As most of you know, I serve with The Navigators, an organization dedicated, since 1933…

To know Christ, make Him known, and help others do the same^®.

A longer version of our mission statement reads:

Advancing the gospel of Jesus and his kingdom through spiritual generations living and discipling among the lost.

We think what we do and teach is very important, and I try to help EVERYONE (including pastors) live out what Paul said to Timothy:

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (1 Timothy 2.1, 2, NIV)

I wrote about this in more detail back on March 25. That said, I have new respect for one element of our desired culture as a result of a national Zoom prayer gathering recently. Here’s the value:

We are unified and interdependent within The U.S. Navigators, across the Worldwide Partnership, and with the broader Body of Christ.

My friend and colleague Margaret Fitzwater shared this picture of the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier:

Margaret said she toured the ship recently and was impressed with all of its capabilities and the fact that it was a self-contained “city” on the ocean. But what struck her (and now, me) was that the Midway hosts a crew of 4,000 people – about the number of Navigator staff. She said, “Our whole organization could fit on that one ship. But think about how many other ships there are!”

Likewise, God has a lot of “ships” out there. The Navigators is but one. Just as one ship does not comprise the US Navy, one organization, no matter how good it is, does not comprise all of God’s work.

Margaret’s husband, Roy, closed with a quote from Chuck Swindoll. Here’s part of it – from a devotion he wrote on August 2, 2015:

• Nobody is a whole chain. Each one is a link. But take away one link, and the chain is broken.
• Nobody is a whole team. Each one is a player. But take away one player and the game is forfeited.
• Nobody is a whole orchestra. Each one is a musician. But take away one musician and the symphony is incomplete.
• We need each other. You need someone and someone needs you. Isolated islands, we’re not.

Roy closed with this fitting text:

For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Romans 12.4, 5, NIV)