The glow of thousands of faces lights up the room, a powerful testament to the spread of the gospel from generation to generation. 

This was one of the many special moments from The Navigators 2023 National Staff Gathering.

Last month, over 1,300 Navigator staff came together in Irving, Texas. The theme of the weekend was Heartbeat: A Vital Movement of the Gospel, focusing on 2 Timothy 2:1-2: “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others” (NIV).

The gathering held five plenary sessions, which were designed to inspire, uplift, and challenge staff attendees to continue the work to which they’ve been called. Staff heard insights on the Lord’s vision for grace, necessary aspects of prayer, and how He works through each and every one of us to reach the nations and spread His mission.  

Staff members also enjoyed times of fun and laughter, along with encouraging ministry stories from new and old friends, breakouts to equip and multiply disciplemakers, precious times of prayer and worship, and motivational messages from fellow Navigators and international leaders. 

For many, the National Staff Gathering was a reminder of why they became Navigators — to be a part of a vital movement of the gospel by connecting, resourcing, and developing everyday disciplemakers. 

Though this conference looked back over the past four years since our last National Staff Gathering, we also took time to look forward to the work that is ahead of us as a ministry. You can partner with us as we continue this work for years to come! 

Pray that the Lord works through The Navigators to reach the unreached and create new disciplemakers. Come alongside us to spread the gospel and disciple those in your circles, from family members to coworkers to neighbors and beyond.

Whether you serve on staff or through your everyday life, we are excited to see how the Lord moves through this next season of ministry!

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16 (NIV).

Discipleship Tip:  

Pull out your phone and find a photo of someone you’re discipling or have discipled. Pray for that person and reach out to offer them encouragement.

“Coming into college, I wasn’t looking for a Christian ministry. I probably didn’t want one at that time. But during freshman orientation someone from The Navigators stopped me and told me about Navigators Collegiate at UCR. They asked if I wanted to put down my information,” Antonio shared.

The conversation with Navigators Collegiate didn’t end there. They reached out and invited Antonio to a Navigators collegiate night event.

“At the first meeting they had Bible study sign-ups. I thought to myself, I can’t be the only one who doesn’t sign up for Bible study. So, I signed up,” Antonio laughed as he talked about taking one step after another. “Since I signed up, I thought, I really should go.” 

Eventually, Antonio found a community in Navigators Collegiate he didn’t even realize he needed. 

What seemed to be an accident was actually God pursuing Antonio. God provided him with an authentic community who loved Jesus and intentionally positioned him to share his growing relationship with Jesus with his Latino community. 

Since his first days with Navigators Collegiate, Antonio now mentors high school students through the Compton Summer Intensive (CSi) in Compton, California close to Los Angeles. CSi is a summer program offering high school students the opportunity to learn everyday life and job skills and to be mentored by local college students connected with The Navigators. 

“During this past summer at CSi, we talked about identity and how God is intentional in creating each of us,” shared Antonio. “I am brown and have a Mexican background and that has intention. Because we have a God who is intentional, then I can use how He created me to further His Kingdom and encourage others who look like me.” 

What Discipleship Looks Like 

Armando Madrid, Navigators Los Angeles City Director, remembers the influence a group of college students had on his life when he was in high school youth group in L.A. 

“The Navigators had a couple of Summer Training Programs (discipleship training during summer employment) here in the L.A. area where I grew up,” Armando shared. “They brought in a bunch of college students who stayed at my church and discipled us through material now known as the Design For Discipleship Series. Seeing those college students was an inspiration for me. I knew I wanted to get involved on a college campus with a strong Navigators Collegiate presence.” 

Armando has now been with The Navigators for 35 years through Navigators Church Ministries, Navigators LaVida Network (a ministry network for Hispanics and non-Hispanics who desire to reach U.S. Hispanics for Christ), and most recently a seven-month leadership development initiative for Navigators staff with Latino heritage. He focuses on encouraging and equipping disciplemakers, especially within the Latino community. 

