Laying the Foundation: Pioneering at Colorado State University

Ministry doesn’t always bear fruit quickly. Sometimes it takes a long time — planting seeds, forging ahead with trial and error, and hoping that by God’s grace, something will begin to grow.

This is the position Navigator Nick Maddy found himself in after he arrived at Colorado State University (CSU), ready to pioneer a Collegiate ministry from the ground up.

Nick had already been serving in various roles with The Navigators since 2016 when he got a phone call: The Navigators needed someone to relaunch a ministry at CSU. Deciding to wait and pray before accepting the opportunity, Nick visited campus. As he watched thousands of students move to and from class, he felt struck by God’s calling. He knew the Lord was inviting him to go.

“I looked around and thought, I want to build upon the legacy here and be a part of this story,” Nick says. “In 60 years, what could CSU look like? I’m just a blip on that, but how could I build upon what the Lord has already built here, and reestablish a Navigators ministry?”

However, when he arrived on campus in 2024, ready to jump in headlong and rapidly rebuild the ministry, he found that pioneering carried its own challenges. He was the only full-time staff member on campus — his wife, Elise, and a Navigator named Abbie were part time — and his capacity fell far short of his own expectations.

“I was battling my expectations on a day-to-day basis, wrestling with the Lord,” he recalls. “I came here to start a movement and have a bunch of students come to know Him, and it was not going that way.”

At times, it felt like nothing was working. Trying to meet students, Nick would show up to campus in the afternoon with a volleyball, hoping students would stop and play. Instead, he often sat alone for hours.

“I thought, surely if we have a volleyball net and a volleyball and me, the students will come flocking,” Nick says. “Turns out that is not the case. You should probably have more than one person waiting by a volleyball net, and not in the middle of the day. So it felt a little isolating, but I viewed it as an opportunity to learn.”

In that tension, Nick felt the Lord refining his expectations. Instead of chasing immediate numbers, Nick needed to become a learner and observer — to discern what the soil of campus actually looked like before trying to plant.

“I felt the Lord teaching me: What are my expectations, and what does He care about?” Nick says. “And I think He cares that I’m being faithful and available to show up, and the fruit and outcome of that is what we want.”

He remembered some advice he had been given in the past: If you don’t know what to do, pray. So Nick started praying all the time.

Provision Through Prayer

In the past two years of ministry on campus, Nick has been praying faithfully — on his walks to campus, while sitting alone in dining halls, and in team meetings. Slowly, he’s watched God begin answering those prayers at CSU, providing in unexpected ways.

One of Nick’s early prayers was that the Lord would send more laborers to campus. The next year, four new Navigators joined his team.

Beyond that, Nick and his team began praying for a foundational generation of students: specifically 10 individuals who could carry the ministry through their four years of college. Now, at the end of his second year of ministry at CSU, Nick can easily name 10 students who could form that foundation — six of whom have committed to being student leaders dedicated to learning how to lead Bible studies, share their faith, and disciple others.

One of those students is named Chris*. Catching the vision of discipleship, Chris has gotten involved with the ministry at CSU over the past year — so much so that he joined a Navigator Summer Training Program (STP) this past summer, where he was baptized.

“He’s taking his faith by the reins and is committed to this vision that God has for him and wants to be a part of what God’s doing at CSU,” Nick shares. “It’s so humbling. I didn’t plan that, but God totally did.”

A Vision Beyond Campus

Though the ministry at CSU is still developing, the Lord is faithfully moving in the lives of students as it takes shape. The team’s vision is that the impact of this ministry won’t stop on campus or at graduation, but that it will become a launching pad for students to share their faith the rest of their lives — in their workplaces, in their families, and across the nations.

“A phrase I’ve been thinking about is from Isaiah 49:6: ‘It’s too light a thing,’” Nick says. “God is basically saying that it’s too light a thing to only focus on Israel. He wants to focus on the nations, that we can be a light and His salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. When I come to campus, I give myself that perspective. CSU is too light a thing; God wants the whole world. That’s the responsibility that God has given me, framing that perspective, praying, and having faith in big things. How can CSU be a light to the nations?”

Join us in praying for the staff and students at CSU, that the Lord would continue to raise up more laborers on campus, that students would catch the vision of discipleship, and that the Lord would start a movement in people’s hearts that extends beyond their college years.

“I want CSU to be a foundational experience for our students, so that when they are 40, 50, or 60, they can look back on their time here and know they learned the basics of the Bible, how to pray, and how to share their faith,” Nick says. “Even if it’s just one or two people who get the vision of discipleship and want to do that the rest of their lives, that’s a huge win.”

Discipleship Tip:

Jumping into ministry doesn’t always look the way we expect. Next time you are feeling discouraged by the slowness of progress or development in your discipleship relationships, turn to the Lord in prayer. Trust in His timing, knowing that He is working behind the scenes where we can’t always see — and lay down your expectations and worries at His feet.