A pastor’s daughter in the Chinese Christian church environment, Esther Chan grew up familiar with what it meant to follow Jesus.

Going to multiple services every Sunday — in English and Chinese — Esther was raised in a culture of serving and spiritual leadership. However, as she entered college and stepped away from home, she began to realize she was burnt out and going through the motions.

“I felt like I was treating faith as an extracurricular,” she remembers. “I would serve, but struggled with spiritual disciplines, and I was feeling discouraged. And then God put the word ‘discipleship’ on my mind as a freshman. I needed someone older in the faith to teach me.”

When Esther showed up at the University of California, Davis, she was immediately intrigued by The Navigators ministry on campus. The first week of class, Navigator students were passing out free t-shirts to anyone who would stop and interact with The Bridge to Life illustration.

“I left that conversation thinking, ‘Wow, this fellowship is serious about God and the gospel!’” she says. “I was so impressed. From this encounter, I joined a women’s Bible study, started going to Nav Nights, and attended fall retreat.”

As Esther got more involved, she started to be discipled by a Navigator named Juliana. “She was also Asian American, and she met with me every week for my first two years of college,” Esther says. “She holistically helped me in faith in innumerable ways.” Juliana taught Esther how to evangelize and share her faith with others, and soon, Esther gained a heart for reaching the lost and started discipling other students too.

ASAM: Helping Navigators Feel Seen and Heard

When Esther joined the community of The Navigators, it was the first time she had stepped into an environment that was culturally diverse. Up until that point, she had spent most of her life with Chinese Christians.

“It was an intentional step of courage for me,” she recalls. “But I knew Heaven isn’t going to just be Chinese people, so I needed to meet other brothers and sisters in Christ. I could see God through other people’s cultures, but it was really hard for me.”

After Esther’s freshman year, she spent her summer attending a Navigators Summer Training Program (STP). As she navigated new relationships outside her cultural norm, she felt like a fish out of water — all the other students were talking about shows she had never watched, jumping from one conversation to the next — and Esther scrambled to feel like she was fitting in. “I felt like there was nowhere for me to contribute,” she says. “It was mentally exhausting, and I was feeling so discouraged.”

One day that summer, Navigator David Sasaki came to visit. A fellow Asian American, David sat with Esther and another Asian American student from the STP, and he listened to them while they cried and shared their experiences. “He was such a comforting presence,” Esther remembers. “He encouraged us and was a listening ear to how hard the summer had been. It meant so much to me at that time.”

Esther’s experience as a student — of having a safe space to culturally relate and encourage and share experiences — is a small glimpse of the bigger picture that the Navigators Asian American (ASAM) Network is hoping to accomplish. ASAM, along with other cultural networks within The Navigators (LaVida, AFAM, and Native Nations), was created to be a distinct community for Asian American Navigators to lift each other up, experience cultural understanding, and advocate for each other within the larger Navigator family.

“We ask ourselves, what do our Asian American Navigator staff need?” James Tsang, the co-director for the ASAM Network, says. “How do we shepherd and care for and develop our Asian American staff? We wanted to create spaces for that nationally.”

A large focus of ASAM is mentorship: having veteran staff pouring into younger staff, and staff pouring into students. This past November, ASAM launched a new mentorship program called “GenerAsians,” where Asian American staff are paired up to walk alongside and support each other throughout the year.

“We’ve already had one mentee in the program say, ‘I’ve been praying someone would come alongside me and help me grow, and in particular, someone that would understand my cultural background,’” James shares. “That was so encouraging for us to hear. God is doing something, and we get to be a part of it.”

Mentorship That Multiplies

Now Esther is on staff with The Navigators, helping pioneer a college ministry at Sacramento State. Over the past two years on campus, she’s seen the Lord grow their budding ministry — from simply trying to meet students through playing spike ball to now hosting Nav Nights with 20 to 30 students each week.

Throughout her years of ministry, she has learned many lessons from other staff within ASAM: from how to fundraise within an Asian American context to seeing how the Lord moves within diverse cultural environments. Now, she is starting to pass along what she’s learned to the students she disciples.

For example, one of Esther’s students is a Nigerian international student named Seven. When Seven went to a Navigators fall retreat, she was surprised to realize that she was the only black woman in the room. When she confided feeling out of place to Esther, Esther first encouraged her, acknowledging that it’s hard to feel different than those around you, even when you are united in faith. But then, Esther challenged her: “If you want to see more black women in this room one day, let’s go seek them out when we get back on campus.” Now, Seven has gotten involved with the Nigerian Student Association on campus, and has started inviting them into her Navigator circles.

“I told her, maybe there’s no other Nigerian Christian on campus who is willing to break into this space, but you are walking so they can run,” Esther explains. “It turned a moment of isolation into a moment of empowerment. If I didn’t have ASAM to teach me some of that first — how to mentor people of color in minority spaces, even if they aren’t Asian American — I would have had nothing to pass on at that moment.”

For James, ASAM has become a family, providing spiritual parents and siblings who have pointed him to faith, mentored him, and encouraged him in his walk to make disciples. Through ASAM, he hopes that legacy will continue as Navigators help others “to know Christ, make Him known, and help others do the same^®” in every culture and nation.

“We are all about disciplemaking, but to ignore our cultural diversity would be a really big loss,” James says. “I appreciate that our leadership has rallied behind and been advocates for the networks, and I believe The Navigator organization will be blessed as a result — and that the Kingdom will be blessed beyond.”