Living in East L.A., the heart of the Latino community in this city, Armando gets energized to see college students like Antonio embrace how God created him and come alongside high school students of similar Latino background. It was through his leadership with the CSi where Armando first met Antonio. 

“As I listen to Antonio share his story, it excites me. He was really quiet when I first met him through CSi almost three years ago. He was still finding his relationship with God,” shared Armando. “Then to have him come back last summer for CSi and see the amount of devotion to God that had occurred.”

Antonio had grown in his faith and so had the high school student he had mentored his first year with CSi.

“These high school students need people to pour into them, not just in a way of nurture, but also through friendship. If I could do CSi for every summer for the rest of my life, then that would be an easy choice to make.” Antonio shared enthusiastically. “Seeing a high school student I had mentored my first year come back two years later, a lot had changed. I saw his maturity and his growth. I realized it was most important that he knew I was there supporting him whether he needed me there or not.”

Sharing My Faith with Family 

Navigators Collegiate at UCR became such an important part of Antonio’s life that his family noticed a difference and asked questions. 

At first his family thought he had joined this Christian club to meet a girl. But, instead of sharing about a girl he had met, Antonio shared about how God was changing him personally. His actions changed and became noticeably different–from the worship music he listened to and how he acted around them. 

As he contemplates joining EDGE Corps, a post-college two year internship with The Navigators, his family recognizes how serious he is about this faith in Jesus.

“They see how serious I am about this commitment. It’s not just about this thing I go to every week or even being on Zoom for Bible study. Now I’m considering doing this full time. It’s definitely a shift from just being the guy who accidentally joined the Christian club,” Antonio shared. “Now I’m the guy who has a relationship with God and reads the Bible daily, prays daily, and talks about God daily.”  

Antonio has had intentional conversations with his mom about faith; he’s noticed his dad turning on the worship music in their house; and even one of his sisters started attending Navigators Collegiate during her freshman year at UCR. 

“Now [my sister] has experienced what I have experienced and it has had an influence on her life. It’s taught her how to study the Bible and be more intentional,” Antonio shared. “ Now it won’t just be me talking to my family about how my relationship with Jesus is impacting me, but it will be both of us.” 

Reaching Latino Communities with The Gospel 

Antonio didn’t always embrace the ways God created him uniquely and with purpose. But now he is excited for how God created him and the opportunities he’s been given to reach his Latino community.  

“Whether through CSi or at Navigators Collegiate at UCR, I am grateful for the diversity of my community. I want to be someone who encourages others who look like me. I’d like to remind them that they don’t have to feel awkward because of being a minority,” Antonio shared. 

As Antonio encourages Latinos through CSi and Navigators Collegiate at UCR, Armando encourages Latinos who are also Navigators staff to recognize the ways God has uniquely created them with purpose. 

“We want the staff to appreciate and see the way God built them is the way God can use them in their ministry and the people they relate to,” Armano shared. “Because Antonio is homegrown, he’s being raised up here from L.A. God has touched his life and God is going to use him to advance the gospel for the rest of his life.”

Antonio smiles. He is confident in who God has created him to be. 

“I’m an ambassador of Christ and I exemplify God’s love. People will see that and they will recognize there is something different,” Antonio shared. “When they ask, the answer isn’t because I’m a good person or the way I was raised. The answer is because God found me where I was and chose to water me and grow me. As a result, I can do all that I’ve done so far.”

It doesn’t look good. They’re admitting me. They think it’s blood cancer.

Sam, Navigators Collegiate Campus Director at Florida International University (FIU), met Nick his freshman year in 2019 and started discipling him soon after. 

Hearing Nick faced acute lymphocytic leukemia brought back a lot of memories for Sam because he was diagnosed with cancer at 17.

