Inside Story - The Navigators

The Travelin’ Man

Serving God “right where you are”

By Rebecca K. Grosenbach

Lloyd Lassiter’s job as a computer consultant keeps him on the road for weeks at a time, yet he’s still found a way to be involved in Navigator work. In so doing he’s living proof that Navigator ministry can happen anywhere—it doesn’t require buildings or stadiums; it’s person-to-person, life-on-life.

Lloyd serves as a consultant to The Navigators
Military Mission in the area of ethnic diversity.

Lloyd first met up with The Navigators in the Air Force in the 1970s. He gave his life to Christ and learned about evangelism and discipleship. For a time in the late ’80s, he and his wife, Gloria, were on staff with The Navigators Military Mission. He continues to serve Military as a special consultant in the area of ethnic diversity.

“Throughout the different phases of my life I’ve been able to contextualize the principles instilled in me through The Navigators,” Lloyd says. “What I mean by that is there is no one way to make disciples. When Jesus spoke to fishermen, He talked their talk and walked with them. But then when He talked to the tax collectors, He did something different.”

It wasn’t enough for Lloyd and Gloria to lead a couples Bible study in their Atlanta home; Lloyd just had to find a way to be involved in ministry while he was on the road.

“I prayed about it,” he says. “God said, ‘Okay, I need for you to do ministry right where you’re at.’ ”

After a conversation Lloyd had with Phil Partin of the Military Mission, a new approach to ministry began to brew. “I asked Lloyd if he would be interested in occasionally mentoring some of our minority staff while he was traveling,” recalls Phil. “He jumped at the opportunity. And have we ever been blessed! Lloyd has had significant impact on the development of new African American staff in our mission.”

Lloyd has since connected with Navigators in other ministries—especially the Metro Mission. “When I’m on a business trip, I’m usually able to devote my free time to ministry. Sometimes it’s as a Barnabas—I’m just there to encourage. Other times I can participate in a Bible study. Sometimes I’m asked to share my testimony with a group of soldiers and I talk to them about the importance of discipleship.”

Lloyd encourages pastors and Navigator
staff in cities like New York and Chicago.

While in Chicago, Lloyd got in touch with Bob Eschmann, who works with high school students, which opened the door for Lloyd to speak to two high school classes. He also helped set up a Bible study at the office where he was working. “There were two young believers on the job,” he says, “but no one had ever shown them how to do a Bible study in the workplace.”

Lloyd also enjoyed speaking to young minority midshipmen at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where Navigators Mike and Marsha Slone lead an ethnic-specific outreach called Triad Christian Fellowship. “It’s exciting to see these young, mostly African American men and women—the cream of the crop—being excited about Jesus. It’s tremendously encouraging.”

One business project landed Lloyd in New York City for three months, so he contacted staff member Andy Puleo. “He got me involved in all kinds of things,” Lloyd says, including helping plan a conference and visiting pastors to explain the Navigator ministry. “I grew up in the Bronx, so this has been a tremendous blessing to me,” Lloyd adds.

Once a young pastor invited Lloyd to join a group of men as they walked and prayed through the neighborhood around their church. “I realized this church was in my old neighborhood,” Lloyd says.

“When I visited there back in 1972, I saw burned-out buildings and decay. There used to be three churches in a five-block radius and they were gone. It was like the enemy had taken over. I claimed Isaiah 49:8–13 and asked God if He would allow me to see that neighborhood reclaimed in my lifetime. So when I walked through the neighborhood with those men and prayed, it seemed like God had granted that request.

“I talked to that pastor a couple weeks later and he said, ‘You have no idea how much that encouraged my men, for you to do the prayer walk, someone who was from there. . . . ’ If Metro and Andy weren’t there, it would have been very difficult for all of this to be set up.”

And if Lloyd hadn’t been willing to follow God’s call to do ministry “right where you’re at,” it wouldn’t have happened at all.

Learn more about The Navigators Ethnic and Military ministries.