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.

After high school, Marc joined the U.S. Marine Corps, expecting to be deployed to Vietnam. Instead, he contracted meningococcal meningitis. Ninety percent of those who fell ill didn’t survive. Marc was unconscious for days, his temperature dangerously high. Doctors told his parents that his brain and organs were “burned up” and urged them to sign release forms to discontinue life support and allow him to pass, expecting his body to be sent home in a matter of days.

“They were at my bedside saying their goodbyes,” Marc recalls. “And then, unexpectedly, I woke up.”

During his recovery, hospital staff didn’t call him by name — they just referred to him as the “miracle patient.” Marc’s experience left him with an unsettling question: “Why am I alive when I should have died?”

That question followed him into college — until one morning before his lifeguard shift at a local pool, when a friend shared what Christ had done in her life and the forgiveness she had received. Marc listened for two hours, and then accepted Christ. The change was immediate and visible. Even the children he taught as a lifeguard later that day noticed something was different.

While attending college in 1975, Marc’s roommate invited him to a small group Bible study with The Navigators. That invitation became foundational to the growth of his faith and the base for what God had planned for him to accomplish in the future. Discipled by two men — one a Navigator and the other from Christian Business Men’s Association — Marc learned what it looked like to study and live out Scripture in his day-to-day life.

“What struck me was the personal commitment these men showed me, helping me realize that God’s Word is more profound than simply reading,” Marc remembers. “The personal interactions I had with them, they helped me to see that I could really dig into God’s Word.”

At one point, Marc was struggling with a crisis in the middle of the night when he remembered that one of his mentors said that he could reach out to him anytime, no matter the time or day. At 10 p.m., Marc called him, desperate.

“He told me to come over, and when I got there, his wife was already making tea for me,” Marc says. “We sat there for two hours, and he helped me look at God’s Word. And I thought, this is what discipleship is all about, the commitment to come alongside someone.”

These two elements that Marc learned early in his faith journey — intentionally studying God’s Word and being in a Life-to-Life^® discipleship relationship — were not only pivotal to his young adult years, but to future decades of ministry that would impact hundreds more for Christ.

Learning to Walk Alongside

When Marc thinks of discipleship, he thinks back to his high school metal shop class. One day, he was trying to weld two pieces of metal together. After trying over and over and over again, Marc was so frustrated that he was about to walk out of the class altogether. However, at that moment his teacher came to him and started walking Marc through the project step by step. “He grabbed a hold of my hand, and he guided me,” Marc remembers. “When he released his hand, I got it. That’s a picture of discipleship.”

In the years after college, Marc began to ask himself how he could serve God with his life. What was it that God wanted him to do? He soon saw an opportunity: to walk alongside men, discipling them and helping them dive deeper into Scripture through inductive Bible studies.

“I thought back to The Navigators resources I learned, how they taught me that God’s Word is more profound than casual reading,” Marc explains. “This is what God’s Word is. We are to be tactile, conversing, encouraging one another and digging into the Bible.”

At his church in Chico, California, Marc started to notice some men who seemed stuck — they would attend church, but that was the extent of their involvement. So Marc started discipling the young men around him, taking them through The Navigators resources he had once been taught, and witnessing the transforming work of Christ in their lives.

Teaching People How to Fish in Venezuela

That foundation would prove essential when God later called Marc and his family to Venezuela as missionary church planters.

The challenge was immediate. He was encouraged to start churches — but there were no leaders available from the seminary to lead them. Marc was assigned to start a new church in the community of Charallave. Returning to what he knew and was taught, Marc gathered 11 committed believers to work with him in this church and began translating Navigator materials into Spanish. They met weekly for two to three hours, learning not just Scripture, but how to study Scripture, with the goal of showing them tools they could use to equip others for ministry.

In Charallave, the feeling of being totally overwhelmed encompassed Marc. The question he faced was how he would be able to turn over the leadership of this new church to a national leader if none were available. God then brought this question to mind: If the apostle Paul were here, what would he do?