“I remember texting with Nick and reflecting on all he had been through the last eight months—a broken laptop, broken wrist, someone rear-ended his car, and now this leukemia diagnosis,” Sam shared. “Nick was so young in his faith and journey with God. This was a lot for anyone, especially a new believer. I was worried Satan would use this to disrupt that journey. I prayed for God to draw him close, strengthen Nick’s faith, to sustain him, to heal him, and provide for his every need.” 

How Do You Keep Faith in Difficult Times? 

Sam was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, also a blood cancer, his senior year in high school after discovering a lump on the side of his neck that began to grow. 

“By God’s grace we caught it early, it was stage one and localized in the lymph nodes in my neck,” Sam shared. “I’m optimistic by nature and basically said, Alright, where do we go from here? What’s next? I’m sure the Holy Spirit guided and comforted me through that.”

After four months of treatment, Sam’s cancer was gone. Through his cancer journey, God prepared Sam for his next steps as an everyday disciplemaker while deepening their relationship.

“God really used cancer to draw me close to Himself. God abundantly provided for me in this season, I would have to be blind to not see Him at work,” Sam shared. “I would say before cancer that I was a Christian, but I struggled. I knew I had a 95 percent survival rate and would probably live, but it still caused me to reflect on my relationship with Jesus. After I was healed from cancer, I came to college and thought, I’m done with just wanting a genuine wholehearted relationship with the Lord and not having it. This is when I really started following in Jesus’ footsteps.”

Sam recommitted his life to the Lord and his next steps connected him with The Navigators Collegiate ministry at Florida State University. 

Nick’s diagnosis was different from Sam’s. He had approximately a 50 percent chance of survival, although his doctor increased it to 65 percent because of the amazing way he handled treatment—which included a stem cell transplant. 

“I remember hearing his survival percentage and crying once we were off the phone,” Sam shared. “This is so hard for him to go through, but Nick continued to trust the Lord and looked to Him.”

Studying the Bible—Where to Start, Especially When You’re Hurting

Nick remembered hearing about Sam’s cancer story, but at the time he didn’t want to pry. Until he found himself in a similar position. Sam became someone who offered Nick spiritual encouragement and his personal experience of battling cancer. Sam was one of two friends Nick texted when he first found out about his cancer diagnosis. 

“It was really comforting to have Sam in my life, because he had discernment and wisdom,” Nick shared. “As I look back on this, it is crazy to see how God orchestrated my friendship with Sam.”

It was through an initial text invite from Sam that Nick attended a Navigators Collegiate event and kept coming back. Nick recalled spending time with Sam, on a weekly basis, studying the Gospel of Matthew, at their local Chick-fil-A.

“Through weekly meetings of reading through Matthew with Sam, I learned so much about Jesus and His character. I learned what it means to really be a follower of Christ and know Him,” Nick shared. “I grew up in the church, but I didn’t really understand the gospel until college.”

Nick brought many questions to those Bible study times with Sam. He was hungry for knowing more about God and deepening his relationship with Him. 

In a short amount of time, this hunger for God’s Word helped Nick through his toughest battles yet—a stem cell transplant and the recovery afterward. 

Finding Hope in God’s Word Despite Dark Times

“In November 2020 I got my stem cell transplant from an international, unrelated donor. Many patients struggle to find a match, but they found eight perfect matches for me,” Nick shared. “I got really sick after the transplant with pneumonia and sepsis. They had to put me on a ventilator. At one point the medical team wanted to move me to ICU, but they wouldn’t allow anyone to be with me there because of COVID-19. My nurse came in and saw how warmly decorated my room was for Christmas. She told my mom she couldn’t move me to the ICU and take me out of this environment. My mom believes this was God’s intervention and helped me recover.”

While time in the hospital was challenging, Nick says the time at home recovering for six months, waiting for his immune system to build also challenged him mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Nick constantly turned back to God’s Word, spending time in the book of Job—a story of suffering—and even reading Galatians with a friend. 

However, he was grateful for more energy to study the Bible with Sam via FaceTime. They read through Genesis, but also went back to the Gospels.

