that are transformed by the Word of God. And we truly believe when they dive deep and understand who God is in His Word, that their life is just going to be radically changed. And not only that, we do equip them to study exegetically and to be able to teach, and to teach the word, but to know the full story to be able to teach it, and teach it to others well. And so that’s really the joy of my heart, because I am a teacher, and when I get to watch students have an excitement for God’s word and have the joy of discovery in inductive bible study, that they want to go teach others with enthusiasm. I go, “Wow, I get paid to do this? Thank you Lord!”
Keith: I don’t know, Chad, if I’ve ever been more excited in my life of watching what we’ve sent out, that there’s ministries all over the planet that have been started as a result of them coming here. That truly that they gained an understanding of God’s word. That they took it for themselves, that they weren’t just told to learn something, but they were helped to learn scripture and how to apply it to their life, and then, how to give it to others also. And so, within that, I just can’t tell you how excited I am to see what God has done, and to know that I’ve got friends that are missionaries, doctors, lawyers, coaches, teachers, all around the planet that are truly making a difference for Christ, because they learned. They learned here. They weren’t just told this information. They were made to apply it to their own life. They had to a transformational look within their heart, that that only comes through the redemption of God through his blood, and their life was changed, that it was no longer them who lived, but it was Christ who lived through them. And as a result of what only God could have done, they now are being led by the Spirit to go, therefore, and do exactly what we did here wherever they live. And that’s been the joy of watching them replicate what we’re doing, and that what we’re doing is not something that everybody shouldn’t be doing. So, I am excited about it. And so thankful for the privilege. And, you know, I just want to ask Karen one more think. Karen, was it easy for you to come up here and follow me? Cause you go, “Your husband is kind of a crazy person, and you know he just likes to go.” How did you feel during that first little bit of coming up here?
Karen: Well, real quickly, I will say that I’ve never experienced anxiety before, but those three years were difficult, really, really difficult. And I had to check myself of, “Wow, I believe in this vision.” My husband was so great to stay the course, and, you know, I kept wondering, “Maybe we should go home. Our house hasn’t sold for 3 years, maybe we should go back to Texas.” And, you know, he was faithful to the calling, and I’m so grateful that he was because now I sit back and go, “Lord, look what you’ve done.” And it is nothing short of miraculous.
Chad: And that’s such a great reminder, Karen, of when God calls us to a place, it’s not always a place of comfort, but he is going to carry out his purposes. A great segue for use to really remind, you know, our alumni, that God has called you to a purpose, and that verse, 2 Timothy 2:2 that we’ve capitalized on today doesn’t just go away because you left the institute, but now you may be listening to this and you’ve been out for 5, 10, 15, 20 years and the call still is for you to teach others so they may be able to teach others also. So, what an encouragement from God’s word today. We will be coming to you live once a week, sharing a little bit from God’s word, hearing from our teachers, obviously Keith and Karen being in here all the time with us, and we are excited after 20 years to be able to deliver to you continuing education, continuing the vision that we started when you were here at the Kanakuk Institute and that is to equip you as a leader with biblical skills for a lifetime of ministry, so we’ll look forward again to our time together next week. Thanks so much.