“The Scriptures are clear: the apostle Paul would concentrate on making disciples, faithful men who were able to teach others, as Paul encouraged Timothy to do in 2 Timothy 2:2,” Marc says. “Isn’t this what Dawson Trotman taught and believed, training and equipping men for the work of service?”

That group grew into a church of more than 250 people, with leadership developed entirely from within and a foundation built on discipleship and meeting in small groups. Two additional churches were planted in surrounding communities, including Las Brisas, a low-income area of 80,000 people.

“I truly believe the work I was able to do was because of the foundations The Navigators built in me, with a focus on the Bible’s sufficiency,” Marc says. “We used these inductive Bible studies as the core of our teaching, and everyone that went through was taught to disciple others. This is what allowed our church to grow in such a short time.”

When Marc first arrived in Las Brisas to pray about the possibility of starting a church there, he found 25 men and women gathered and waiting for him. All these men and women had walked at least a mile to be there, having heard that Marc was a man of God and would teach them. No one had a Bible; three of them could not read or write. However, as they started a Bible study, each week more and more people would show up. Soon they had more than 50 people coming to study God’s Word.

“What was the effectiveness of using Navigators Bible studies in Las Brisas?” Marc says. “Lives were changed — Felix could not read or write, but he taught himself to read and write because he wanted to read and understand God’s Word for himself. He became an evangelist, sharing the gospel with those he worked with, and he began traveling to different communities to share the Good News.”

Working in Las Brisas had its unique challenges. Because 80 percent of the population was unemployed and living on the margins of society, health was a major concern for many people. In response to these conditions, Marc’s ministry decided to host a free medical clinic — something that was unheard of in Venezuela at the time. The outreach drew more than 200 families and treated 80 children. Local officials were stunned. One governor returned the following month with two others to see what God was doing, and they asked Marc to start Bible studies in their states. When Marc asked why, the answer was simple.

“‘When you come, the bad people leave,’ she told me,” Marc recalls. “Isn’t that what God told us? We are to be a light that offsets the darkness.”

The Thread of Discipleship

After his time in Venezuela, Marc returned to the U.S. to serve as a mission consultant. In the years following, Marc’s last full-time ministry project was to establish a new church in Denison, Iowa, from the ashes of a church that had dissolved. The community’s demographics had changed, and the proposed goal was to establish a multiethnic church where people of all ethnicities could come together to worship the Lord.

In 2018, Marc officially retired, and he and his wife Angie moved to Muscatine, Iowa. Discipleship is still central to who they are.

“Because of the foundation I had with The Navigators and adopting the concept of teaching people how to fish, I witnessed God transform the lives of men and women to become strong leaders and disciplemakers, investing their lives in others,” Marc says.

For Marc, discipleship is not a class — it’s the act of walking alongside someone and watching as the gospel transforms their life. From a college campus to church discipleship to building ministries in Venezuela, Marc has seen the impact of not only studying God’s Word deeply, but living it and passing it on from one generation to the next.

Has your faith been impacted by The Navigators? We would love to hear your story!

Discipleship Tip:

Marc’s ministry efforts were centered around teaching others to dig into God’s Word for themselves, and then live out what they learned. Effective discipleship goes beyond simply teaching people what to believe about the Bible: It teaches people how to study Scripture and apply it to their daily lives. Invite others into Scripture in a hands-on, relational way. When they learn to hear from God’s Word themselves, the impact extends far beyond you.

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/.

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.

Now, 15 years later, that ministry has grown, not only at the collegiate level, but across the community. From workplaces to neighborhoods to campuses, everyday disciplemakers are rising up across Jacksonville, spreading the gospel with a holistic vision for the entire city.

“What we long to see are people that will make disciples for the rest of their lives,” John says, who is now the Navigators Collegiate Southeast Division Director. “Our calling is a long-term vision, even if that looks a little different through the seasons of life.”

Three such disciplemakers — Brian, Ahmani, and Steven — are creating impact in the unique circles that God has placed them in, making the most of their gifts and callings right where they are in Jacksonville. Their stories are just a small glimpse into the bigger picture of how God is moving in Jacksonville — one faithful disciple at a time.