“As we read Genesis, I noticed the passage where God tells Abraham to offer up his son Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham tells Isaac that the Lord will provide. Earlier that day I found out someone I had prayed for, who was in the ICU because of cancer treatment, had passed. I was sad and asked God why He didn’t provide for them like he did for me,” Nick shared. “This survivor’s guilt felt like a difficult dark hole to get out of. However, reading through the Gospels and even Paul’s letters reaffirmed my identity in Christ. I began to see His love and how He did provide—Christ—who is bigger than any of our struggles or sufferings. He is all we need.”

Sharing the Gospel and Reaching Spiritual Generations

As Sam remembers those weekly Bible study meetings with Nick, there was a point he could tell something was different with Nick. 

“Nick talked differently about God and even about his motives. I wanted to figure out what had changed, so I decided to share The Bridge to Life Illustration with him,” Sam shared. “I told Nick, ‘I notice you seem different than the other times we have met. Where would he put himself in this illustration?’ Nick put himself on the side with God. I asked him to tell me more about that. Nick’s priorities and desires had shifted and he wanted to know God more. From there we kept reading the Bible and exploring his questions together.”

“I still have the picture you drew of The Bridge to Life in my notebook,” Nick shared with Sam.

Sam’s relationship with Nick reminded Sam of his own growth while in college. It was because of a Navigators Collegiate staff at FSU who intentionally discipled Sam that he decided to join the Navigators Collegiate staff. 

“The guy who discipled me at FSU meant the world to me. It really has come full circle as we pioneered Navigators Collegiate at FIU. I had been praying, Lord, would you lead me to a guy who is hungry to know You,” Sam shared. “Nick was the first guy who I crossed paths with who really wanted to know Jesus. We were regularly in the scriptures and Life-to-Life^® discipleship. I would say he was an answer to prayer.”

Today, Nick is about 15 months post stem cell transplant and healthy. He continues school close to home and looks for ways to use his cancer story and suffering to minister to others. Sam is 12 years cancer-free and also connects with those who have gone through or currently battling cancer. He has even shared his testimony at cancer-research fundraising events. He is also involved with Navigators LaVida Network. 

While Nick and Sam don’t live in the same town, they often connect online and occasionally visit. 

“Even with the strenuous circumstances of the stem cell transplant, I saw how the Lord loved me through it. I didn’t stop having faith,” Nick shared. “Yes, I was angry at times and didn’t always understand what or why this was happening, but I always believed in His purpose and it would happen for a reason.” 

Pray for Navigators Collegiate in Florida, especially those at Florida International University and Florida State University.

A session at the conference on “Ethnic Identity and Identity in Christ” resonated with Destiny. She realized that along with a strong identity in Christ, God had also provided a cultural and ethnic identity for her, and she could celebrate both of these aspects of her God-given personhood. Destiny reflects, “In this workshop, I learned that God had intentionally created me as a Mexican American to be a ‘bridger’ between two groups of people that are often politically divided in our country (Mexicans and Americans) and for the sake of relating to each group of people very personally. This realization encouraged me to use my identity as a ‘bridger’ as an asset for the advancement of the gospel.” 

After the conference, Barb helped Destiny process what she was learning and challenged her to continue to do the work of understanding her cultural identity.

The following summer, Destiny participated in a Navigators Collegiate summer mission to Guadalajara, Mexico. It was her first time to visit Mexico and she gained an appreciation for the people and culture, and also became more confident communicating in Spanish.

Destiny shares the impact of the summer:

“We were taught how to evangelize in cross-cultural settings and share our faith with non-believers in Guadalajara. That summer was the most healing summer of my life. To be able to connect with the Mexican people in a way I never thought I would be able to and to hear them affirm truth in the areas I had been insecure during my childhood was an incredible blessing.”

