Around the Ministry
 From
the very beginning, The Navigators has had a heart for the world.
Today, Navigators serve in more than 100 countries. Eleven percent of
our international staff work in restricted areas.One such worker, “Ted,” has worked in a restricted country in Asia for more than 30 years. Ted ministers as an “insider.”  “We develop a close relationship with someone over a long period of time, and share bonding experiences like fishing or camping,” he says. “We get them interested in the source of our abundant lives. And we pray much. Eventually we introduce this friend to some nationals and get them into the Word.” In true Navigator fashion, Ted mentors national leaders. “The goal is to continually train and mentor others so they take the initiative to lead.” Ted and his co-workers need to be very careful about how they relate their identity in this country. Several nationals were jailed recently, given five-year sentences for defaming the major religion. Yet the danger does not deter Ted and others like him. “Local believers are sacrificing greatly to reach their families and neighbors. “Our pilgrimage has been possible because of God’s grace and mercy, not because of our efforts, perseverance, or skill,” Ted adds. “Following God’s leading to take the Gospel to an unreached people group is the most exciting, life-fulfilling adventure one could ever imagine.” |
  I
first learned about The Navigators as a student at Marshall University
in West Virginia. Though I trusted Christ at nine, I had a great deal
of growing to do if I were to effectively make Him known. That’s when
the Lord led a banker named Brad Adkins into my life. Brad lived about an hour away, yet we would meet regularly—studying the Word, seeking to make it a reality in both of our lives. Brad’s heart beat with the same passion God had given to Navigator founder Dawson Trotman years earlier, and it is the heritage Navigators embody today. This passion is reflected in our calling: To advance the Gospel of Jesus and His Kingdom into the nations through spiritual generations of laborers living and discipling among the lost. In this our 75th year, several ministry distinctives Dawson demonstrated and Brad brought home to me are true of Navigators here in the United States and worldwide. Navigators go to a lost world. Dawson Trotman was an evangelist. He was committed to getting the Gospel to those around him; so are we. Navigators disciple our generation. Dawson learned early on in his ministry that follow-up was essential. We remain committed to discipling those we lead to the Lord Jesus. Navigators are committed to spiritual generations. Truly, this has been at the heart of the ministry since the 1940s. It remains as a distinctive today. Navigators go to and into the nations. Dawson asked God to bring children from the ends of the earth. We have not and will not retreat from this calling. Finally, laborers are key to the Navigator calling. Countless men, woman, and youth touched and trained by Navigators have become laborers in the community, at churches, on military bases, and overseas. Without laborers, we cannot accomplish the mission God has given us. As a student at Marshall, there were many directions my life could have gone. Fortunately, the Lord sent one of His laborers to help direct me to a life of ministry. As we look to the future, I’m convinced the Lord will continue to use Navigators to leaven the nations with laborers until His promise in Matthew 24:14 is realized: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” |
 In
the 40 years Eugene Burrell has been with The Navigators, he’s
influenced countless people for Christ. But for Eugene, that’s the
whole idea.“When I met The Navigators in the late sixties, I was already sharing my faith with people,” he says. “But the idea of making my life count for generations, that’s what drew me to join the ministry.”  Eugene and his wife, Diane, have spent much of the last 40 years working at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and have befriended students at nearby Johns Hopkins University and the U.S. Naval Academy. The young people they’ve worked with have gone on to become doctors, lawyers, and military leaders. A young woman who was involved in the Burrells’ ministry is now a judge in Miami. Other students went on to become Navy captains and even an admiral. But it isn’t just the leaders Eugene remembers. “I’ve worked with hundreds of people that God has used in incredible ways,” he says. One man is a Christian rapper who is discipling other young men. “That’s our hope for this present generation, that they would catch the vision of discipling spiritual generations of laborers.” From time to time, someone will call the Burrells just to say thanks. “Those calls make me feel like the apostle John when he said in 3 John 4, ‘I have no greater joy than to see that my children walk in truth.’ ” |
 “I was glad to have a Navigator in the office,” he admits, thinking Roger might be able to lead some of Ken’s co-workers to the Lord. But then Roger asked Ken what he was doing to reach his friends. 
“I told him I was leading by example,” Ken says. “But I had to admit
the truth: Nobody had come to Christ because I was a nice guy.”Ken, Roger, and Pat—another Christian in the office—began praying. Then a few months later, Ken sent out a survey, asking who’d be interested in a Bible discussion group. Several men responded, and they started meeting once a month. “I remember the day one of the guys said, ‘This has been driving me crazy—I just don’t know if I’m a Christian or not!’ I invited him to come to my office and talk, and I led him to Christ.” Ken now hosts a Bible study for new believers in his home. While they address some hard issues, Ken says, “It’s the most fun I’ve ever had.” Today there are a number of home- and office-based discussion groups around Detroit. Ken often accompanies Roger or one of the other Navigators, like Bob Adgate, when they talk to businessmen about starting a group in their offices. “I simply tell them my story,” Ken says. |
  God
wants us to remember: “Remember how the Lord your God led you”
(Deuteronomy 8:2). The Navigators’ 75th anniversary allows us to do
that—to review the lessons of our past and recount the faithfulness of
God.One of the greatest lessons from those early years is that God takes small beginnings and does things beyond our imagining. We as Navigators trace our beginnings to the early 1930s and the prayers of Dawson Trotman in the mountains of California. He prayed for every U.S. state and all the nations of the world. Dawson’s good friend Jim Downing has told me that Daws had no idea what God was going to do through his work with a handful of sailors. Daws was actually trying to encourage two of them, Les Spencer and Gurney Harris, to get out of the Navy and go to the mission field. Daws was not able to see what God was going to do on that ship, that scores of men would come to Christ and spread their influence around the world. This is deeply encouraging as I think about The Navigators today. Our job is to believe God’s promises, work by faith, invest in the lives of the people God gives us, and let God do what He desires through those people in a generational way. Looking by faith to the future, our vision is to keep working until we see workers for the Kingdom next door to everywhere. While we have much to be thankful for, we also have a very long way to go. We’re already in most of the “easy” places of the United States and the world. The challenge is to move into the difficult places, places where Christianity is not welcomed. We are asking ourselves how we can see effective Navigator ministries planted in our communities, like the ones planted on those battleships so many years ago. As we look back and see the way God has led us and the way God’s blessed us, we can have confidence that He will lead us into the future. He will use The Navigators in whatever way He intends to use us, because that’s what He’s done in the past. Like Dawson Trotman, we can’t see what God will do. We can plan, seek to be faithful and seize the opportunities He gives us, but ultimately He’s going to decide how to use us. And it will be far, far greater than what we can envision. And we can envision a lot. |
b2g, or “better together,” helps young adults find authentic community with God and others. Church Discipleship partners with local pastors to develop intentional disciplemaking churches. Collegiate takes the Gospel to college students, discipling them, and helping them reach out to others. Discipling for Development transforms poor communities through whole-life discipleship. Glen Eyrie Conference Center and Eagle Lake Camp provide special events and outdoor adventures for spiritual transformation. International Students befriends the world’s brightest students who have come to the United States to study. Metro plants the Gospel “where we live, work, and play,” among the diverse people of U.S. cities. Military supports and equips military men and women and their families both at home and overseas. NavPress publishes Bibles, books, magazines, and online resources to support the ministry of disciplemaking. Overseas Missions sends and supports American missionaries as they disciple the nations. Prison Discipleship develops resources and trains disciplemakers for the church behind bars. Spectrum takes the Gospel to our country’s ethnic and culturally diverse populations. |