Answered Prayers on Campus

When John first arrived at UNF, there was no Navigator presence. He remembers praying for eight men to show up in Bible study that first year. Now, the ministry at UNF is not only growing, but thriving, with a couple hundred students involved.

“Each of those people represents someone who could help someone else, who then could help someone else,” John says. “So I’m thrilled with what God’s doing at UNF right now.”

Today, the ministry at UNF is directed by Navigator Brian Incontrera. Brian first met The Navigators when he was a freshman in college at the University of South Florida when he passed by one of their table booths and was invited to a Bible study. Though he was a Christian, he didn’t really know how to grow in his own faith until he started getting discipled by a Navigator named Luke.

As a college student, Brian watched as discipleship transformed his walk with the Lord. Now as a Navigator, he passes on what he learned to students at UNF, and he’s watching as the spirit of disciplemaking is taking flight on campus.

“On campus, our students are really focusing on their relationship with the Lord and learning how to make their faith a priority,” Brian says. “Then that will affect them in their walk with the Lord when they graduate and go off in the world. When they have families, jobs, whatever ministry they are doing — they will know how to make Jesus a priority, as well as continue to make disciples wherever they go.”

From the beginning, the collegiate ministry at UNF has been a result of prayer and dedication to the Lord’s work on campus, for John and Brian alike.

“John came and prayed and started something here,” Brian says. “Now, coming all this way, I’m the director. And it’s been really cool to see God continue to answer those prayers.”

Sharing Hope in the Workplace

For Ahmani Joseph, being a therapist and social worker is a calling the Lord put on her heart from a young age.

Growing up, she watched her dad as he did outreach in the city. Working at an urban clothing store in downtown Jacksonville, he started hosting Bible studies in that space for youth in the community.

“They would tell him things that were going on in their lives, and he was able to provide hope for them,” Ahmani remembers. “So I was younger and seeing this, and was like, man, this is something that I want to do. It’s interesting how God places things on your heart when He has a purpose for you.”

Ahmani started getting involved with The Navigators when she was a student at the University of Central Florida. However, her journey as a disciplemaker really kicked off when she decided to join Navigators staff for Edge Corps at Florida A&M University. Now as a therapist for kids in foster care in Jacksonville, she takes what she learned and shares the hope of Christ in the midst of hard situations.

“I see some of the most broken situations and places, and it can be pretty overwhelming,” she says. “But my time involved with The Navigators — that experience really taught me how to disciple people, how to walk alongside people, and ways to pass this along to the next generation.”

Through her job, Ahmani’s role is to show compassion, care, and intentionally pray for those God has placed in her path.

“These kids don’t have people who are praying over them by name, so I do,” she says. “I pray for them that they would feel God pursuing them.”

Faithfulness in the Neighborhood

Going into college at UNF, Steven Weatherford didn’t know how to interact with other Christians, share the gospel, or pray. He felt lonely, and he prayed that God would send him someone to lead and teach him about faith. Through The Navigators, God answered his prayer.

“I was taught by The Navigators and being discipled in the collegiate ministry,” Steven remembers. “I was shown deep care, and my life has been transformed through that. Now I make disciples at my church, my work, and my neighborhood because of what I was taught.”

A high school math teacher, Steven intentionally lives out his faith by meeting with coworkers for Bible study and being available to answer students’ questions about life and God. Beyond the school building, Steven has a passion for showing God’s love to his neighbors through acts of kindness or hospitality, opening the door to deeper discussions about faith. From hosting monthly barbecues in his front yard to inviting neighbors into Bible study at his church, he is investing in relationships.

“In my neighborhood, it seems like everybody’s from a different country,” he says. “It’s amazing. After I graduated college, the Lord had broken my heart for the nations, and I prayed the Lord would bring me to a neighborhood where there were lots of people from different neighborhoods. After we started talking to our neighbors, I realized that the Lord had answered that prayer to have intentional relationships with people from different backgrounds.”

