Editor's Note: This story originally appeared in the 2025 Beeson magazine.
Ryan Martin, MDiv ’15, is a current second-year PhD student at Samford University's Beeson Divinity School and previously taught New Testament exegesis at a university in the Democratic Republic of Congo. While there, the university’s languages professor left, leaving Martin as the only person there to teach Greek. While hesitant at first, Martin realized he loved it and taught both at the university and in a missionary training center in a nearby city. When he came back home, and the world simultaneously shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Martin began offering similar classes online and began calling the business Kairos Greek.
Kairos—a Greek word that means time, in an intentional sense—took off with students joining via Facebook invitations.
“It just seemed like a very strange, but meaningful time to start an online school,” Martin said. “The Lord’s good timing is what brought this about and continues to direct it.”
As Martin continued working, Jesse Budraitis, a mutual friend, connected him to Courtney Trotter, MDiv ’17, who in July 2021 launched the Hebrew side of Kairos as Martin’s co-founder. At that time, they changed its name to Kairos Classroom, and Budraitis joined too, handling the business side of things.
A few years later, about 300 students have come through Kairos, which averages between 50 and 100 students at a time.
Each class is capped at six students, with offerings in Hebrew, Greek, exegesis and “Koine Comeback,” intended for seminary graduates or others who have taken biblical languages but forgotten them. Hebrew and Greek classes are intended for beginners, to help those who have never taken the biblical languages.
“Most of our students are laypeople,” Martin said. “We’re not a seminary competitor. Most of our students are people in the pews who just want to learn Greek or Hebrew for their own Bible study.”
Many attendees teach Sunday School or are lay leaders in the church. “It’s a very interdenominational context,” Martin said. “Our students come from a lot of different places. They care about the Bible and want to understand it better. There’s no such thing as a stupid question. We see a really vulnerable and open side of people. They get to know each other and their teachers.”
Trotter said the size of the classes is intentionally small to foster the kind of community they both encountered at Beeson.
“When you learn the languages in community, and you have a teacher that’s cheering you on, it makes you more receptive,” Trotter said. “You start making connections that you don’t see in other places.”
Martin and Trotter both said they've learned from their students' insights and perspectives. Trotter has learned from students coming from an ecclesial context, which helps those coming from an academic background.
Martin and Trotter, with the help of fellow PhD student Taylor Brazil, developed their own Greek textbook for students. The textbook brings the newest information on the language to students and integrates with Kairos lessons. While it is currently self-published, they hope to work with a publisher later this year.
Kairos also offers primer courses for Beeson students about to begin Greek or Hebrew classes.
“It’s incredible to give back to Beeson,” Martin said. “So much of who we are as people is, I think, a trajectory that we started at Beeson. So much of our church tradition, the way we think about things, our values, were formed by this place. To get to step in and really help people with a real need really does feel good.”
For more information, visit kairosclassroom.com.