To advance the Gospel of Jesus and his kingdom into the nations through spiritual generations of labourers living and discipling among the lost

News from New Zealand and around the world

Glen addresses the conference


National director Glen Morris addresses the conference of leaders and staff
Good spirit at national Navigator get-together


Story and photos by Sandy Fairservice

Sixty staff and leaders of the Navigator work throughout New Zealand met in Auckland over the
weekend of 23-25 July and were refreshed by fellowship, teaching from the Bible and the
restatement of the Navigator mission.

There was a good spirit among the people, with many old hands and younger leaders mixing and comparing notes.

Two messages

In his first message, "The Kingdom Worker Called", National director Glen Morris outlined the call of
Moses, and drew some lessons. An exiled alien prince, become farmer, Moses was accosted by
God out of the burning bush. (Moses could have withdrawn, but didn't.) From Exodus 2:22-4:17 he
drew the conclusion that God uses people to fulfil his big purposes."To reach all, God specifically
calls you and me," Glen said. "God takes the intitiative with us. We just need to be open and
alert."

In his second message, "The Kingdom Worker Sustained",Glen said that like Paul we need a travel
companion, Jesus, an awareness of the road ahead, and a view of the final destination. From all of Second Corinthians Four, he showed how Paul faced dangers many times, but overcame them. "We do certain things, and make certain commitments for Jesus' sake. We need a short piece of the story between who God is and what we do." He pointed out the circularity of the Paul's two questions, "Who are you, Lord? What do you want me to do?" So we must fix our eyes on Jesus,
our travelling companion. It was back to the basics, Glen said.

Four workshops

Four worshops were available twice: "Bringing Pressing Issues To The Bible", by Lynton Brocklehurst; "Life On Life Mentoring" by Simon Cayzer and Faye Keating; "Pathways To Exploring Faith With People In A Relational World" by Peter and Lorraine White; and "Relational Mapping" by Logan Keating--navigating with resources through our relationships with people.

Board chair thanks

Board members attended this conference, and recently re-elected Chairman Colin Eason thanked everyone for the part they were playing in a "well-run organisation which has stayed true to its goals and is a pleasure for the board to oversee." He made a joking definition of staff and non staff: "Staff are paid to be good; non-staff are good for nothing."

Bryan and Erin Thigpen

New staff Bryan Thigpen told how God had led him and his family from the camping ministry at Glen Eyrie, The Navigators' headquarters in Colorado Springs, to New Zealand. A delay in obtaining visas meant that they missed the disatrous Februrary 22 earthquake. The Thigpens now live just a few blocks from their ministry at Canterbury University.

Pendulum is swinging back—Director

Closing the gathering was a time of reflection, group discussion and Glen's summing up. He contrasted the structured style of the Navigator ministry in New Zealand in the seventies and eighties with what had developed most recently. But the pendulum was swinging back from the unstructured post-modern style and towards more structure, "toward the essential mission of The Navigators, towards the big promises of God and our calling to do our part to make disciples.

"We need to commit to the Gospel as central, the glasses through which we see everything else. We must keep on speaking with people who are yet to believe, the spirit of making disciples. God knows our weaknesses and limitations, but calls us still to make disciples."


Ian and Josh

Ian (centre) and Josh (right) from California were visiting New Zealand for a few weeks. Here they chat with board member Bill Pawley.




New Zealand Government travel advisories
http://www.safetravel.govt.nz/index.php

 

Thigpen family settling into student ministry and life in Christchurch

The American Navigator couple, Bryan and Erin Thigpen, who have been engaged to lead the Canterbury university ministry are settling in.

The Thigpens' contribution will be to the student work in Christchurch, helping grow an outreach and discipling team on the campus of the University of Canterbury. This team will be further equipped to lay foundations for another generation of workers on campus, winning the lost and building the saved.

They are communicating well to the student generation with great energy, as their video and photos show.

Read the Thigpen Times blog

Below: the Thigpen Family

Brian Thigpen family


Earlier generation Navigators on the job in the Pacific

Jonathan and Fernah Peacy are living and working in the Solomn Islands, and gearing up to disciple local friends, some of whom have had contact with The Navigators in New Zealand.

Jon is a fisheries officer, working for the Solomon Islands government, and Fernah has returned to her nursing career. They represented The Navigators in Dunedin in the 1980s.

Read Fernah's blog


 If you are moving, or changing your postal or email address, please give your new address to John MacClure at the office.

 

Navigate 2010

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Some tried and true resources

www.navigators.org has many pages, but the one you may appreciate is the ministry tools page where you can download helpful things such as the Bridge Illustration, the Wheel Illustration, and the Hand Illustration. Print them out and use them as you help others.

www.discipleshiplibrary.com is the radio outreach of The Navigators. Here you can listen to streaming audio talks by the pioneers, such as Lorne Sanny, Dawson Trotman and LeRoy Eims, including classic addresses gathered over 60 years. LeRoy's Daily Walk page is set out as a year's supply of daily, three-minute sermons in simple English. Everything is also available in MP3.