Holistic City Discipleship

Over the past 15 years, God has nurtured the seeds of faithful prayer and intentional discipleship in Jacksonville through dedicated disciplemakers across the city, each of whom are leaning into the spaces God has placed them to build relationships and live lives that point to Christ.

“Whether you are Brian or Ahmani or Steven or me and Melissa, the idea is that all of us can make disciples,” John says. “All of us can be good neighbors, love others, and help people know Christ and make Him known.”

Join us in praying over the city of Jacksonville, that believers continue to rise up and work together to make disciples, exactly where they are.

Larry was alone the day Christ saved him. He had gone to church one Sunday morning, and as he later drove away from church by his university, he thought, “God, look at me — what a sinful man I am. Would you please take away the guilt for all of my sin?” He felt a shift in his heart that he couldn’t explain — but he began thinking about God and praying to Him fervently every night for the next several days.

Without a strong religious background, all Larry had was a Bible and a newly formed prayer life, neither of which he fully understood. Without someone to guide him in his new Christian faith, Larry began to wander. He moved to Kansas a few months later, and for two and a half years, he lived a mostly fleshly life before the Lord turned him on a different path.

Larry felt the hunger for a spiritual mentor, but didn’t know where to find one. At the time, he lived with roommates, and one of them would meet with an older Christian once a week at their home for one-on-one Bible study. Curious, Larry would sit at the top of the stairs and listen in to their meetings.

“I thought, ‘I need that,’” Larry remembers. “‘I need somebody to walk alongside me, teach me the Bible, and help me understand how to live the Christian life.’ I didn’t know where to go to find someone that would help … until I met Don.”

Don Henry, a Navigator, was teaching a Scripture memorization class that Larry was in. Knowing that Don was an active disciplemaker, Larry asked Don if he would be willing to meet and disciple him. Once the class was finished, they began to meet one-on-one, and Don encouraged Larry to continue having daily quiet time with the Lord and sharing his faith with others.

Equipping disciples in everyday life

Through discipleship, God helped Larry establish a foundation for his faith, learning how to walk and move forward in his Christian life. But his journey did not stop there. Since then, Larry has devoted the past 40 years of his life in Wichita, Kansas to meeting one-on-one and in small groups with men and passing on what he has learned, helping them grow as disciples of Christ and share their faith with others.

“I will never leave another orphan behind,” Larry says. “If I know somebody is new in their faith, and I see their need, I’ll adopt them. I understand the cost of not having someone come alongside you.”

Larry began meeting men wherever he could to help establish them in their walk with Christ and equip them to do the Lord’s work in everyday life, whether that was in his work in the aircraft manufacturing business, his church, or his neighborhood. He remembers how when he and his wife moved into a new home in the 1990s, they met a couple down the road. “I told my wife that it doesn’t get more obvious than this — they were deliberately dumped in our laps,” he says. He and his wife started meeting with the couple individually to do one-on-one Bible studies, and the Lord saved his wife; the husband was already a Christian, but very young in his faith. Now, the Becks and the next door couple are still close friends, serving in church together.

Reaching the Next Generation

Sometimes, Larry has had the pleasure of seeing multiple generations of believers come out of those he has discipled. One such man is Carson, a young man Larry met through church. Carson was expressing dissatisfaction with the effectiveness of the ministries he was involved in, so Larry started to disciple him over his summer break home from university. Larry passed on the knowledge that Don taught him years before through Life-to-Life^® discipleship, and encouraged Carson to share what he was learning with others.

The next school year, Carson started to meet with another student, Russ, to help Russ grow as a disciple of Jesus. Carson was already meeting with a small group of other students and asked Russ to join them. Together, Carson, Russ and the small group began developing deeper relationships with Christ and sharing the gospel with their classmates. Even though Carson has now graduated and moved back home, the ministry he kicked off by investing in Russ continues today on that campus.

“Faithful men may be hard to find,” says Larry, “but the investment you make in them will go on when you are no longer there. And that makes it all worth it to give ourselves to raising up lifelong everyday disciplemakers for Jesus.”

