ARE:A Renewal Enterprise

Kelly Fryer

Kelly Fryer (M.Div., MTh) is a teacher, author, and motivational speaker with nearly twenty years of experience leading organizations into renewal. Kelly is a member of the faculty at Spertus College in Chicago, IL, where she teaches leadership and organization in the Nonprofit Management Graduate Program; she has also taught on the faculty of Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN. Kelly is the Executive Director of ARE. She is a member of The Author’s Guild, The National Federation of Press Women, and The National Speaker’s Association.

“I’m a talker,” Kelly says. “And I’m at my best when I’m talking in front of a large audience. That’s what I love. But along the way I discovered people need to do more than just listen if they’re going to learn. They need to have a chance to talk, too. They need to interact with each other. They need to participate. That’s why I never just talk ‘at’ an audience, anymore. I engage them.”

Actually, Kelly has been some interesting places “along the way.” A graduate of Valparaiso University’s honor college, with a concentration in Economics, Kelly has been a camp counselor, a high school Spanish teacher, a group home parent, an environmental activist, a telemarketer, a bank teller, and a muffin-baking entrepreneur - and all that before the age of 25! For over a decade, she served as the pastor of a congregation in the Chicago exurbs. When she arrived in 1992, this congregation was on the verge of closing. The membership had dwindled to about 90 people, there wasn’t enough money to pay the bills, and it had been so long since they had made a loan payment that they were about to lose their building. One of the first things Kelly did was to bring a young designer, with exceptional leadership gifts, onto her staff. Together, Kelly and Tana led this struggling congregation into new life. By 2002, the membership had grown by 500% and the congregation was operating in the black; they had purchased a fifteen acre site and built a new 11,000 square foot community center. They also had started up three successful nonprofit operations including a book store, a preschool, and a counseling center. “

Many of the things I’ve learned about leadership have come from the mistakes I’ve made,” Kelly readily admits. “Everything else has come from the people I’ve had the privilege of working alongside of. And one of the things I’ve learned is that it doesn’t matter if you’re the CEO of a Fortune 100 company, the owner of a small business, the president of a hospital, a school principle, a rabbi, or the manager of a fast food restaurant: Great leaders know how to leverage the Power of Purpose, the Power of Participation, and the Power of Play.”

A natural teacher, Kelly has been using the things she has learned “along the way” to motivate, train, and equip other leaders through not only the work of ARE, but also as a member of the faculty at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN, and now as a teacher in the Nonprofit Management graduate program at Spertus College. She is a dynamic story-teller and humorist who has written several books and produced a variety of resources that are being used by leaders across the U.S. and Canada.

Find Out How We Can Help You

At ARE, we have nearly twenty years of experience helping people imagine, ignite, and implement renewal in their lives and in their organizations. You can count on us to deliver personalized service and tailor made programs. We work with organizations of all types and all sizes, offering a variety of services including:

Organizational Consulting (learn more...)

Executive Leadership Coaching (learn more...)

Teambuilding & Renewal Events (learn more...)

Keynote Speaking (learn more...)

Learn A Little Of Our History

ARE: A Renewal Enterprise was co-founded by Kelly Fryer and Tana Kjos, who were on similar paths before teaming up in 1993.

Fryer graduated with a concentration in Economics from the honors college at Valparaiso University and held a variety of ground level jobs after graduation; she has worked in banking, telemarketing, door to door sales; and, for a time, ran her own muffin baking business. In 1989 she earned the first of her masters’ degrees from the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Kjos has a degree in business and design from Harrington Institute of Interior Design and did a stint working in the corporate world, where she managed six million feet of commercial and retail space. Kjos earned a masters’ degree in leadership in 2005.

The two met shortly after Fryer was hired to lead a congregation in the Chicago exurbs. At the time, this congregation was on the verge of closing. Kjos joined the staff about a year later. From 1993-2003 the Fryer-Kjos team led the congregation through redevelopment and renewal. Membership increased 500% under their leadership; the congregation relocated and built a new 11,000 square foot community center; and three new nonprofit organizations were started – a book store, a preschool, and a community counseling center.

This experience taught the pair of lot. One organizational guru is known to say that managing a volunteer organization is “the purest form of management.” Indeed, Fryer and Kjos learned:

How to motivate people – even when they’re not getting paid!
How to get people working together – even without a “boss” in the room
How to identify and unleash the creativity, talent, and passion people have – even when resources are scarce and they’re not used to taking risks
What’s more, they saw the really positive effect it can have on people’s lives when they feel like they are part of a healthy and purposeful organization.

But they also learned some other things: They saw the “personal” side of people’s lives, the side most “bosses” never see. And they saw the terrible impact that “work” can have on people, their families & friends, and their communities. They saw the stress, the exhaustion, and the depression that result when people spend their work lives in unhealthy organizations disconnected from the bottom line, disinterested in the future of their company, and disengaged from their coworkers. Furthermore, they learned that unhealthy organizations exist everywhere – on Wall Street, on Main Street, even on Church Street.

Fryer and Kjos formed A.R.E. in 2003 to help organizations of all types and all sizes build a culture of commitment, collaboration, and creativity for the sake of building a better world. It just so happens that a culture of commitment, collaboration, and creativity can also improve your organization’s bottom line…no matter what that bottom line happens to be. Fryer also teaches these principles to other leaders at Spertus College in Chicago, Illinois, where she is an adjunct member of the faculty, teaching in the Nonprofit Management Graduate program; previously, she taught on the faculty of Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.