By David Lyons
What is the "end game" for Navigator ministries? The Navigators ministry originated 90 years ago among sailors, expanding to college campuses and later reaching into communities, businesses, and local churches. But what does the fruition of Navigator ministry look like for everyday Navigators as they live out our Calling where they live, work, and play for the rest of their lives? That is a difficult question because of the wide variety of contexts in which Navigators live out our Calling in secular societies, in churched areas, and among the major religions.
That was the challenge facing the International Executive Team and Regional Directors when we gathered in Antalya, Turkey, four years ago. We were amazed how God gave us consensus on the essential elements required for spiritual generations of laborers to live and disciple together among the lost.
Together
1. Clear shared purpose
2. Intentional local leaders
3. Doing life together
4. Primary place of belonging
5. Transformational
Among
1. Making Christ known in our natural habitat
2. Serving and being served by the lost
3. Intentionally engaging
Although a group of Navigators may be a good team, Bible study, or church without these elements, it may not be the kind of Local Laboring Community we believe will be most fruitful in producing spiritual generations among the lost over a lifetime.
This list of qualities does not prescribe a specific ministry model! Instead, these vital characteristics can be present in diverse ministry models required in different contexts, appearing distinct based on circumstances.
For example, suppose the Gospel begins to move through a family in a Buddhist context, so that a growing number of siblings and cousins are following Christ together. Is that the kind of missional community that will fulfill our Calling? We hope so, but that will seem more likely if one of the elder members of the extended family takes responsibility to serve as an intentional local leader. Or suppose a group of Navigators comes together in a local church context. Is that the kind of Local Laboring Community that will fulfill our Calling? We hope so; but that will be more likely if they are truly serving and being served by the lost rather than becoming increasingly isolated from the lost around them.
Those of us serving with the International Executive Team wrestle with how each of us needs our own Local Laboring Community. We pray for one another’s local ministries but don’t personally know one another’s lost friends. We are a Navigator team in a city, and we share the same Calling, but we are not doing life together on a daily basis. If some of us lived in the same neighborhood, we could become a local laboring community. Since that is not our reality, we acknowledge we are a healthy team but not a Local Laboring Community.
We believe that for each of us, a local spiritual community with like-minded laborers is indispensable for nurturing spiritual generations. Without a community of like-minded laborers, the fruit of our personal ministry tends to become isolated. It then can fall short of fulfilling our Calling because it lacks the synergy, variety of gifting and social basis necessary for generations to flourish.
We also believe intentional local leaders are particularly important to sustaining our Navigator calling in Local Laboring Communities. To flourish in our Calling, all Navigators ideally need local leaders serving local laborers who live and disciple together among the lost. Local leadership is crucial to effectively living together and among, so Navigators across our Worldwide Partnership need to give strong attention to growing local leaders who invest in leading local laboring communities.
We are investing more in developing local leaders to flourish in our Calling. So, we encourage every Navigator to carefully consider how to intentionally pursue these elements of “Together” and “Among” with others in their local context where they live, work, and play. Valuable videos and other resources are available at navigatorsworldwide.org for those who want to learn more.
We believe that it is crucial for every Navigator to wrestle deeply with what missional community needs to look like in the contexts where we are seeking to live out our Calling. If we fail to do so, we are unlikely to experience the fulfillment of our distinct Navigator Calling.
Let’s do this!