Adopting others into God’s kingdom

Larry is the epitome of an everyday disciplemaker: someone who dedicates their life to raising up disciples, no matter where they are. Larry has never worked on Navigator staff, and yet, through living faithfully in his everyday life, he has adopted a multitude of spiritual orphans into God’s kingdom, one relationship at a time.

“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” 2 Timothy 2:2 (NIV).

Discipleship Tip:

Look around you. Do you see anyone who is new to their faith, who might need someone to come alongside them? Seek “spiritual orphans” in your life and consider how you can adopt them as a disciple.

It was August of 1990 when Tyler was dropped off at Miami University to begin his freshman year. He was nervous about what college would look like, and was seeking to get involved with a Christian community when someone introduced him to Ward Ballard — a Navigator on campus. Ward was about 10 years older than Tyler, and he had a way of making people feel at ease — exactly what Tyler needed at the time.

Ward began to invite Tyler to Navigator events, and soon they formed a compassionate, brotherly sort of friendship. Tyler was drawn to Ward’s authentic, candid pursuit of Jesus — where he didn’t shy away from doubts or hard conversations — and he was surprised that Ward seemed to not expect anything from him beyond a friendship.

“Before long, I learned that my encounter with Ward was a rare opportunity to see the Christian faith in one of its most simple, but profound, forms,” Tyler remembers. “It was as if he offered me friendship with no strings attached, like a gift someone leaves on one’s doorstep. You could accept the gift, ignore it, throw it away — it’s your choice.”

As Tyler graduated and left college, he found that not only did his relationship with Ward continue for years to come, but the impact of how Ward treated him stuck with him as well. “I had the idea that maybe I should be the same way: able to be happy when others succeed and find their way in life, and also to offer friendship to those I come across without the expectation of something in return,” Tyler recalls.

The Gift of Relationship

Several years later, Tyler was traveling to Philadelphia on a trip with his father when he unexpectedly met another Navigator named James*. Not only did James take Tyler and his father out to coffee, but he gave them a tour of some of Philadelphia’s highlights.

When Tyler received a job offer in the Philadelphia area four years later, he reconnected with James. James helped Tyler find an apartment and offered to continue to meet for coffee at the same pastry shop where they had met previously with his father. “Just as Ward had offered me friendship without strings attached, James was doing the same,” Tyler remembers.

Tyler and James were still meeting up regularly at the same pastry shop in March of 2007 when James unexpectedly passed away in a biking accident, only a few days after grabbing coffee with Tyler. Tyler remembers the memorial service being packed with hundreds of people, all of whom James had shaped, invested in, or helped to find peace and faith with Jesus.

James’ sudden death hit Tyler hard. “For me, I had given this man nothing … I was too needy at the time to give anything back,” Tyler recalls.

The Secret Chain of Generational Discipleship

After the memorial, Tyler talked with Ward about James’ passing. Ward shared that he actually knew James well — in fact, James had mentored Ward before he even met Tyler at Miami University, greatly helping him gain outreach and ministry skills. Tyler was shocked — he never knew that the two men who loved him so well were connected until that moment, forming a chain of generational discipleship.

Now, every time Tyler passes the pastry shop where he used to meet James, he remembers and reflects on the lessons that James passed on to Ward, and in turn, Ward passed on to him. He had learned from Ward and James that there is no greater purpose than to be there for those who are in need and follow in Jesus’ footsteps.

“Both James and Ward lived and obeyed the biblical command to love one’s neighbor — irrespective of whether it profits us somehow or not,” Tyler says. “I cannot think of a higher calling, and I am grateful to have known these two inspiring men.”

*Name changed for privacy.

Tyler submitted his story to The Navigators to share how Ward and James impacted his life. At The Navigators, we are so encouraged by hearing personal stories of how the Lord has used this ministry to impact others’ lives. If you have a story about how your experience with The Navigators impacted you, please share here – My Navigators Story.

Discipleship Tip:

Tyler was greatly impacted by how Ward and James offered selfless friendship, expecting nothing in return during times when he was in need. Look around at the people in your life. Who can you be stretching out a hand to? How can you be offering the gift of intentional friendship to someone else?