Destiny had become friends with Gabriel Mercer at the LaVida conference. What started as a friendship became more, and they started dating and are now married. He has been part of her journey of understanding God’s design for her life. She shares, “Since the moment we met, Gabriel has encouraged me to believe truth about my identity as a Mexican American woman and has always reminded me that no matter how many lies and insecurities I may face, ‘the truth is that you are Mexican and you are American, but that doesn’t make you any less of a Mexican than someone who is born in Mexico or someone who speaks Spanish fluently.’ Through my sweet husband’s constant reminders and God’s incredible faithfulness, I can read scriptures like Psalm 139:13-15 with greater confidence because I now believe that God’s design of me was intentional and purposeful.” 

Now on EDGE Corps at Vanderbilt, Destiny is passionate about discipling other women in understanding their culture and God’s design for their lives, just as others have done for her. Destiny wants to help people of color understand how God has gifted them, and how they all uniquely reflect God’s character. Also, she has grown to see that we all get a better picture of God’s character when we are in a community that reflects the variety of disciples. In this way, Destiny now sees that race is not a political issue, but a biblical truth, as the church in Revelation (7:9) reflects the variety of people who bear the image of God.

Destiny, who was already a Christian when she went to college, met people from Navigators Collegiate in her freshman dorm and started to get involved right away her freshman year. She joined a Bible study and realized that there were other students on her campus who were following Jesus. But she has seen that sometimes students of color who have visited a campus ministry a few times may end up dropping out of the ministry because they don’t find their own place of belonging. Her goal is to welcome all students, help them understand the importance of their cultural identity as they follow Jesus, and help the ministry better reflect God’s Kingdom.

Praise God for His design of cultures, and for helping disciplemakers realize a solid grounding in identity in Christ and in ethnicity. Pray that many more students of diverse backgrounds will find a place of belonging and growth within Navigators Collegiate ministry.

Learn more about LaVida at lavidanetwork.org.

Chris Ballesteros, Navigators Disciplemakers for Life, shares his journey:

The importance of family has been of high value to me since I was a kid. My family has always viewed itself as a unit. When I decided to move 400 miles away to college, my family reluctantly accepted my decision. They had the understanding that after I graduated, I would move back home to help and continue to contribute to the family.

To my family’s surprise, I told them that I would not be coming back after college, but I would be moving to Arizona to do ministry. They were excited about the ministry part but not so enthusiastic about me moving even farther away. I assured them that at some point, I would be back. I just needed a few more years.

As I was starting my second year of EDGE Corps, I wrestled with what I would do when at the end of the year. The Lord had put my family and my community on my heart. I realized that I could bring back home everything I learned over the past five years and pour back into my family and my local community. The thought also came that no one else could do what I was seeking to do. It was a mission designed for me. With that vision and desire in my heart, I decided to move back home after finishing the school year in Flagstaff.

However, in March, COVID-19 hit, and it pushed forward my timeline to move home. I was back with my family a few months earlier than projected. However, it was exactly what was needed. In the initial surge of the pandemic, my parents and siblings found comfort in my presence. My mom felt that we were a united front once again. She felt whole. Early on, I was able to help my elderly grandparents get basic materials from the grocery store and be there for my mom when she had surgery.

Since I have been back, I have cared for my family well and been a source of encouragement for them toward the Lord. I did a devotional time with my brother and dad multiple times a week to start off. Still, there have been different issues as we adjust to being together, as all three of us display quite a bit of machismo. However, the Lord has helped us with dominant personalities and has brought us closer together slowly but surely. I have also started going through some biblical content with my brother and father individually.

I have also challenged and encouraged my mom to start meeting with my sister and her friend in a discipleship relationship. They have been meeting for over a month now, and it has been super sweet to see the Lord work and grow them closer to each other.

Along with the impact on my family, I have also been able to impact my community. I have been able to disciple and invest in two leaders from my church. One leads the young adult group and the other leads the youth group. Along with that, I began reading the Gospel of John with a friend from high school in April. Over the past six months, we have had many conversations about Jesus as we read through the Word, and just last week, he professed faith in Jesus.

