Navigator History

Go therefore and make disciples…

Origins

The earliest beginnings of any organisation will have a marked influence on its subsequent formation. In the case of the Navigators it was formed through a disciple making relationship where Dawson Trotman (Daws) helped a sailor, Lester Spencer, stationed on the Battleship USS West Virginia. This starting place in early 1933 was the perfect environment to demonstrate the value of one person investing in another long before it became accepted practice in contemporary protestant movements.

Daws had limited access to the ship and a profound sense that Jesus was the one who worked in people’s hearts. He realised that the way forward was bigger than either himself or Lester Spencer. When Lester Spencer had grown in his faith and began to lead others to Jesus he asked Daws to invest in those sailors as he had been invested in. The response was, “You help them and I will help you help them.” So began the shift from a focus on one person helping many to find Christ and into a more organic process where each person who committed to Jesus would grow and help others encounter Him in a similar way.

One of the hallmarks of the Navigator ministry was simple pass-on-able tools like the TMS (Topical Memory System), the Wheel, the Hand and the Bridge to Life illustrations. Many of these were developed by Daws, others came later. These tools enabled the disciple in their own relationship with God and became easy tools that they had first hand experience with to pass on to others. As a result, relatively untrained disciples of Jesus could pass on to others key tools for growth in the Christian life. It was Jesus working through ordinary people who took this movement forward.

After Daws died in 1956, Lorne Sanny took over as President. He had been trained by Daws as the ‘Timothy’ to eventually replace him. The Navigators entered into 60 countries around the world during nearly 30 years of his leadership. Lorne said that in this period of rapid growth and expansion what held the Navs together like ‘steel cables’ was a shared passionate conviction of God’s faithfulness to His promises. It is this focus on the Lord himself, rather than the approaches to ministry that is significant. It helps foster an attitude of humility and a dependence on God’s grace.

Arrival in Europe

After the war, the Navigators came to Europe through US missionaries, the fruit of the war time growth and through the follow up training of the Billy Graham evangelistic meetings. Billy Graham had asked Dawson Trotman to develop a way to train lay people to help those who came forwards at the meetings. The first of these in Europe was the Greater London Crusade in 1954.

Daws had visited Europe after the War ended and met Gien Karsen, in Holland, who became a kind of Nav ‘Lydia’ for Europe and developed a flourishing ministry among Dutch women. American Joyce Turner in the 1950s started the Women’s ministry among Nurses in London and a widespread dissemination of the TMS (Topical Memory System) among local churches. Gordy Nordstrom as a single man came to France in the late 1950s and then on to the UK in the early 1960s with his wife Margaret. Ed Reis started a ministry among Churches, Professionals and consultants working at Lloyds of London.

The Navigators arrived in Europe at a time when numbers of voices in the Christian world were advocating a shift to greater personal responsibility among Christians. They were encouraging a move to a more personal relationship with God and the involvement of lay people. As is often the case, the Holy Spirit was working in the same direction among diverse groups. The Navigators, for whom this was normal, had a part to play and many felt released to be participants where they might have expected to be spectators.

This strength of comradery around a vision was a key advantage for the Navigators in breaking into the untapped yet essential resources of the Europeans. These were people who rose to the occasion of being entrusted with the gospel.

Growth

There were various efforts to bring together the ministries in Europe and in 1969 about 50 young leaders from across Europe met together with some full time US Missionary Staff in Norway for a week long Training Programme of work, prayer, fun, Bible teaching and study. Many life-long relationships were forged during that time and faith and vision enlarged for their respective countries and the world.

In the late 60s and early 70s there was a Spirit-led international Navigator movement to open more countries. Once a country had about 4 Navigator Area Reps one of them was chosen to go to another country. There was a strong sense of being involved in a movement to reach the world together and many more went overseas from Europe in the following years. During this time a travelling team was set up by Paul Stanley in Vienna to focus on the Communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

In 1973 Doug Sparks the EMA Regional director (Europe, Middle East and Africa) brought all the Navigator Staff in this region to Coventry, UK. It was an eye- and heart- opening time of learning from other cultures and seeing the greatness of our God in spite of all the needs and challenges. This was followed by a significant European gathering in April 1977 in Essen, Germany. Here, 2,730 participants from ten European countries gathered in a moment of commitment to follow Jesus wherever he took them. Many who were there saw this as a key spiritual moment.

Development

In the 1970s the Navigators were growing across the world at the significant pace of about 15% per year. They were also rapidly entering new countries. This kind of growth brought with it the need for clarity in terms of ministry approach.

