“The people had a heart for the work.”
Nehemiah 4:6, The Message Bible
In 2025 NavPress celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with a new tagline, inspired by Paul’s encouragement to his protégé in 2 Timothy 1:5-7: “God doesn’t want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible” (The Message Bible). Over the next few posts at thedisciplemaker.org, we’ll be reflecting on how the tagline characterizes us, and how we seek to live into what it evokes in us.
To be a “business ministry” (NavPress’s classification within the organizational structure of The Navigators) is to hold ministry aspirations in tension with business realities. We would go halfway around the world to see one person come to faith, but we also have to keep the electricity running at the office. We want to shout the gospel from the rooftops but we need to practice search-engine optimization so that likely readers find our books. The marketplace is our mission field, but our ministry has to play by the rules of the marketplace.
Publishing is a long game—a marathon, not a sprint. It takes a year and a half to move a manuscript from a serviceable draft to a publishable product. That means we’re constantly forecasting: seeking to publish what people need to grapple with not today but two years from today. Our budgets are front-loaded; we cast our bread on the waters today and hope to eventually see our investment earn out.
In this respect, publishing is nicely compatible with disciplemaking, which is itself a front-loaded enterprise. We invest in people who seem responsive to the gospel; we plant seeds and tend the soil and weed and water and wait for fruit in its season. We don’t know the end from the beginning; we only know that it is a privilege to bear the gospel to harassed and helpless people (see Matthew 9:35-38), and we know that God can do remarkable things with our modest contributions (see John 6:5-13).
In the face of an unknown future, disciplemaking and publishing alike are matters of stewardship—prayerfully, patiently, deliberately selecting a path and setting forth.
We tether ourselves to the Scriptures and the core convictions and values of The Navigators. We pay attention to the trends and evolving concerns of our audience. We ground our resources and business decisions in biblical principles and substantive inquiry. We work within appropriate limits and adapt ourselves to marketplace shifts. We do ministry; we do business. We do the next right thing.
God doesn't want us to be shy with his gifts, but Deliberate. Patient. Disciplined. Biblical. Self-sustaining. Sensible.