Discipleship Tip:

Create intentional space to know people beyond the surface — including their cultural backgrounds, stories, and experiences. When people feel seen and understood, they’re more open to spiritual growth. Discipleship that listens well builds trust and multiplies impact.

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands” Revelation 7:9 (NIV).

When Anissa Haynes started her freshman year of college, she knew she wanted Christian community. Growing up in a Christian home, she had briefly heard of The Navigators in high school. By the time she stepped onto the University of Arizona campus in Tucson, she knew The Navigators would be a community where she could grow — and she wanted to belong.

What she didn’t realize was how God would use that community to heal internal cultural insecurities she’d long been avoiding.

Half Mexican and half white, Anissa came into college assuming her cultural background wasn’t something she needed to think about. “I thought, I’m a Christian, I’m not going to talk about my culture,” Anissa remembers. “But in reality, that came from a place of deep insecurity. And while it’s true that being a child of God is my first identity, in that moment, I was just trying to hide from God. I didn’t want to let Him into processing that area of my life.”

Anissa’s perception began to shift when she joined a small cultural study for Latino students led by a Navigators staff couple called “Navicanos.” During one discussion, someone casually mentioned praying in Spanish.

“In that moment, something clicked,” Anissa recalls. “For some reason, it didn’t hit me until that discussion that God speaks Spanish.” Though she had always known God as her Creator and Savior, realizing that God met her within her culture made her feel seen and known in an entirely new way.

That sense of being seen was reinforced through something simple but powerful: shared meals. “In college, you’re constantly eating alone or sitting at small tables,” Anissa says. “So to sit at a table that was actually full was so special.” Around that table, surrounded by other Latino students with similar stories and backgrounds, she experienced a community that felt like home.

Mosaic: A Community of Cultural Unity

As the group grew, so did the vision. When the original staff leaders stepped off, the ministry transitioned into something new: Mosaic — a space where students from any cultural or ethnic background could explore how their faith and culture intersect through Scripture.

The name reflects the heart of the ministry. Inspired by Revelation 7:9, Mosaic celebrates the beauty of distinct pieces coming together to form one unified picture — similar to how people from every nation, tribe, and tongue will one day worship before the throne of God.

When the opportunity arose for Anissa to lead Mosaic, she hesitated at first. She didn’t see herself as the “right” person for the role. In her head, there was a mental checklist she believed a leader should meet — especially when it came to culture. Food, language, traditions, appearance — everyone seemed to rate authenticity differently, and she felt insecure about how she measured up.

But God met her reluctance with an invitation.

“The Lord pressed upon my heart 2 Corinthians 12:9, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness,’” Anissa says. “It felt like He was leading me to lead in weakness, to put my insecurities on display, so other students could feel seen. And it’s been sweet to see how the Lord used that.”

Since then, Mosaic has become a place of healing and discipleship. Students gather regularly for “heritage nights,” which begin with a shared meal featuring a cultural dish — from Filipino lumpia to Chinese potstickers to Mexican food. Students introduce the dish and its cultural background, then move into small groups centered on Scripture and guided discussion.

Within Mosaic, students use a simple discipleship framework to reflect on their culture through the lens of the gospel: Where do we see God’s creativity and beauty in cultural diversity? How have cultural experiences been affected by sin and brokenness? And how does Jesus bring redemption to both?

“At The Navigators, we love to talk about how the gospel relates to all of life,” Anissa says. “At Mosaic, we get to talk about how the gospel relates to your cultural identity.”

Embracing the Diverse Kingdom of God

Through Mosaic, Anissa has watched God bring freedom where there was shame, security where there was insecurity, and healing where there were deep family and cultural wounds.

“There is such insecurity and shame when it comes to cultural identity, and I just know the Lord wants to bring healing,” Anissa says. “It is no accident that we are uniquely made within a cultural group, and God has a purpose and will for us within that unique design.”

For one student, who is half Navajo and half white, Mosaic became a space for healing. In her matriarchal culture, inheritance traditionally passes to the oldest daughter. However, when her mother died, that inheritance went instead to a fully Navajo cousin. The hurt lingered — but through Mosaic, she began to see her story differently.

“She told me, ‘I know my inheritance with the Lord is secure and will never be taken away from me,’” Anissa explains. “For her to have this hurtful experience, but for it to be rewritten through the lens of the gospel and the hope of the inheritance to come, is so beautiful. She was able to see gospel themes in her lived experience with her culture, and that’s what we hope for.”

Mosaic has transformed not only how Anissa sees herself, but how she imagines the Kingdom of God.

Anissa’s prayer is that more campuses would offer spaces like Mosaic — places where students can encounter gospel truth in a way that honors how God uniquely designed them.

“At The Navigators, we really want students to walk with Jesus, not just in college, but for their lifetime,” Anissa says. “We want them to be walking with Jesus until kingdom come. Mosaic plays such a beautiful part in casting that vision. We have a big God who is God of the world, God of the nations. And so I encourage you, give students the big and real picture of the Kingdom of the Lord. Let’s not settle for a small picture.”

Discipleship Tip:

Do you sense that God might be calling you to host a gathering like Mosaic in your own community? This week, ask God to show you some simple ways you could bring people of diverse backgrounds together to learn from and encourage each other as disciples of Jesus.

1. Christological

The first fruitful motivation is Christological — a desire to be like Jesus in character and in action.