It was New Year’s Eve of 2016 when Navigator Craig Parker first stepped foot in the Suffolk County Jail in downtown Boston to help lead an inmate Bible study. The jail was about 300 yards from TD Garden, the arena where the Boston Celtics play. As he walked past the busy sports arena, he remembers hearing the distant sounds of another basketball game — the inmates playing within the caged jail next door.

Now, over seven years later, leading prison ministry initiatives has become one of the core passions of Craig’s life and ministry. This has included hosting an online micro church every Sunday on incarceration and injustice and launching the Boston Reentry Collaborative — a network of churches serving those affected by incarceration as they reenter society.

The Navigator City Director for Boston and part of the Navigators I:58 (Isaiah 58) Prison Ministry Network, Craig has seen firsthand how mentoring inmates can be transformative, having walked with men in the highs and lows of their journeys and personal walks with the Lord — both in and out of prison.

One of the men Craig meets with is Michael, a believer who spreads the gospel in prison as he serves his life sentence in MCI-Shirley, a state prison in Massachusetts.

A Passion for Discipleship in Prison

When Michael was 21-years-old, he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Incarcerated for the first time in his life, he felt hopeless and was planning to take his own life when another inmate invited him to attend a church service. In the service, the hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” started to play, and it struck a chord in Michael’s heart.

“I started weeping bitterly,” Michael recounts. “It was at that point that God intervened in my life, and he filled me with a peace that I can’t explain. So my faith is something that literally saved my life.” 

That church service in December of 1991 started a faith journey for Michael that has carried him throughout his 32 years in prison. Today, Michael is a core leader of MCI-Shirley’s chapel community and discipleship groups. He has dedicated his life to sharing the gospel and discipling other inmates, often building relationships through the prison workout program he teaches called “Transforming the Temple.”

“I love meeting with these men one on one, where I can really spend time with them, disciple them, and build the things of God into their life,” Michael says. “God has used the fitness arena for me to reach guys I normally wouldn’t be able to reach.”

Michael originally met Craig a year and a half ago when Craig’s church was attending a chapel at MCI-Shirley. Since then, Michael and Craig interact weekly through phone calls, letters, and visits. While Michael never had someone disciple him at the beginning of his faith, Craig now diligently walks alongside him in mentorship, supplying him with spiritual encouragement and Navigator resources to help Michael disciple other inmates more effectively.

“I often wonder what I have to do to improve how I disciple these men,” Michael says, “so having the information I’m getting from The Navigators is helping me to become better in the ministry God has called me to do. I told Craig I want to be the first person in prison to be a Navigator.”

Having a man like Craig support and invest in him from the outside has had a meaningful impact on Michael’s life and ministry. “I’m really thankful that God placed Craig in my life,” he says. “He’s done tremendous work in my life, and he’s helped me grow in my walk with Christ and feel value again.”

How Outside Support Impacts Inmates

Michael is just one of over 1.8 million people who are incarcerated in the U.S. Though 90 percent of inmates will be released at some point in their lives, most are likely to return to prison if they lack a support system in the outside world.

“In our state alone, there are 13,000 people incarcerated, and about 2,000 of them are released into the Boston area every year,” Craig explains. “The question is, what kind of citizens do we want them to be — and how can we walk alongside them? Our vision is to mobilize more volunteers to walk alongside those who are incarcerated — to awaken, educate, and engage the church on a wider scale.”

Whether it’s something as small as writing letters to inmates or as large as committing to be a consistent mentor, Craig encourages churches to meet inmates while they are incarcerated and continue to support them as they reenter into society, connecting them to service providers as well as a community of believers.

Craig has lived this example through his mentorship of a man named Daniel, whom Craig met in prison and helped get into a Christian residential program for his parole called Place of Promise. “I’ve seen Daniel take pride in who he is and his work for the first time,” Craig explains. “This is a man who has been in prison for 31 years, and I’ve seen true transformation happening.”