It is so awesome to see the work God is doing here in my local community. Ultimately what brought me back home was a burden for my family, and I do not regret a single second of it because God has done so much through this time. I am thankful to be Latino and have such a deep value for the family.

Pray that generations of extended family networks will become generations of disciplemakers, in Chris’ community and around the country. 

About 20 years ago I met Armando and Liset Diaz (Navigators Nations Within and Director of Navigators LaVida Network). I was married at that time and I remember having conversations with Armando about spiritual topics. I always told him that I was a good person and did not feel a need for God in my life. Then I went through two broken relationships and was left without a connection to my daughter, whom I love so much. I felt like my world fell apart.

As my friendship with Armando grew, I was open to receive what God had to tell me. We started to meet for Life-to-Life^® disci­pleship. I started reading the Bible, praying, and attending church. My life began to be healed and transformed. God opened the door for me to travel from my home in Havana, Cuba, to Mexico for an exhibition of my paintings. A few weeks later, I traveled to Texas and asked for political asylum. Armando and I continued having long distance discipleship conversations through those years.

I learned how to be a man of God and, when I was ready, I met a wonderful and godly woman. Juanel and I started dating and got married a year later. It was hard in the beginning because we were from different cultures and had to make adjustments, but Armando was again a great help during this process. I was able to learn how to be a loving husband and servant leader to my wife.

I am so thankful that I met Jesus and that I have such a wonderful friend in Armando who not only led me to the Lord, but also took time to disciple, mentor, and coach me through all of these years!

Pray that God will continue to use Navigators around the world to offer the hope of Jesus!

As many Navigators walk where ministry meets medicine, God is doing deep work during the COVID-19 crisis.

For Navigators simultaneously ministering to spiritual needs through discipleship and medical needs through healthcare professions, 2020 has been an unpredictable, exhausting, and faith-building year.

Chelsea Nuttall serves as the administrative assistant for the IT department at Navigators U.S. Headquarters. Her husband is an ER nurse in Colorado Springs.

“Being married to a healthcare worker during this time has been scary in some ways, but it has also been sweet to watch the Lord work,” Chelsea says. “At the beginning of all this, fear crept in that I might lose my husband. Instead we chose faith—faith to believe God hears our prayers—and He has. Watching a world with so much sickness, hatred, and division has caused me to groan and pray more than ever before. God has been faithful to use this time to draw people to Himself.”  

This time has also given Chelsea a deepened appreciation for her husband’s calling in the medical field.

“He is very needed,” Chelsea says. “He was created so perfectly for this position during this time, and I am honored to be the one who gets to stand next to him. I am proud to be his wife. In the ER, he doesn’t get much time to talk with patients, so my prayer is that his presence or the few words he does get to share will impact these people immensely.”

LaVida Network Director Armando Diaz and his wife, Liset, are also both healthcare professionals in Florida—Armando as a registered nurse and Liset as a physical therapist assistant. Every day they worry about their risk of infection, but they are trusting God and taking precautions. And they see God’s hand at work as they prayerfully serve those He has entrusted to their care.

“Through this pandemic, Liset and I are visiting people at their homes, especially people discharged from hospitals with different conditions like pulmonary disease, diabetes, and hypertension,” Armando says. “Sometimes God has opened the door for us to pray for our patients and share the gospel with them. When they are willing to pray and accept God’s help, we see them receive hope and the recovery process is faster.”

Tim and Bethany Jordahl live and minister in Denver, Tim working with Navigators Collegiate and Bethany as a registered nurse. Bethany’s job has changed drastically since the pandemic shifted her organization’s work from home visits to screens in March.

“Normally, I visit first-time, low-income moms in their homes from pregnancy until their child is two years old,” Bethany says. “It has been hard going from couches in homes to the distance of virtual visits. I have already had to lean heavily on the Lord in this job as I ebb and flow through these women’s lives, but even more now that I can’t be as present with them. I am constantly asking God to comfort them, guide them, and be with them as they encounter difficult situations in their lives.” 