Those with a Christological motivation engage disciplemaking because Jesus did — and they want to be like Him. It’s not enough to be moral, to faithfully shepherd the sheep, to raise a family, or to serve others. No, these disciplemakers are motivated to become just like Jesus. Since Jesus’ life is their example, disciplemaking is central to their calling. It’s not something to do, it’s who they are becoming. Such deeply motivated commitment isn’t simple obedience (see Matthew 28:18–20), it’s their very life — their way of being in the world.

This motivation leads them to actually believe that they are called to do even greater things than Jesus did (see John 14:12). For such disciplemakers, it’s not enough to make a couple of disciples. Instead, they are aiming for a team of disciples who will have the faith to challenge and change the world. They want to trust God that such a team will spark a movement of disciplemakers.

2. Kingdom

The second fruitful motivation is a Kingdom motivation — a desire to expand the Kingdom by saving those who don’t yet know Jesus.

Those who carry this motivation are strongly compelled by the idea of depopulating hell and reaching all nations. They are compelled to play a part in building an eternal Kingdom where every tribe, tongue, language, and people gather together around the throne to worship the King (see Revelation 7:9).

3. Generational

The third fruitful motivation is generational — a desire to participate in the covenantal promises God gave in Genesis.

These disciplemakers are convinced that the covenantal promises that God gave Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — to make their offspring as numerous as the stars in the sky — is available to them, as well (see Genesis 15:5–6; 26:2–6; 28:13–15). They have seen how that promise was passed down from the Old Testament into the New Testament. They embrace their life as a thin span of time and want to use it to build the Kingdom.

They desire to serve the purposes God has for them in this generation (see Acts 13:36). They believe they’ve been invited to partner with God to do something that holds meaning in this life and in eternity. Such a generational motivation allows these disciplemakers to mine the Scriptures for the promises made to others and to ask God to do the same in their life.

Here are some examples:

• Isaiah 43:4 (NIV): [God says,] “Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you, nations in exchange for your life.”

• Isaiah 60:22 (NIV): “The least of you will become a thousand, and the smallest a mighty nation. I am the Lord; in its time I will do this swiftly.”

• Galatians 3:29 (NIV): “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Generationally motivated disciplemakers read passages like these and cry out, God, would You do this in my life?

They understand they have a part to play in the grand unfolding of God’s story as He builds His Kingdom — a people set apart for Himself. God uses ordinary, everyday people to do this. As Christ’s disciples they have a great spiritual heritage that motivates them in disciplemaking.

Virtually every fruitful disciplemaker is motivated by one or more of these three primary motivations. Each of them is rooted in what God desires, but also connects to the heart of the individual disciplemaker. The result is a disciplemaker who has both an intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

No matter how a disciplemaker is motivated, Scripture is clear that God wants to use every disciple to build the church by advancing the gospel and establishing His Kingdom on earth (see Matthew 28:18–20). His plan hinges on using every disciple to build the church by making disciplemakers. These humble disciplemakers not only have a great spiritual heritage (see 2 Corinthians 1:20; 2: Peter 1:4), they also are being cheered on by a great cloud of witnesses in the heavenly realms (see Hebrews 12:1)!

Let’s not overcomplicate this: Disciplemaking should be led by a disciplemaking team, or, in the absence of a team, it must be led by a disciplemaker. Either way, the work is spread by those who are passionate enough to light a fire in others.

Did you like this article? Check out Justin G. Gravitt’s book, The Foundation of a Disciplemaking Culture, today!

Discipleship Tip:

Are you a disciplemaker who shares the motivations described above? This week, consider asking God to help you discern what steps you can take to plant the seeds of a thriving disciplemaking culture in your own community.

Meet the Author

Justin G. Gravitt has been on staff with The Navigators since 2000, where he has planted or grown disciplemaking ministries on multiple college campuses, overseas, and most recently has helped churches across the United States grow intentional disciplemaking cultures. He and his family live in Dayton, OH. He is the author of The Foundation of a Disciplemaking Culture (NavPress, 2024) and other thoughtful resources for disciplemakers.

During those trips I learned how to read a state road map. I still carry an old-school atlas with me in the car, just in case. But today we can open an app on our phones or on the car dashboard to provide us with cues for our travels. The GPS tells us when to exit, merge with traffic, and change lanes. It can provide alternate routes based on traffic, suggest the closest coffee shop, or exclaim “Recalculating route!” when you miss your turn.

But what’s the one thing necessary for a GPS system to function as it has been designed?

A Destination.

When it comes to raising disciples, we should set our eyes on the destination.

I believe that one of the reasons parents and caregivers struggle to disciple children well is that we haven’t clearly identified the destination for their discipleship and the directions that guide them toward that goal.

How would you describe a child who is entering adolescence as an active disciple? Would you choose words that describe their character: loving, joyful, obedient, self-controlled? Or would you choose words that describe behaviors: reads the Bible daily, asks spiritual questions, worships God? Perhaps you would choose words that describe their depth of knowledge and understanding about God and His Word.

Public and private education systems have stated objectives when it comes to student expectations. Lists of student learning outcomes articulate the goals for students at the conclusion of each grade level. Each child is unique and develops at their own rate, so there are those who will exceed the expectations and others who will struggle. But teachers begin each year knowing the goals and guiding students along the path toward achievement. Like a GPS, they might have to find alternate paths for some or help others get turned back around, but with a clear goal and markers on the way, teachers are able to guide their young disciples.

This is what we’ve been missing in our homes and churches — a discipleship map that states the goal for raising disciples and provides directions toward that goal.