For Michael, who has watched numerous inmates be released and return to prison over the years, the work Craig is doing isn’t just important — it’s vital in order for these men and women to successfully leave the prison system once and for all. “To know that there’s a community of people who love you and find value in you, who say, ‘We’re family, we’re here for you, we’re here with you,’ is so important,” he says.

How the Gospel Transforms Lives

For many, prison is a place that is entirely devoid of hope. “I’ve seen men who are absolutely broken at their worst,” Craig explains. “Their hope is completely stripped away from them.”

However, through men like Michael, prison can be a place where the light of the gospel can shine with brilliant clarity. “You’ve never heard the gospel proclaimed until you’ve heard it from someone like Michael,” Craig reflects, “who can say, ‘I was convicted of murder a long time ago. But that’s not who I am. And I want to tell you about God’s love and forgiveness and care.’ It puts the gospel in a whole different light for me.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV) says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

Through supportive believers like Craig and dedicated disciplemakers like Michael, the hope of the gospel is alive and making new hearts in the darkest of prison systems. Join us in praying for the prison ministry in Boston, that the Lord will continue to transform the lives of inmates and inspire believers to come alongside those who are incarcerated to fight with them for a better life.

Discipleship Tip:

Michael seeks opportunities to disciple the men that are already around him. Look around — who is currently in your circles that you can disciple? Think about how you can intentionally deepen your relationships or spark a conversation with someone new!

Then God surprised them with an amazing opportunity. Their school principal asked Ernie to teach a Bible club after school because two young Christian middle school students asked for one.

Following God’s call, Ernie gave the principal a lesson plan, Bible, and copy of the NavPress Bible study Design for Discipleship Book 1. The principal made a presentation to the Board of Education, and it was approved. In 2003, their public school Bible club ministry was born!

Sharing the Gospel in Public Schools

Since then, everyday disciplemakers from other churches have expressed interest in teaching after-school Bible clubs in more schools. With the help of The Navigators Corporate Affairs and Risk Management (CARM) department to develop and implement a vetting process and child protection training, these partnering churches have been able to effectively onboard volunteers. All of the Bible club teachers are trained to share the gospel and morning devotions, as well as teach students how to memorize Scripture, pray, witness, and study the Bible in ways that are engaging and relevant for grades K-12.

Ernie is especially passionate for this ministry because of the research from Barna Group and the National Association of Evangelicals, which states that 85 percent of people who have put their trust in Christ did so when they were between the ages of 4 and 16. This is a testament to Jesus’ special care for children when He said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” Mark 10:14 (NIV).

After seeing hundreds of children come to Christ through Bible clubs over 22 years, Ernie sees this ministry as essential for reaching generations for Christ, laying foundations of faith to prepare the youth to be everyday disciplemakers in school, work, family, and life as they grow up.

In addition, Ernie is excited about the fact that the ministry has been grassroots and community-led. Partnering churches love the community impact of the Bible clubs, and church-going parents are thrilled their children are learning the Word of God in their public school setting, not just at church. Children are being transformed by the love of Jesus through the gospel, and the impact is rippling out to families and school staff.

A Growing Ministry for Children

Ernie has devoted much of his time to train churches around the nation to start up Bible clubs in their own local public schools with hopes of expanding and multiplying spiritual generations. As more and more churches reach out to Ernie, he continues to help them navigate the logistics of setting up Bible clubs, leading them with Navigator principles.

Pray for the children that The Navigators Bible club ministry will reach and disciple in public schools. Consider ways you may be able to partner locally to help reach children in public schools near you. For more information, contact Ernie Scalabrin at ernie.scalabrin@navigators.org.

Discipleship Tip:

Judy and Ernie were already involved in the public school system through his kids when he started the Bible Club ministry, using it as an opportunity to disciple children at his local schools. Look around — where are you already involved that you could disciple others? Whether it’s your workplace, neighborhood, school, or community, you might be surprised to see who you could reach in your networks!

“I believe your mood reflects your decision making,” Matt recalls. “And my mind frame was pain. So I was seeking out pain, and you often attract what you are in this world.”