To underpin this growth from the mid 1970s to the early 1990s the Navigators formulated their approach to disciple making. The FOM (Fundamentals of Navigator Ministry) was a key document for the time. It brought a significant emphasis on what the Navigators call the 3Es (Evangelism, Establishing, Equipping). This ministry philosophy underpinned a period of steady growth especially among the free thinking students of the day.

Challenges

Following this time of growth there was a significant change in the cultural mood of the Western world. This was particularly true of Europe. The former audience had been people influenced by the revolutionary ideas, rock music, drugs, mysticism, anti-Vietnam activism. The generation of the 1980s, however, looked to careers rather than ultimate answers.

It seemed as if the familiar and receptive audience was lost. People were no longer interested in questions of meaning. The Navigators, with a focus on individuals and their relationship with God, were quick to embrace the new challenge. Across the continent many new approaches for outreach and ministry were developed. Some significant ones were –

• 3Es focused Navigator ministry – The traditional FOM style of ministry continued to have success, principally among students, although the numbers of those reached did not compare to the 1970s.
• Church based Navigator ministry – There was a continual move to develop the 3E approach within churches through a two or three year discipleship training course.
• The Central and Eastern Europe Bloc – With the challenges of the Iron Curtain, and of raising ministry finance after its fall more holistic expressions were developed. Whole life communities and businesses have been formed where the gospel could be seen practically lived out by colleagues and customers.
• Inner Frontiers – a network of people integrating into their various cultures and focusing on being among people as a Kingdom presence and journeying with them.
• Across religions – Since the focus of the Navigators has been a relationship with God through Jesus Christ initiatives have developed to help people develop that relationship while being respectful of their religious background and traditions.

These approaches were given considerable scope to develop. As is frequently the case when strong minded movements are given freedom to express themselves unity became a challenge.

Pulling together from the top

The branching out and exploration existed across the international work. In response, the International Team (IET) developed a process to listen and ask questions. A wide spectrum of Navigators came together in this spirit of listening and formulated  a document called the Core (between 2000-2001). The Core unpacks our common Calling, Values and Vision. It gave space for the various elements of the Navigator work to co-exist. It also gave voice through the various phrases for each of the groups to explain to their colleagues how they were valued and belonged. A key element to the Core was the first value, “The passion to know, love and become like Jesus Christ.” This was not just a statement of theology but a call to shift from a focus on ministry approaches or forms of spirituality to our first passion for Jesus.

In Europe the international team introduced new leadership to unite the leadership groups. Mike Treneer (2000-2004) and then Bernie Dodd (2004-2012) returned to Europe to lead the work. Each in turn were appointed to be European Regional Director.

Mike who had recently joined the International Team made many trips to Europe and formed a structure that was adopted by the European Board (2002). This included a European Leadership Team made up of representatives of the different groupings, a National Council and an annual general meeting.

When Mike became International President (2004), Bernie was elected by the Europe Council as Regional Director (RD) and continued to focus on unifying the work. The motivating motto of the Team was to develop ‘sacrificial unity in the midst of diversity’. During this process the UK Navs ‘officially’ joined the European Navigators as well as the Baltic Countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were included as part of Europe Navs. When Bernie stepped down he was replaced by Rusty Stephens (2013-2015) who continued the development of younger leaders and supported pioneering initiatives across the Region.

Unity grew through the Core in areas of Spiritual Development, Deepening Relationships, Structural and Strategic Development and Philosophical/ Theological Understanding. During this period several new groupings or networks began to develop in Europe.

Pulling together from below

At the request of these leaders a new initiative brought the development of a European Student Team facilitated by Fred Horrox, a former UK Navigator missionary in Africa. Through this team various initiatives took place that brought European student leaders together. The first was a European student conference. Student leaders worked together in such a way that they met and gained first hand experience of each other’s ministries fostering trust.

When Bill Sparks became Regional Director (2016-2023) he furthered this development through two training cohorts and eventually a European Team. The training cohorts were the Emerging Leaders and Next Gen. This more intensive working together for a smaller grouping fostered a sense of a European identity.

Moving forward

The current European work has a great sense of togetherness. This brings with it an opportunity to learn from one another and to enable the development of the whole work as different gifts and strengths are brought to bear. This new atmosphere was exemplified by a Navigator European Conference in 2022. There was a sense of a new posture towards God characterised by humility as the work came together to think and pray into what we sensed the Lord was giving us faith to believe him for. To guide us through this process a new Regional Director was appointed, Bernard Dishman.