In some Christian traditions, the goal for children has been a public confession of Christ; in others, submission through the act of baptism. In yet other traditions, it has been the completion of confirmation classes. Regardless of our tradition, our goal for raising disciples should be the same as the goal for all disciples: to become more and more like Christ every day.

For three years, Jesus taught the crowds, His enemies, and political leaders, but most often, He was teaching twelve ordinary men from various backgrounds, vocations, and experiences. When He chose the Twelve, He had a goal in mind. Jesus knew that at the conclusion of His earthly ministry He would redeem the world through His death, return to God the Father, and equip His followers with the Holy Spirit to disciple others. He needed a core group of leaders who would follow Him daily (Luke 9:23), continuing His mission “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10) and to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).

As Jesus prepared to leave the Twelve to continue His mission, He met with them to give them some final encouragements and admonitions. Woven through Jesus’ conversation in the upper room (John 13–17), we find descriptions of what it means to become like Christ:

• Follow His example (John 13:14-15),
• Love others (John 13:34),
• Believe in God (John 14:1),
• Keep God’s commands (John 14:15), and
• Remain in Christ (John 15:4).

These descriptors provide some direction toward the goal for all disciples.

With the destination of becoming like Christ as our goal, we can utilize childhood development information from the fields of social science, learning theory, and psychology to create a map for discipleship from infancy to adolescence.* Beginning at birth, there are seven directional discipleship markers — approximately one for every two years of life — that parallel the biological, cognitive, social, and moral development of children. Just as Jesus discipled the Twelve from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity, we can use this map to raise disciples who become increasingly more like Christ.

Did you like this article? Check out Teresa Roberts’ full book, Raising Disciples, as well as the accompanying free 8-week parenting curriculum today!

Discipleship Tip:

When discipling someone, consider verbally setting discipleship goals. With a destination in mind, you can orchestrate milestones and implement accountability, making sure that you both are progressing forward in their discipleship journey.

*The faith research of James W. Fowler (Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning, San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1981) and insights of spiritual development from John H. Westerhoff III (Will Our Children Have Faith?, 3rd. ed., Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse, 2012) has also informed this discipleship map.

Meet the Author

Teresa Roberts is Professor of Ministry and Christian Formation, Program Director of Children’s Ministry, and a vice president at Ozark Christian College. She is an expert in children’s spiritual formation training with more than 25 years of ministry experience.

Dr. Roberts holds a Master of Arts in Family and Youth Ministry, a Master of Divinity, and a Doctor of Ministry. She serves in children’s ministry at Carterville Christian Church where she attends with her husband and step-daughter. Learn more at discipleshipguides.com/.

Walt’s father had passed away when he was 13 years old, and since then, his life had spiraled out of control. Frequently getting into trouble, he left for college without a home to come back to. “I was just a mess,” Walt remembers. “I went off to college to party my life away. The day I left for college, my mom told me, ‘I don’t ever want you coming back here.’”

On July 12th, Walt got drunk with a friend and cried for the first time since his dad died. When his friend asked him why, Walt replied, “Mark, I have absolutely nothing to live for. But I’m scared to die.”

The next day, Walt got into a fight with another student playing basketball. As he sat in his dorm room after — still covered in the other students’ blood from breaking his nose — he hit a breaking point. Sending a desperate plea to God, he asked for a sign.

“Whoever You are, show me how I can be right with You,” Walt prayed. “Show me how I can deal with this anger, and I’ll give You my life.”

Several minutes later, Walt heard a knock on his door. On the other side stood Keith Hughes, a recent graduate who was involved with The Navigators on campus.

Earlier in the evening, Keith had planned to go to a baseball game on campus. When the game was canceled due to weather, he sat at a park nearby Walt’s dorm to spend some time with the Lord. During that time, he felt a calling from God — there was someone in the dorm he needed to talk to. He walked into the hall, got in the elevator, closed his eyes, and chose a random floor to visit. Two doors over, in room 402, Walt was ready for him.

That night, Keith shared the gospel with Walt, and it was a moment that forever changed the trajectory of Walt’s life.

“When God sent Keith to my door, I knew, it’s time,” Walt remembers. “God’s done his part. Now it’s time for me to bend my knee and come to the Lord. So that’s what I did.”

A Lasting Impact

Today, over four decades later, Walt still vividly remembers that night: the exact date, along with Keith’s name, are forever inscribed inside the front cover of Walt’s Bible — despite the fact that Walt and Keith lost touch a couple weeks later that summer.

In the years since, Walt has grown in his faith and passionately pursued the Lord, serving overseas and teaching the next generation of Christian leaders how to live out their faith around the world. Thousands of lives have been touched by the gospel through Walt’s faith — including his mom, whom he later led to Christ, and his three sons, who are now serving in ministry themselves. For Walt’s family, Keith Hughes is a household name — the man who led their father to Christ all those years ago and impacted their family for generations.

The funny part of the story, though? If you asked him today, Keith doesn’t remember that moment in the dorm room at all.

When Keith thinks back on that summer, he mostly recalls it as the months that he began to date his wife. At the time, he would go onto campus to practice evangelism as The Navigators had trained him to do in college, sharing the gospel with the students he met. He doesn’t remember Walt specifically, or that fateful night — just that he was trying to plant seeds for Christ.

“For me, it was all about obedience — God allowed me to plant a seed, and the ground was fertilized,” Keith says. “God had worked in Walt’s heart long before we crossed paths, and God had an impact through his life since. But for me, this was probably something I wouldn’t have found out about until glory.”

