After coming to Christ through a campus area church during the first month of my freshman year in college at The University of Texas, I connected with The Navigators in the spring of my freshman year. I am extremely grateful that God brought this wonderful organization into my life. A fellow student, Chris, invested intensely in my life for the next three years and helped me grow in the basics of my spiritual life and personal ministry. I end up investing seven years of my life in the Nav work at UT as an undergraduate and graduate student in the 1970s.
I had the opportunity to partially return the favor by serving as the interim campus director for the Navs at UT during the 1997-98 school year (during a time when the work probably would have died had someone not stepped into that role) and for several years in the 1990s as an associate staff member with The Navigators’ Church Discipleship Ministries in Texas and Oklahoma.
Enough autobiography, now back to Trotman’s story. Born in 1906, Trotman came to Christ at the age of 20 and took off like a rocket in his spiritual life and ministry. His early ministry was to boys and young men in local church Bible clubs in southern California. From the get go his calling cards were: depth in the Word, a near obsession with Scripture memory, a remarkable commitment to strategic intercessory prayer, and a strong engagement in personal evangelism. Soon the door opened for him to extend his ministry into other cities in California and then into work with young men in the Navy. He started the Navigators in 1933. World War 2 provided many new opportunities for expansion into other military branches and into a national ministry scope. Post-WW2 opened the door for an expansion to the nations, brining an international ministry scope.
Today The Navigators have 4600 international staff serving in 103 countries. Their motto is “to know Christ and to make Him known”. A motto that I have prominently displayed on my desk. Along with The Navigator wheel hanging on my office wall (as a regular reminder to keep the basics basic).
Trotman, as portrayed in the biography, was clearly a man with feet of clay. Driven. Focused. Setting high standards for himself and for those around him. Having an amazing capacity and personal discipline. Always pressing relentlessly toward the next goal. Obsessive compulsive. Controlling. Very direct. Winsome, yet relationally abrasive. I found myself identifying with many of the things I saw in this man, empathizing with his weaknesses.
Trotman had a profound impact on many of the evangelical leaders of his era, including a young Bill Bright and a young Billy Graham. The Navigators provided the new convert follow-up for the early Graham crusades that laid the foundation for the lasting kingdom impact of these crusades.
After a few years Trotman’s focus on evangelism shifted to a focus on discipleship. He saw lots of conversions, but far too little lasting fruit from his aggressive involvement in evangelism in his early years. This new focus on initial follow-up of new believers, in-depth discipleship, and spiritual reproduction became the distinctive mark of The Navigators, and their greatest contribution to the evangelical community. Going deep in the lives of a few, with high accountability, rather than a superficial focus on the masses. Recognizing that in the long haul an in-depth investment with a few who would reproduce would bear far more fruit than the alternative embraced by most others. It became the calling card of The Navigator work.
A compelling quote from Trotman is “Never do anything that someone else can or will do, when there is so much to be done that others cannot or will not do.” That statement shaped how Trotman and The Navigator ministry functioned in its early years.
Trotman died in 1956, at the age of 50, in a boating accident, saving the life of a young girl that couldn’t swim. He left behind a remarkable legacy that is still going strong more than 50 years later.
The Navigators organization has more profoundly influenced who I am today and how I function as a kingdom servant than any other single influence in the 40 years I have been following Christ. The book provides an excellent look into the life of the organization’s founder. And it served as a great reminder of some basic principles that it is easy to drift from over time (especially in environments not built around these principles).
