In this episode I continue my series on campus ministries. My guest is Ben Nugent, the National Director of the The Navigator’s campus ministry. As a Navigator staff for 21 years, Ben not only brings the perspective of a senior leader of the ministry to our conversation, but many years in Navigator campus ministry himself. He is the best person I know of to help understand how the Navigators minister to university students. 

In this podcast we discuss:

• How Ben first got involved in The Navigators
  
• How The Navigators began
  
• The number and type of universities where The Navigators serve
  
• The Navigators’ Mission
  
• The Navigators’ activities on campus designed to fulfill their Mission
  
• The Navigators’ ministry distinctives
  
• How similar The Navigators’ ministries are campus-to-campus and region-to-region
  
• Who is required to affirm The Navigators’ Statement of Faith
  
• Where The Navigators fall on the “Conservative to Progressive” continuum
  
• “Heros of the Faith” The Navigators hold up to students
  
• What The Navigators believe Christian students need to flourish during college
  
• The Navigators’ greatest strength and weakness in student ministry
  
• How students can take advantage of this strength and compensate for this weakness
  
• Whether The Navigators have as set curriculum students go through
  
• How The Navigators help students develop a lifelong walk with Christ and ministry
  
• The Navigators’ approach to the spiritual disciplines
  
• How The Navigators teaches students to be “in the world but not of the world”
  
• The Navigators’ approach to “hot button” issues on campus like Critical Race Theory
  
• Why “fellowship is always missional”
  
• Why students should consider being involved in The Navigators
  

Resources mentioned during our conversation:

• The Navigators’ website
  
• The Navigators’ Statement of Faith
  
• Dawson Trotman, Born to Reproduce
  
• Dawson Trotman, Dawson Trotman, In His Own Words
  
• “Jim Downing: Navigator #6”
  
• Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness
  
• Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace
  
• Jerry Bridges, The Gospel for Real Life
  
• The Wheel illustration
  
• NavPress
  
• Navigators Summer Training Programs