This past year, Walt and Keith were reconnected through Navigator Greg Bryan, who coincidentally met Walt, heard his story, and helped him track down Keith. When Walt shared with Keith the impact that he had on his life back in 1978 and that he had been wanting to meet him again ever since, Keith could barely believe it.

“It was a surreal conversation because this was the most important day of my life,” Walt says. “It changed the trajectory of my life forever. And Keith doesn’t even remember.”

Seeds Planted For Christ

“For when one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ are you not mere human beings? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe — as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow” 1 Corinthians 3:4-7 (NIV). 

For Keith, 1 Corinthians 3:4-7 sums up his story with Walt: though he planted a seed, God watered it and transformed Walt into the faithful man he is today.

Like many believers, Keith may never have known the impact of the seed he planted that day. But through God’s grace of reconnecting with Walt years later, he has now been able to catch a glimpse of heaven, seeing how the Lord used his obedience that one night when he was a young man.

“To me, this is a story about divine appointments and a glimpse of heaven,” Greg says. “Keith had no idea what happened to that broken, angry young man he led to faith that night … they might not have even met until they stepped into eternity. But now Walt can say, ‘You touched my life, you changed my life. And because of that, I was able to go on and touch others’ lives with the gospel. The seed you’ve sown in my life produced fruit.’”

You can hear more of Walt and Keith’s story of divine appointments on Greg’s podcast Gospel Addict.

Discipleship Tip:

As disciplemakers, sometimes we don’t know how God will water the seeds we plant. Like Keith, we may never know how one conversation can lead to a chain reaction of impact years later. This week, invite God into your relationships and ask Him to water the seeds that you plant.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (November 17, 2025) — This fall, after a careful editorial and production process spanning nearly five years, NavPress (a business ministry of The Navigators) celebrated the release of The Message Women’s Devotional Bible. 

Featuring 320 topical devotions, 52 biblical character profiles, and other supplemental content written by women for women, this expansive project pairs Eugene H. Peterson’s award-winning translation of the Bible with insights from more than 80 contributors of diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, vocations, and Christian denominations. The devotional Bible has been recognized for outstanding design, as well: It received a Top Shelf Book Cover Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) at this year’s Publishing University on October 31.

“The features in this Bible are what rose to the surface when our team asked, What do women really need in a devotional Bible?” shares Olivia Eldredge, editor of The Message^® Bible. “Women need to hear from other women: diverse, trustworthy, thoughtful voices who can speak to how the Bible intersects with the lives of women. And they need to have space to bring their questions, their vulnerability, their honest wrestling — and be met by God.”

While Christian content marketed specifically to women can tend toward superficiality and stereotypes, The Message Women’s Devotional Bible pursues nuance, sensitivity, and authenticity while remaining faithful to the biblical texts. Throughout, it invites women to engage deeply with difficult or overlooked passages, offering candid reflections on the truth that women — though often unnamed in Scripture — are indeed active, vital participants in God’s story, both in the biblical narrative and today.

The Message is a contemporary translation of the Bible, created by Eugene H. Peterson and thoroughly reviewed by a team of Old and New Testament scholars to ensure accuracy and fidelity to the original biblical languages. A pastor, theologian, scholar, writer, and poet, Peterson worked directly from the Greek and Hebrew texts to craft a faithful rendering of Scripture in accessible, everyday language. It took him a full decade to complete his translation work.

Learn more about The Message Women’s Devotional Bible and other NavPress resources by visiting NavPress.com.

###

About The U.S. Navigators

The Navigators is a ministry that shares the gospel of Jesus and helps people grow in their relationship with Him through Life-to-Life^® discipleship, creating spiritual generations of believers. Since its founding in 1933, The Navigators has upheld the mission “to know Christ, make Him known, and help others do the same^®.” Our Worldwide Partnership includes around 6,000 staff of 85 nationalities, serving in 123 countries. Navigators encourage spiritual growth across life stages, serving wherever people work, live, worship, and play: on college campuses and military bases as well as in urban neighborhoods, workplaces, churches, local communities, and hard-to-reach places. To learn more, visit www.navigators.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 5, 2025
Contact: Chris Muller, Senior Vice President, Ministry Engagement, (719) 594-2269, chris.muller@navigators.org

The Holy Trinity is a mystery to me, with its three in oneness and its oneness in three, and I can just barely grasp the deep relational nature of how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit touch and spin and dance off each other and with each other. Hospitality — that generous making room for others and giving and receiving to and from each other from our plenty and sometimes from our scarcity but we do it anyway — seems to flow out of that communal and relational and so generous nature of God. Being holy as God is holy, if we can believe it, catapults us into relationship with others and the practice of hospitality. Holiness is relational, and that is why hospitality fits holiness like a soft leather glove.

Hospitality involves the holy practice of gratitude.

All of this is made easier alongside the holy practice of gratitude. I have this place, this food, this book; please take it and enjoy it as well. We try to believe that everything we have comes from God, and so it is ours not to own but to share. So hospitality is almost always best when it is gratitude adjacent. However, the discipline of hospitality can happen also while you are still a grouchy, miserly mess. Disciplines take discipline. Not everything is easy or feels good right away, but that might mean it’s even more worth doing, and not less.

Hospitality invites humility.

In Luke 14:12-14, Jesus tells us how to throw a dinner party. Dinner parties are, after all, what most of us think of first when we think about hospitality: “‘When you put on a luncheon or a banquet,’ he said, ‘don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. For they will invite you back, and that will be your only reward. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you’” (NLT). In Luke 14:8-10, He even discusses seating plans: “When you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t sit in the seat of honor … Instead, take the lowest place at the foot of the table” (NLT).