Personally, Bethany says God has been teaching her about trust and moving past fear.

“There are advantages and disadvantages to being a public health nurse in this season,” Bethany says. “I have had to frequently ask God to meet me in my fears and for His protection. He has shown me that my knowledge is a gift, but that He is ultimately in control and that I don’t have to live in fear.” 

Bethany continues to see how God has strategically placed her in her field and her role for such a time as this.

“Even though I see clients through a screen right now, I’ve realized that I am sometimes the only contact my moms have outside of their child or boyfriend/husband, and the only place they might receive factual and practical guidance about COVID-19. I have truly seen the value of preventative healthcare as a public health nurse in this season. My visits with my clients are preventing mental health issues and spread of disease, through communication and early education and guidance.” 

For both Bethany and Tim, this has been an inspiring time to see how God works—even in hard situations.

“I love my wife’s work,” Tim says. “She is exactly where God has designed her to be. My biggest struggle has been the tension between loving others by remaining distant from them versus being with them in order to love them. I have continually needed to claim Matthew 11:28-30, reminding myself as I feel burdened by all of this, and weary of it all, that God promises to take this burden and lift my weariness.”

Please pray for all frontline workers and their families as they trust God for protection, wisdom, and strength. Pray that their patients will see God’s love in their caregivers and come to know Him. 

Coming Alongside Church Leaders

In his role with NCM, Alex serves pastors in several different ways. First, he can encourage a pastor in his personal life, as a coach who helps with vision clarity, affirmation, and personal goals. Often pastors feel isolated in their personal challenges, as it is hard to share them openly with church leaders. Also, Alex serves as a ministry partner, coming alongside pastors to help implement next steps in their churches, to move congregations toward a disciplemaking culture.

After more than a year of coaching Pastor Melvin on core values, calling, vision, and mission, Alex was invited to speak to a leadership retreat and cast vision for discipleship to leaders in the church. Since then, the church has embraced growing an intentional disciplemaking culture that multiplies disciplemakers. Currently 70 leaders from Ebenezer World Ministries are working together in triads to practice coming alongside others to help them grow in their relationship with Christ and help others to do the same—they follow the alongsider principles (from the NavPress book The Ways of the Alongsider).

Pastor Melvin reflects on the process, “I appreciate how Alex presented The Navigators discipleship tools and helped our leaders brainstorm how to best apply them in our own church setting. This kind of discipleship isn’t a program but a relational emphasis. It has unified us around discipleship because we used to have several different types of small group programs. I also want to share this disciplemaking process with the 30 mission churches that we resource in Mexico.”

Speaking Into Heart Languages

The next step will be for each of the trained leaders to implement this way of life in small groups. Ebenezer World Ministries has implemented this disciplemaking culture in both Spanish-speaking and English-speaking groups, to serve the heart languages of those in their congregation.

“The heart languages are important, both linguistically and culturally,” shares Alex. “As a Hispanic myself, I find doors open to ministry with pastors serving this community. It is helpful to have discipleship materials available in both Spanish and English, as some congregations have mixed languages. Being able to offer both languages helps us avoid splitting communities, as second and third generation immigrants may be more comfortable in English than Spanish. I myself had to work on my Spanish language when I went to Latin America as a missionary with The Navigators more than 20 years ago. Now I benefit from fluency in both languages, along with cultural insight.”

Along with resourcing pastors and churches in southern California, Alex connects through online meetings and periodic visits to pastors in other areas. Pastor Omar Millan from Calvary Fellowship Temple, in Tempe, Arizona, is committed to disciplemaking in his congregation and uses The 2:7 Series^® in Spanish to grow disciples in his church.

Pastor Melvin, Pastor Omar, and other pastors that Alex equips are attending the 2:7 Jubilee in Dallas, celebrating 50 years of disciplemaking through The 2:7 Series. They are hosting a workshop on ethnic diversity and will also bring the Jubilee message back to Spanish 2:7 Jubilee conferences in Los Angeles and Phoenix this spring.

