OUR MISSION
At Penn State, our mission is to reach, disciple, and equip college students to know Christ and to make Him known through successive generations in all the nations. Our passions are Jesus and students, and we want to look at crowds the way Jesus did - as fields ready to be harvested. On campus, we see lost students who need to find the hope that comes from a relationship with Jesus Christ. Students need to grow in their walks with God and we see the incredible potential of young men and women ignited for God and the huge impact they can make as workers in the spiritual harvest fields.
OUR BELIEFS
The Navigators hold several core beliefs that form the foundation of our ministry. We Believe:
That the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are inspired by God and inerrant in the original writings, and that they are of supreme and final authority in faith and life. In one God, the Creator; eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
That Jesus Christ was begotten by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, and that He was and remains true God and true man.
That God created Adam and Eve in the divine image; that they sinned, and thereby incurred not only physical death but also spiritual death, which is separation from God; and that, as a result of Adam's sin, all human beings are now born with a sinful nature and stand guilty before God.
That the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice; and that all who believe in Him are justified on the ground of His shed blood.
In the resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord, in His ascension into Heaven, and in His present life there for us, as High Priest and Advocate.
In the blessed hope of the personal and imminent return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
That all who by faith receive the Lord Jesus Christ are born again of the Holy Spirit and thereby become children of God.
That the Holy Spirit indwells and gives spiritual life to all believers, enables them to understand biblical truth, empowers them for godly living, and equips them for service and witness.
In the bodily resurrection of the just and unjust, the everlasting blessedness of the saved, and the everlasting punishment of the lost.
HISTORY
The ministry of The Navigators began in the 1930's through the call of God to a young Californian, Dawson Trotman. He began to teach high school students and local Sunday school classes. Then in 1933, he and his friends began to extend their work among sailors in the U.S. Navy.
Many hours were spent with individual sailors in Bible study, Scripture memorization and prayer with an emphasis on each teaching another what he had learned. By the end of World War II, thousands of men on ships and bases around the world were learning the principles of spiritual multiplication.
At the same time, the high school students whose lives Dawson had touched went on to reach out to others around them in Southern California. Today, nearly seventy years later, we minister not only in the military and with students on college campuses, but in the marketplace with businessmen and women, among homemakers, ethnic groups, international students, in countries around the world ... wherever there are people who need Christ.
The Navigators was incorporated in California in 1943. The Navigator headquarters was moved to Colorado in 1953 when we obtained the Glen Eyrie property in Colorado Springs. In Colorado Springs, we maintain the Glen Eyrie Conference Center and our publishing division, NavPress, as well as our administrative offices. A few miles away is Eagle Lake Camp.
Our aim is to make a permanent difference in the lives of people around the world. Our purpose--To know Christ and make Him known--describes the center and direction of the ministry. From the beginning, we have sought not only to reach people for Christ but to equip them so that they, in turn, can help fulfill Christ's commision to "go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19).
Navigators spend hours with new believers individually and in small groups. They study the Bible, pray, witness, counsel and teach. It is a ministry of individual, intensive training on a person-to-person basis.