Transform the City With Us

The speaker is pastor of a 145-member church in Freeport, shares the transformative impact of coaching and The Navigators' discipleship process on his personal life and ministry. He details how his one-on-one coaching has significantly elevated his devotional life and spiritual leadership.

Though his church had a previous "recess" from the process, he is now seeing a "new life" ignited, as 24 core leaders have committed to building relationships and participating in new discipleship series.

This discipleship model is creating a "domino effect" with small groups forming and younger leaders emerging, a movement that is not only expanding across his local church and the 26 churches in his New York assembly, but which he sees spreading throughout the Church of God denomination across the entire United States.

The biomedical engineer shares his 14-year continuous involvement with Navigators Bible Clubs, which began in the third grade with engaging videos and snacks that established his initial faith foundation.

His high school experience solidified his faith through the "hand illustration" for Scripture engagement (hearing, reading, studying, memorization, meditation) and extensive apologetics training to combat the statistic that 80% of high school students lose their faith in college.

At the college level, a professor reinforced these same principles, focusing on using Scripture to defend against common challenges like the problem of evil and using illustrations like the "tornado in a junkyard."

He emphasizes that this long-term, intentional discipleship has instilled practices like daily devotion and Scripture memory, and he plans to continue living out and passing on these core Navigators' principles in his future life.

The speaker recounts her arrival at NYU in 2001, just two weeks before September 11th, a shocking event that led a fellow student to invite her to pray, ultimately guiding her to the Word of God.

She found the initial New York environment isolating, but quickly found the transformative, non-judgmental community she craved in The Navigators, where a small group of students "lets you put everything forward and loves you." She emphasizes that the Navigator staff's intentional pursuit and relational investment, particularly as someone from a divorced household, provided a deeply needed support system.

Her experience taught her the essentials of disciple-making and Scripture memory, equipping her to eventually join the staff and, using the skills learned, witness the salvation of her entire family. She concludes with her current passion to implement the "life-to-life discipleship" culture in her church, encouraging every member to be a vital influence in making disciples.