Jesus knows me so well. He predicts my thirst for status. When we practice hospitality as part of our holiness, we will come face-to-face with our desire to invite first our friends, the people we especially like or those whom we want to especially like us, along with the relatives we are most comfortable with, and, of course, our rich neighbors. We might strut around like a peacock in our own dining room and not even realize we are doing it. Again, our intentional moves toward holiness will show us how far we have yet to travel. Our efforts to do good on the outside will show us how far we are from good on the inside, and in that gap, we learn again of our need for the forgiving, restoring love of God in our own lives and hearts, and how much we need him, even when we are serving macaroni to friends.

We learn something about ourselves — and therefore move deeper into our holiness journeys — when we pay attention to whom we want to welcome in and how we want to welcome them to our homes, our tables, and our lives.

Hospitality helps us to examine our hidden motivations.

As we consider ourselves, we can confess ourselves to God and ask for help. Why am I making this so fancy? we can ask our inner hostess, in an examination of motivation that is a daily part of pushing into our holiness. What is my motivation? Also, Why am I talking about myself so much? And why can’t I stop?

Our honest answers do not bring the dinner party, the coffee date, or the open house to a screeching halt, but instead provide us another opportunity to be honest with ourselves and with God — who is the ultimate and gracious host of heaven and earth now and the new earth that is to come. Make me holy in my hospitality, we might pray. Kill off my show-off-ness, we might ask. Help me listen more than I speak, as my blunt spouse has said I need to work on.

Help me not to be so needy, I can pray as I juice blood oranges for udon noodles with fried tofu and orange nam jim from my expensive hardcover Ottolenghi Flavour cookbook propped open on the counter. Perhaps for a little while, as part of our own healing, we will make a simple spaghetti Bolognese, accept the offer of our guest to bring store-bought garlic bread and let Maureen help with the cleanup, like she always wants to do. We will resist the temptation to offer our guests a tour of our new barbeque and satisfy our thirst for thanks by turning it outward to gratitude to God. What if whenever we yearn for someone to say, “Thank you, you are marvelous for all you have done,” we accept that as a prompt to whisper, “Thank You. You are marvelous for all You have done.”

Hospitality exercises a variety of spiritual disciplines.

Food is just one expression of hospitality. Conversation is another. When we practice holiness through hospitality, we create a space in which other pursuits of holiness can be practiced, such as listening well and not interrupting, putting others first, and offering encouragement and companionship to the person God has placed and we have invited in front of us. From the way Jesus tells us to invite, and the humility presumed in His recommended seating plan, we can assume that we don’t invite people to our table so we can imprison them to hear all and only about us. We don’t tie them to their chairs with our story and our glory.

We can stretch our ability to put others first, and to forgive.

We can practice patience, a fruit of the Spirit we get to work with, toward friends who arrive late (or even worse, early) and those who stay too long. We practice not biting off the heads of those with whom we disagree. If we do bite their heads off at dinner, we can practice the art of unequivocal apology. Apologizing is a holy act. I’m sorry are holy, healing words. Through hospitality’s gift of space opened up and time slowed down, we can “be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep,” which Paul told us to do only two verses after he reminded us to “always be eager to practice hospitality” in Romans 12:13-15.

Discipleship Tip:

Hospitality isn’t about impressing others — it’s about making space for them. This week, invite someone into your home or life with gratitude and humility, focusing on listening and encouraging rather than showcasing. Ask the Lord for opportunities to be hospitable in your community in order to point others to Jesus.

About the Author

Karen Stiller is a senior editor of Faith Today magazine and writes frequently for magazines like Reader’s Digest, Ekstasis, In Trust, and other publications across North America. Stiller is a three-time winner of the prestigious A.C. Forrest Memorial Award from the Canadian Church Press for excellence in socially conscious religious journalism. She is author of The Minister’s Wife (2020, Tyndale Momentum); co-author of Craft, Cost & Call (2019), Shifting Stats Shaking the Church (2015) and Going Missional (2010); editor of The Lord’s Prayer (2015) and coeditor of Evangelicals Around the World (2015). She lives in Ottawa and has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Non-Fiction from University of King’s College, Dalhousie.

This article was originally published on the DiscipleMaker Blog by NavPress. You can also hear more from Karen Stiller through her book Holiness Here and NavPress’ new podcast, “Good Books, Big Questions,” where Karen hosts bold, loving, and sensible conversations about faith.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (November 5, 2025) — The Navigators Collegiate Mission is experiencing a season of growth with the launch of 26 new campus ministries in the past year alone. A ministry of The Navigators, Navigators Collegiate has now established Christian disciplemaking communities on nearly 200 college campuses around the United States, reaching approximately 25,000 college students each year. This momentum reflects a notable trend: As recent Barna Group research confirms, today’s young people are demonstrating an increased openness and commitment to Christian faith compared to previous generations.

Among the many organizations reaching college students with the Good News of Jesus, The Navigators is known for its distinct focus on fostering Life-to-Life^® discipleship relationships: intentional, one-to-one connections that offer students a model for how to follow Jesus in daily life, and how to help others –– roommates, classmates, teammates, friends, and family members –– do the same.

Accordingly, The Navigators Collegiate aims to equip students to be lifelong disciplemakers who will make Christ known not only on campus, but wherever they go after graduation.