Alex is grateful for the opportunity to come alongside pastors and equip churches to multiply through disciplemaking. God used The Navigators as a foundation for his own Christian walk starting in 1981 when he enlisted with the Air Force, then through ministry in Latin America, in his career in the aviation industry, and now equipping pastors with NCM.

“This is my calling and my legacy,” says Alex. “It is a privilege to equip pastors to fulfill their ministry calling. These relationships have also become life-giving friendships as we serve together to grow generations of disciples.”

Click here to learn more about the 2:7 Series.

The Compton Summer Intensive (CSi) was led by Armando Madrid (Navigators Church Ministries) and Alicia Garcia (Navigators Collegiate), in partnership with the Navigators of Los Angeles City Team and local Navigator ministries within the city.

Each CSi team member gave up part of their summer to serve at the Compton Navigators I:58 ministry hub out of a desire to deepen their hearts for urban outreach. Each CSi participant trained in Life-to-Life^® discipleship, learned and taught everyday life and job skills, and mentored kids in camp and internship settings throughout the city. They lived locally, serving churches and faith-based non-profits in the heart of Compton.

“Getting to work in partnership with Navigators from our other local ministries was a highlight for us,” says Susan Combs (I:58), who led the service project portion of the program with her husband, Bob. “We all have so much we are focusing on in our local ministry context. It was meaningful to me to get to know the other Navigators and be united in a common goal.”

Navigators Los Angeles City Director Carl Camp served on the CSi planning team.

“It was great to see Navigators from all our ministries in the Los Angeles area work together to plan CSi,” Carl says.

This program was particularly unique in that 13 people in the group were ethnic minorities, and many were from urban areas similar to Compton.

“This is the third summer we have run our internship for mentoring high-schoolers, and having the CSi participants this year was a highpoint,” Susan says. “Although we have ongoing relationships with the high schoolers, our staff are all middle-aged or older, and five out of six of us are white. The high schoolers are African American, Latino, and Samoan, growing up in Compton. We will never be able to relate fully to their challenges and struggles. The CSi team was able to speak into the students’ lives and encourage them in their faith in ways we never could.”

CSi also made a powerful impact at a summer camp they helped lead. When volunteers fell through at the last minute, the CSi team stepped in to run the program for 96 kids.

The way God provided for each person to attend CSi was also a profound answer to prayer.

“All of the participants fundraised through a group funding project,” co-director Armando Madrid says. “The only thing we asked was that each person try to invite 50 people to support the project, not necessarily the individual. As a group we raised about $13,000—about a third of our budget. Our budget also included a stipend paid to them at the end of the program. It was a great statement of value to the team.”

“We had to learn from one another and see God come through,” co-director Alicia Garcia says. “One of the most exciting things has been seeing some of the guys who joined us from other cities grow a heart for discipleship. All of us came together to serve and grow with the gospel as our guide. We entered as strangers, and because of Christ and shared experiences, came out of the summer as family.”

Armando Madrid, Navigators Church Ministries (NCM), and others on the team have mentored Carlos and many other pastors in the vision of growing intentional disciplemaking cultures in their churches. Recently, 30 Hispanic church leaders came together in southern California for a discipleship training conference. Armando describes the conference saying, “We wanted to bring together many of the pastors we have trained so they could be encouraged in their own spiritual growth and build relationships with each other. We decided to do the conference all in Spanish, since it is the heart language for the participants. We could include more focused content if we didn’t take the time for translation. While most of the participants were from the Los Angeles area, we also invited pastors from Arizona and Oregon.”

Pastor Omar Millan of Calvary Fellowship in Tempe, Arizona, is focused on developing disciples in his church for the long term. He has participated in past NCM events and is currently being coached on discipleship by an NCM coach. He understands that Life-to-Life discipleship is about growing in Christ and helping others do the same. Pastor Omar brought a key leader from his church and also a pastor of another church, so they could also catch this vision of Life-to-Life discipleship.