New Zealand Government travel advisories
http://www.safetravel.govt.nz/index.php

View links to Navigator websites

About The Navigators

1. We have 4647 staff of 70 nationalities  ministering in 108 countries: 2245 men and 2402 women, 2862 principals and 1785 spouses, 4622 Active and 25 On Loan.

2. 1265 or 27% of these staff are cross-cultural missionaries: 341 of 49 nationalities serve in their own countries and 924 in other countries.

3. 792 or 17% of our staff minister in 34 of the 59 countries of the 10/40 Window:·35% of our 2160 staff outside the USA.

4. 482 or 10% of our staff, including 355 or 38% of our foreign cross-cultural missionary staff, minister in 40 of 81 countries hostile to the gospel.

5. Americans account for 2756 or 59% of our staff, and for 723 or 57% of our cross-cultural missionaries.

6. 1367 or 19% of our staff are citizens of the Developing World: Africans, Asians, Latin Americans, Middle Easterners, Oceanians.

7. Nationalities with the most staff are: Americans 2756, Koreans 307, Indonesians 140, Canadians 120, Britons 113.

8. Nationalities with more than 30 cross-cultural missionary staff, both within and beyond their borders, in descending order of their % missionary, are:

• Koreans 141         46%
• Nigerians 41         45%
• Filipinos 35           45%
• Britons 46             41%
• Canadians 32       27%
• Americans 723      26%

9. Separately, not included in these analyses, we have 134 other staff:11 Disabled, 15 Widowed, 108 Retired.

 Further world missions facts.

Glen Morris at Navigator conference 2011












Glen Morris: "God uses imperfect people to fulfil his big purposes."



From the Director

God is in this


For quite a while I have been thinking how difficult it seems for people to turn and start following Christ. We know it is Good News but that's not always how those around us see it.

As I've talked with people all across the country I know we have many friends out there that we would love to see start a relationship with God, but it often seems to be quite a slow process.
Then recently, out of the blue, a friend of mine became a Christian, and the circumstances around this made it very clear that God had worked a miracle. God spoke to me through this, by bringing to mind the situation that Paul found himself in when he was experiencing some tough times in Corinth. The passage in Acts reads…

One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city."—Acts 18:9-10

Through my friend coming to faith, I was struck with clarity that if God is moving and working in the lives of people, then nothing would be impossible; no hurdle would be too great. And from the passage above, I felt as though God was encouraging me—and you—to keep being fellow—workers with God, doing our part as Good News message-bearers, because He is at work in the lives of people around us.

“Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent.” Why? “Because I have many people in this city.” The people around us are dear to God; His heart goes out to them and He is already at work in them. But as Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few” (Mat 9:37). Therefore, let us not fear or be silent, but rather let us spea—and pray—because God is in this.

—Glen Morris

Australian Navigators celebrate 50th anniversary this year

The Australian Navigators are celebrating their fiftieth anniversary this year, with gatherings in Sydney, Brisband and Melbourne, and a bumper edition of their publication "Compass".

Read the Australian Navigator story here.

Physical and spiritual landmark is gone

The city landmark building that was the venue for many Christchurch Navigator rallies in the sixties and seventies is no more.

The 1915 brick and stucco building known as Tyndale House was progressively wrecked by the 2010-11 earthquakess and has been demolished.

Tyndale House was bought from its original owner, Katherine Wilson, in 1945 by the well-known Christian benefactor L.B. Miller. He gifted the building to the Cashmere Evangelical Trust, an Anglican organisation, who named it Tyndale House, after William Tyndale, who translated large parts of the Bible into English.

The large building was a centre for religious studies and retreats until it was sold to a private owner in 1970, renamed Holbury, and subdivided into flats.

The Navigators taught the basics of Christian living there, and challenged many to commit themselves to Christ wholeheartedly. The rafters rang to songs from the Navigator song book, "Into His Presence With Singing".

 

Investing in a new generation

Each year, graduates with the heart and ability to bring the gospel to students offer themselves to work with The Navigators for a year or two.

Because they often struggle financially, The Navigator board of directors has set up a fund to help these students.

If you believe God would have you invest in the next generation in this way, please get in touch by email.

 One to one—three models to know

Palmerston North staff member Simon Cayzer shares three helpful models to guide you when meeting with someone.

Three things to do: share your lives; read the Bible; pray together

Three places to listen: to your firiend; to the Spirit; to yourself

Three stories to interact: your friend's story or experience; the biblical story; your own story or experience

Six critical factors for a Navigator ministry

Over the past couple of years, Navigator leaders have been considering what is essential for any Navigator ministry to be fruitful and multiply. Former International Executive Team member and Navigator thinker, Jim Petersen, produced an extensive Bible study on the subject. For this website, however, we offer the following summary:

 Laying foundations

  • Clear vision and faith in the
    promises of God

  • Access for the Gospel

Evangelism

  • Skills

  • Teamwork

Making disciples

  • Survival of converts

  • Discipleship goals

  • Transformation of life

Developing community

  • Understanding church

  • Ekklesia and Oikos

  • Form and Function

Leadership

  • Spiritual parenting

  • Interdependence

  • Passing on the Vision

Spiritual generations

  • Multiplication

  • Understanding God's Purposes