Leaders of the Navigators were concerned when research showed many Christians felt unable to help other believers grow in their faith. Then they got to work. Now, five years later, they’ve released a free discipleship app that’s designed to fill the gap.
The new Navigators Discipleship App provides access to a wealth of discipleship resources from the quiet, 92-year-old international ministry that worked alongside Billy Graham to help new believers become committed disciples of Christ. It’s available as a free download in 45 countries through Apple, Google and other app stores.
Algorithms tailor the app to each user, guiding them through daily spiritual practices they can follow and encouraging them to help other people do the same.
Research by the Barna Group with nearly 5,500 people in 2020 and 2021 showed 37% of believers — some 40 million U.S. Christians — don’t feel qualified or equipped to help others grow in Christian faith.
“There are many Christians who feel anything but confident when engaging in discipleship,” said the research report, which described America as a “digital Babylon” and the 21st century as a time when “most people in our society are moving away from Christianity.”
Today’s Babylon is characterized by “phenomenal access” to information, “profound alienation” from others and institutions “and a crisis of authority (which, like institutions and traditions, is increasingly viewed with suspicion).”
After some soul-searching, Navigators leaders determined they needed to do more to promote discipleship, the spiritual practice central to the ministry’s mission and founding by a California hell-raiser named Dawson Trotman.
Trotman experienced a dramatic conversion to Christianity and excitedly shared his faith with a Navy man. When the sailor asked Trotman to talk to another interested enlisted man, Trotman instead challenged the sailor to do it himself and showed him how to do so in a few easy steps.
That simple act — training another person to do the work of “spiritual reproduction” — was the genesis of a $170 million ministry with 6,088 people serving in 123 countries and 2,572 U.S. staff members, including full- and part-time workers and unpaid volunteers.
The Navigators say their unique calling is to help the church fulfill the Great Commission Christ gave his followers to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
After seeing the Barna research, Navigator leaders tweaked the ministry’s mission for the first time in decades.
Their old mission statement — “To know Christ and make him known” — got an update: “To know Christ, make him known and help others do the same.”
Amanda Trautmann
Amanda Trautmann, Navigators vice president of marketing, said the ministry wants to encourage people and give them the help they need. “You do have what it takes, the Holy Spirit is in you, and we’re here to shepherd you.”
Trautmann said a target audience for the app is “the everyday person who is busy juggling everything and said, ‘I don’t have time’” for ministry to others.
Just as pastors and priests have parishes, so do ordinary believers, Trautmann believes. “We each have a parish. That’s a way of looking at the people in your life and the ways you can have an impact on their spiritual growth.”
While the history of Navigators is associated with evangelicalism, the group in 2023 released a statement affirming support for women in leadership positions in the U.S. The departure from its longtime commitment to male leadership led to the departure of dozens of leaders with decades of experience.
Navigators leaders who left felt the change violated Scripture. They started a new ministry, Oaks International, which restricts leadership to men.
The Navigators’ revised policy on women brought U.S. ministries in line with its Canadian and international offices, which allow women to serve in any leadership position.