{"id":13883,"date":"2026-05-05T08:59:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T13:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/?p=13883"},"modified":"2026-05-05T09:20:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T14:20:55","slug":"in-the-business-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2026\/05\/in-the-business-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Business of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

\u201cSo, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do,
I\u2019m bankrupt without love.\u201d<\/p>1 Corinthians 13:3-7, The Message Bible<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2025 NavPress celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with a new tagline, inspired by Paul\u2019s encouragement to his prot\u00e9g\u00e9 in 2 Timothy 1:5-7: \u201cGod doesn\u2019t want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible\u201d (<\/em>The Message Bible). Over the next few posts at thedisciplemaker.org, we\u2019ll be reflecting on how the tagline characterizes us, and how we seek to live into what it evokes in us.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLove governs.\u201d So said one of the national leaders of The Navigators, the parent organization of NavPress. He brought this up during a reflection on 1 Corinthians 12\u201413, during an extended discussion of the ever-present reality of cultural tension and the urgency of Christian unity. Unity was the need of the hour observed by the apostle Paul as he looked at the Corinthian church. Love was the prescription\u2014God\u2019s most excellent way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Navigators is a disciplemaking ministry, which makes disciplemaking the principal mission of NavPress. That\u2019s a tricky business for a publishing house: Discipleship is inherently personal and relational, and yet in publishing we bounce digital files across state and national borders, even across continents, until a manuscript is print-ready, at which point we pour ink onto paper and glue pages together into books, which we then ship by the truckload to distributors and booksellers, who in turn put our products into the hands of end users–increasingly often, in a transaction conducted entirely virtually. It is easy to forget that there are humans engaged on either side of the publishing process, and at all the waystations in between. It can be hard to think of this work consistently as a labor of love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And yet a labor of love this work is. Authors write with God-inspired passion for an audience they love without ever meeting. Editors love words and the people who write them, the people who read them. Marketers and publicists delight at the prospect of a book meeting a person who needs it and a person meeting a book they need. Designers trade in beauty, stimulating the senses of readers before a book\u2019s spine is ever cracked. Warehouse workers pray over pallets. Administrative staff bear one another\u2019s burdens. Love, love, love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To work at NavPress is to be governed by love. We honor the dignity and value of every person, from our readers to our authors to their critics and our competitors. We deal honorably with one another. We give thought not only to the work but the workers, supporting the gifts and needs of individuals while also taking into account the greater good. We resist the allure of self-aggrandizement, and we reject the appeal of zero-sum outcomes. Instead we take cues from the apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians (2:1-4):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. \nDon\u2019t push your way to the front; \ndon\u2019t sweet-talk your way to the top. \nPut yourself aside, and help others get ahead. \nDon\u2019t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. \nForget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Obviously we work in such a way that our business is sustainable, and we recognize that the publishing marketplace is unavoidably a competitive environment. But our kingdom reality, articulated by Paul and designed by God in the very beginning, is abundant and generous. Love is the coin of the realm, the principal ethic, the mark of the Christian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
In how we organize ourselves, how we build our catalog, how we develop our products, and how we conduct our business, we let love rule. We trust that in a world plagued by division, it is the most excellent way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God doesn\u2019t want us to be shy with his gifts, but<\/em>\nKind. \nCollaborative. \nDignified. \nDignifying. \nMutual-minded.\nLoving.<\/em><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To work at NavPress is to be governed by love. 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