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Around the Ministry
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Did you know that Glen Eyrie, The Navigators Conference Center, was originally the estate of William Jackson Palmer, the founder of several railroads and the city of Colorado Springs? Palmer lived at Glen Eyrie with his wife, Mary Lincoln Mellen, who had been given the nickname “Queen” by her grandmother. The rugged canyon that connects Glen Eyrie to Eagle Lake (The Navigators camping ministry) is named “Queen’s Canyon” in her honor.
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Scott Morton is challenged by the courage of “Nelson,”
a keen young “discipler” who is working on his funding
so he can reach those from another religion.
Veteran disciplemaker, Scott Morton, trains Navigator staff around the world. Recently Scott received an email from a Navigator staff in Africa, Nelson (not his real name) who brings Christ to people openly hostile toward Christians. One of Nelson’s mentors lost an uncle to violence and another had his house burned down.
Here’s the email Scott received from Nelson in his own second-language, unedited English:
A young non-believing man in our Bible study said, “I refuse to go for to burn the Christians’ houses and churches. At that day I went to chat with one of my Christian friends.”
We met him and his mates this Sunday for our weekly meeting. It was risky. We celebrated Easter by watching the movie The Passion of The Christ.
From other places in Africa we hear of young men who are studying the Scriptures who did not go to burn the Christians’ houses and churches. And this is the first time that they kept themselves from involving in violence. So it is urgent to reach the lost people with the Word of God.
So, does the Gospel really make a difference? “I believe the Gospel message is the only thing that will bring peace to the world,” says Scott. “And that is why I’m headed to Africa again!”
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Kathy and Dan
Navigators Don and Kathy Allen work with college students at Cal State, Long Beach. Here’s how one student described what God has done in her life.
I grew up in an atheistic/agnostic home. My parents divorced when I was seven. My school was notoriously liberal and my friends were intellectuals, drug users and political activists. Although I had questions about purpose and spirituality, Christianity was the last thing on my mind.
I went off to Long Beach and was surrounded by God. Within weeks I was involved in Christian events five days a week (largely against my will). I spoke for hours every day with intelligent, fulfilled, joyful human beings. After church one night, I realized I’d asked all the questions I had. I wanted the joy and love these Christians had and I wanted to pursue Christ.
My behavior, character, wants, and needs changed. I began to understand what it meant to love others. The Navigators have proved absolutely miraculous. They brought me to Christ and continue to add to my growth.
Don and Kathy are extremely thankful to be “part of the plan” God has for Cal State. |
—Dennis Day Pastor of Oroville Nazarene Church in Oroville, California
Our CDM coach helped us accurately assess where we were as a church. From there the church leadership set out on a path of leadership team building and clarifying their mission, vision, and values. The results have been phenomenal. Today we are a healthy, growing, and vibrant church with a clear vision of where Jesus is leading us. The CDM team helped us discover our own church “DNA” and define and implement a laser-like focus on our mission.
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 Joel and Kelly Helms work with students
at the University of South Carolina.
A major tenet of Navigator ministry is teaching others how to make disciples by doing it. Navigator Joel Helms, who works with students at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, gets to put this into practice regularly.
Joel arrives on campus on a Wednesday night to get ready for an investigative Bible study that one of the younger Navigator students, Noah, is leading. Joel is training Noah to lead it.
They huddle over pizza and fried chicken in the cafeteria—reviewing the questions Noah has prepared and talking about the two verses they will discuss. An hour later they head into the dorm.
Noah takes the initiative—grabbing chairs and guys—and manages to get everyone situated in one room. “The topic for the evening,” says Joel, “is purity, and I’m wondering how a bunch of freshmen men are going to react to this!”
Joel’s concern grows at the end of the discussion because Noah had asked him to read the passage in which Jesus says, “But I tell you, that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28).
One student blurted out, “We’re set up for failure. This is impossible!” Joel asked him to quote Philippians 4:13, memorized weeks before: “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”
“I asked him,” said Joel, “if he thought that meant everything except thought-life.” After a moment, the student replied: “Every millisecond we do not fully depend on Christ, we are completely without hope.” The third member of this “discipleship tag team” —the Holy Spirit—was working!
That’s the essence of Navigator ministry: A teacher, a learner, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit!
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 God loves the church, His Body. The New Testament is not only about the ministry of Jesus and the apostles, but about the birth, maturing, and expansion of the church, starting with those first followers and extending to the ends of the then-known world.
 Doug Nuenke
U.S. President, The Navigators
As followers of Christ, we would be amazed at the creative and various expressions of the local church that have existed and still exist across the globe. Our view of church, what theologians call “ecclesiology,” would be so much richer if we had a view of all the healthy, biblical expressions that have sprouted throughout history and in various cultures. And Jesus is the head of the church. The letter to the Ephesians gives us a full expression of God’s heart for His church. In Ephesians 1:22,23 Paul writes, “And God placed all things under his (Jesus) feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” The Navigators are committed to loving and serving the church. Our Church Discipleship Ministry aims at fanning the flame of our Navigator distinctives in the context of more than 500 partner churches. We help leaders in all kinds of local church expressions empower their people to know Jesus Christ and to help them grow as leaders, ministers, and disciple-makers among those in their communities yet to know Jesus.
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