When I moved back to Colorado from Alabama in 2006, a newly minted Navigator staff member, I had breakfast with a well-connected Navigator colleague. Among the things he told me was:

Navigator Church Ministries are not strategic.

I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, and it didn’t sound quite right at the time, but I was new. I wrote it down dutifully…and forgot about it.

My experience, then and now, with people and churches, is that God gives you those he wants you to work with. I don’t assess them for their “strategic” importance.

In WORLD Magazine, Paul Butler reviews Charles E. Cotherman’s Strip Mine Jesus: Hope for the Rural Church, Small Towns, and Overlooked Places, a book he says should be required reading for every prospective pastor. Here’s a key paragraph containing the reviewer’s experience:

Personally, I never imagined I’d end up ministering in the shadow of a coal mine’s castoffs. Yet here I am. During my own Bible college experience, there was a sense that the bigger the gospel vision, the more God-honoring it must be. This idea gets reinforced in many seminary alumni magazines with glossy spreads on the “successful” graduates, while often overlooking the faithful, hidden servants of God working in the quiet corners of the Master’s fields. Cotherman calls believers to join the rolls of that latter group—looking out for the woman at the well, the blind man by the side of the road, and the unclean on the edges of society.

“…faithful, hidden servants of God working in the quiet corners…looking out for the woman at the well, the blind man by the side of the road, and the unclean on the edges of society.” Amen.

Jesus wasn’t “strategic,” ministering to fishermen in rural Galilee rather than to national leaders in Jerusalem. Some Navigators would argue that the Apostle Paul was “strategic,” going for the population centers. But does it matter? Have you heard this story?

A fellow named Bill picked up a hitchhiker one day in southern California. Bill was just coming into town, and the hitchhiker told Bill he should spend the night in the home of Dawson Trotman, founder of The Navigators. Bill spent just that one night in Dawson’s home and left the next day unconverted.

Later Bill began attending Hollywood Presbyterian Church and met Jesus through the ministry of Henrietta Mears, who had mentored Dawson earlier. Once Bill decided to venture into ministry, Mears suggested that he get in contact with Dawson Trotman who is likely the one who encouraged Bill toward campus ministry.

We’re talking about Bill Bright, who later went on to found Campus Crusade for Christ (now called “Cru.”) Bright went to UCLA to do evangelism, conservatively estimating that it would take him a year to see substantial fruit and thereby skimping on his preparedness for discipleship ministry. After a month, 50 students had come to put faith in Christ, and Bright had no idea what to do next. He phoned Trotman, who personally loaned resources, training, and key Navigator volunteers to Cru for the first five years of Bright’s time on UCLA’s campus. Cru is actually built on the framework of Navigators methodology and uses Nav resources to this day. – Portions of this story from an interview with Justin Taylor on the 60th anniversary of Dawson Trotman’s death, June 18, 2016

Bill Bright developed “The Four Laws” method of presenting the gospel. Over a billion people have heard the gospel through his influence.

Was Dawson being strategic that day he hosted Bill Bright? Was Henrietta Mears strategic? Or were they merely following the Spirit’s leading? Even “strategic” Paul’s goal was “everyone:”

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. (Colossians 1.28, ESV)