“The campus environment is one of the most strategic places to reach people because nobody stays a student forever,” Navigators Collegiate Mission Director Ben Nugent explains. “So, Lord willing, our Collegiate work is sending out ‘workers for the Kingdom,’ ‘next door to everywhere.’”

Along with Life-to-Life^® discipleship, Navigators Collegiate ministries offer students a variety of on-campus events, community groups, retreats, and Bible studies, as well as service opportunities like U.S.-based Summer Training Programs and international short-term mission trips.

The Navigators campus-based ministries differ in form depending on what resources best suit the unique location, size, and demographic makeup of a given student body. In many cases, a Navigator staff couple will move to an area and become established in the local community before launching a campus ministry. Other ministries operate with less formal organizational frameworks: For instance, a team of EDGE Corps staff (Navigator interns) may visit the campus twice weekly, or a Bible study group may develop organically within other established groups, such as sororities and fraternities. Additionally, students who are passionate about their faith and friendships may volunteer to launch new ministry initiatives; many of these individuals benefit from resources provided by the Navigators Discipleship app.

To learn more about The Navigators Collegiate Mission, visit https://www.navigators.org/ministry/navigators-collegiate/.

###

About The U.S. Navigators

The Navigators is a ministry that shares the gospel of Jesus and helps people grow in their relationship with Him through Life-to-Life^® discipleship, creating spiritual generations of believers. Since its founding in 1933, The Navigators has upheld the mission “to know Christ, make Him known, and help others do the same^®.” Our Worldwide Partnership includes around 6,000 staff of 85 nationalities, serving in 123 countries. Navigators encourage spiritual growth across life stages, serving wherever people work, live, worship, and play: on college campuses and military bases as well as in urban neighborhoods, workplaces, churches, local communities, and hard-to-reach places. To learn more, visit www.navigators.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 5, 2025
Contact: Chris Muller, Senior Vice President, Ministry Engagement, (719) 594-2269, chris.muller@navigators.org

Little did they know, but God would answer their prayers in an incredible way.

Over the last school year, Navigators at the University of Wisconsin have experienced a surge of fruitful ministry — simply through the momentum of students leading other students to Christ.

“There’s this generational disciplemaking happening,” Navigator Brian VanZante says. “These students — it’s on their heart to not just convert people and leave them, but to help them grow to a place where they can help others.”

This was the case for two students, Eli and Alyssa. Having grown in their faith through discipleship throughout their college experiences, they both took up the call this past year to pass on what they’ve learned to incoming freshmen. From hosting Bible studies to meeting weekly in discipleship, Eli and Alyssa have watched the Lord transform the lives of those they lead.

Eli’s story

Eli first got plugged in with The Navigators as a freshman when he showed up to an outreach event. Immediately, he was struck by the intentionality of the leaders in the ministry. “I joined a Bible study, and it just blew me away,” he remembers. “I never expected to find a group like that in college.”

As Eli started to get more involved, he was discipled by an upperclassman named Parker. Parker walked Eli through different books of the Bible, helping him memorize Scripture and navigate whatever Eli was going through in life at the time.

“There was this unique aspect of sharing lives and someone pouring into me individually that I had never experienced before,” Eli remembers. “It was a huge blessing to me, and it inspired me to want to do the same for others.”

As Eli neared the end of his college experience, he started praying a specific prayer in the months leading up to his senior year: “God, don’t just make this a year where I enjoy college. Can you do something with my life? Can you help me have a permanent effect on campus?”

The first week of the fall semester, Eli was playing volleyball at a Navigators event when a new student, Joseph, came up to him. Joseph, who had already signed up for Eli’s Bible study, asked Eli, “You’re going to be my Bible study leader, right? So should we start reading the Bible together?”

Eli was taken aback — he had never seen that kind of initiative before. Eli agreed, and before their official Bible study even started, he and Joseph started reading the Bible together every morning. At the time, Joseph said that he had an interest in the gospel, but wasn’t entirely sure about God. However, soon after, he gave his life to Christ. Eli later had the opportunity to baptize Joseph in front of the whole ministry.

During that time, Eli also met another new freshman named Caden. Eli asked Caden to meet up, and before they met, Eli felt the Holy Spirit telling him that Caden was ready to hear the gospel — he was low hanging fruit ready to be picked. Eli shared The Bridge to Life illustration with Caden, and right then and there, Caden accepted Christ. Eli continued to disciple him throughout the rest of the year.

However, the chain of discipleship didn’t stop there. Later in the semester, Joseph shared his faith with a classmate, Paul, leading him to Christ and discipling him the rest of the year. Over this past summer, Joseph served at Eagle Lake Camps in Colorado, and has led a few campers to Christ as well. Similarly, Caden shared the gospel with his family, and now his parents are going to church with him.

“My prayer was 2 Timothy 2:2, which talks about entrusting what you’ve learned to faithful men,” Eli says. “I wanted to entrust the teaching of Christ that I received to them, so that they could pass it along and teach it to others. That was my prayer for Joseph and Caden — and God has been answering it.”

Alyssa’s story

Though Alyssa was raised Catholic, she didn’t really know Jesus as her Lord and Savior. In high school, she sought worldly fulfillment, looking to partying and feeling like she had to prove herself by meeting the expectations laid out in front of her. However, through her involvement with a Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) group at her high school, she started to seek the Lord, even though she wasn’t quite sure what she was looking for.

“I didn’t have Jesus then, but I can see the ways He intentionally put things into my life to flourish and know His name,” Alyssa remembers.