When Jon met Matt through a mutual friend, Matt was living out of his car. Though he sought freedom from addiction, there were deeper aspects of Matt’s life that remained unfulfilled, and he lacked a personal relationship with God.

Knowing that Matt needed the love and redeeming hope of Jesus to transform his life, Jon started to read the Bible with him over the phone. However, Matt was initially resistant. “To be honest, most of our conversations were him being angry at God and mad at Christians for the hurt he had experienced in his life,” Jon says. “He would say that God doesn’t exist, and he was really broken.”

Despite Matt’s initial lack of interest in God, Jon kept calling. He continued to build a relationship with Matt, even trying to help him find work and housing. After numerous spiritual conversations, Jon began to feel discouraged. Though Matt’s heart showed signs of softening, he wasn’t ready to surrender his life to Christ. Knowing that there wasn’t much else he could do, Jon entrusted Matt’s life to the Lord and continued to pray over him.

And then, after two years, something finally clicked.

“I remember that for years, Jon would call and reach out to me about God,” Matt says. “For a long time, I wasn’t trying to hear it. But Jon never stopped. He never gave up on me. And it changed my life.”

How God Transforms Lives

Just before Thanksgiving 2022, Matt called Jon and ended up joining Jon’s family for the holiday weekend. Before church that Sunday, Jon got breakfast with Matt.

“I told him, ‘Listen, man. I know you don’t know what to do,”’ Jon recalls. “‘My encouragement is to ask God for direction. But if you are going to do this, you can’t do it alone. You need God in your life. You need to invite him in and surrender your life.’ And then we prayed that the message at our church would speak to him.”

When they went to church later that day, something remarkable happened. The sermon seemed to be perfectly tailored to what Matt was going through, and it shifted something within him. During the altar call at the end of service, Matt prayed to receive Jesus, completely surrendering his life to Christ!

“I think God was trying to tell me that I have two options,” Matt says. “I knew I was either going to die, or I could change. And God opened the doorway for me.”

Matt was ready for God to transform his life, and Jon and a community of dedicated believers rallied around him in support as he learned a new way of life. They met daily for prayer and to study the Bible, encouraging Matt to attend disciplemaking and Navigators Workplace events.

Now, Matt is connected with the Navigators Detroit city team, and he’s joined a men’s ministry house where his housemates all participate in a weekly Bible study. Matt has secured a steady job and he actively engages in different Bible studies — including one with Jon.

“He’s working so hard,” Jon says. “He’s being faithful and obedient in so many different areas of his life, from sharing his faith with his brother who hurt him in the past to posting Bible verses on Facebook to encourage others.”

Offering the Power of Second Chances Through Disciplemaking

For Matt, Jon has not only been a constant support system over the past couple of years, but he has also exemplified what a godly man looks like — one who truly lives out his faith. By having a Life-to-life® relationship with Jon, Matt learned what it meant to be a lifelong disciple of Jesus.

“I would watch what Jon was doing, and he’s just so dedicated,” Matt says. “Every day he wakes up and he really lives it. I have had many people in my life I can’t trust. But I know I can count on Jon.”

While Matt still faces challenges that require the Holy Spirit’s guidance — like we all do — he is seeking to obey Christ and continue on the right path. His newfound faith has been an encouragement to Jon in his ministry, as well as a light to the community around him.

“God kept pointing me to 1 Corinthians 13, where it writes that love never fails,” Jon says. “It never gives up, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. God’s love continuously pours out. So when we deal with resistance, we have to keep raising the standard — to love others as Jesus would.”

Matt’s story reminds us that everyone deserves a second chance and that transformation is possible with the love of God and the dedication of a compassionate community — no matter how long it takes.

“I’ve been in a constant war since I got into this world,” Matt shares. “But now, I finally have peace.”

Pray for peace in your life. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” John 14:27 (NIV).

Discipleship Tip:  

Don’t let proximity stop you from inviting someone to read the Bible with you. If connecting in person isn’t an option, then invite them to read the Bible with you over the phone or through a video chat. God can still work powerfully!