When Alyssa arrived at University of Wisconsin as a freshman, she had never heard of The Navigators. She started to slip into the party scene on campus, but felt empty and thought that it might be good to join a campus ministry to make friends. When she discovered The Navigators, she was drawn in by how caring the students were.

“They kept being so intentional with me, showing the love of Christ to me so I could get to know Him,” she says. “I just really wanted a friend to talk to, and I’ve never been sought out in that way before. The world never did that for me.”

Later that semester, Alyssa had fully given her life to Christ. She started being discipled by a leader named Ali, who walked with her through the highs and lows of life while also shepherding her heart towards Christ.

“She met me exactly where I was at,” Alyssa recalls. “She wasn’t pushing me too hard or letting me wander too far without following along. She was stewarding me well.”

Over the next couple of years, Alyssa started to get more involved, leading Bible studies and even attending a Summer Training Program (STP) in Colorado Springs, where she led kids at Eagle Lake Camp. 

As she went into her junior year of college, Alyssa was intentionally praying for the Lord to help her connect and disciple other students on campus.

The Lord answered her prayer. Over her junior year, Alyssa has gotten to disciple multiple women, guiding them the way that Ali once led her. Beyond that, in a Bible study she leads, three women have given their lives to Christ! She’s watched as they’ve grown confident in their faith, becoming disciplemakers and leaders themselves.

“When I meet with someone, I want to give them the tools they need to be more successful and steward the gifts that God’s given them,” Alyssa says. “It’s been so inspiring to see these women who were very much in worldly ways — like I once was — turning towards Jesus and professing their faith.”

Now a senior, Alyssa continues to passionately pursue hearts for Christ on campus — a calling that will stick with her long after graduation. “Wherever I go, The Navigators will always have a place in my heart,” she says. “They’ve taught me core truths about God’s Word and what my soul really needs.”

Laborers for a Lifetime

Alyssa and Eli’s stories are just a small picture of the work God is doing on campus at the University of Wisconsin. As this new generation of believing underclassmen continue to grow, they will only fuel the momentum of passionate disciplemakers in years to come.

“We can attribute the fruit of this year to God working in these freshmen’s hearts before they even arrive on campus,” Brian says. “The prayers of these students are powerful, and they are asking for the souls of their classmates. We are seeing students who are going to be laborers of Christ for a lifetime, not just four years of college.”

Discipleship Tip:

Eli and Alyssa both prayed for the Lord to move in the lives of students and provide them with discipleship opportunities before the school year even began. Like them, you can start your discipleship journey by praying for the Lord to guide you and your relationships. Take some time this week and pray for the Lord to open doors for you to share your faith with someone new!

A driven athlete from California, he entered college at the University of Washington (UW) focused on earning a spot as a Division I football player and proving himself within the rigorous and image-driven fraternity culture. Parties, status, and outward appearances defined his identity.

“I just wanted to be known as one of the guys,” Brian remembers. “I wanted to be an awesome guy in their image.”

But with one simple invitation, everything changed.

When Navigator Nathaniel Beck — an alumni of Brian’s fraternity — reached out to the house and asked if anyone wanted to join a Bible study, Brian found himself interested. He showed up — and kept showing up. Gradually, the Lord transformed his heart for Christ.

Through weekly Bible studies and being discipled by other believers, Brian experienced a shift in his priorities and identity. As Brian’s understanding of the gospel deepened, so did his boldness and courage.

“As I grew in my faith, I became a lot more proud of it,” Brian says. “I started being willing to take risks and have tough conversations with guys because I know this is the way and the truth in my life.”

Wanting to pass on what he’d learned to others, Brian began to share his faith with his fraternity brothers, leading a summer Bible study at his house with a friend. One of their fraternity brothers, Louie, grew curious and decided to check out the group. Over the summer, Brian watched as Louie’s faith grew, developing from a place of doubt into a certain and dedicated belief in Jesus.

“I used to be this guy that wanted to control everything and everyone in terms of how I wanted to navigate my life,” Louie says. “After finally letting that go and accepting God’s plan, it gave me this ease that if I can just follow him, I know I’m going to be alright.”

A Generational Gospel Movement in Fraternity Row

Brian and Louie’s story is just one chapter in a much larger narrative of what God is doing in UW’s Greek system.

Long before Brian stepped foot on campus, God was already at work. Since the 1990s, the Lord has been planting seeds of faith in the fraternities, weaving a multigenerational chain of discipleship. Some seasons were fast and fruitful, others slow and unseen — but the legacy continued.

Over the past three decades, at least seven fraternity brothers have carried the torch, passing on the gospel from one brother to another. Brian and Louie are the most recent links in that chain — and their spiritual generations will only continue to multiply in the years to come.

“This is just one little snapshot of what God’s been doing over the years at UW,” Navigator Keith Pepsny, The Navigators regional director for Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, says. “Sometimes it’s slow, sometimes it’s fast, sometimes it’s a few people, sometimes it’s a lot of people. But the Lord is moving — one generation at a time.”

Join us in praying over the Greek ministry at UW, as the Lord softens hearts at fraternities and sororities and passes the torch of the gospel from one house to the next.

“One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts” Psalm 145:4 (NIV).

Discipleship Tip:

As Brian grew in his faith, he practiced boldness by sharing the gospel with his friends in Greek life and starting a summer Bible study. What would it look like for you to start a Bible study in your community? Think about who you could reach out to or how you could lead a Bible study, creating a space where you can invite your non-believing friends to learn more about Jesus.