During those trips I learned how to read a state road map. I still carry an old-school atlas with me in the car, just in case. But today we can open an app on our phones or on the car dashboard to provide us with cues for our travels. The GPS tells us when to exit, merge with traffic, and change lanes. It can provide alternate routes based on traffic, suggest the closest coffee shop, or exclaim “Recalculating route!” when you miss your turn.

But what’s the one thing necessary for a GPS system to function as it has been designed?

A Destination.

When it comes to raising disciples, we should set our eyes on the destination.

I believe that one of the reasons parents and caregivers struggle to disciple children well is that we haven’t clearly identified the destination for their discipleship and the directions that guide them toward that goal.

How would you describe a child who is entering adolescence as an active disciple? Would you choose words that describe their character: loving, joyful, obedient, self-controlled? Or would you choose words that describe behaviors: reads the Bible daily, asks spiritual questions, worships God? Perhaps you would choose words that describe their depth of knowledge and understanding about God and His Word.

Public and private education systems have stated objectives when it comes to student expectations. Lists of student learning outcomes articulate the goals for students at the conclusion of each grade level. Each child is unique and develops at their own rate, so there are those who will exceed the expectations and others who will struggle. But teachers begin each year knowing the goals and guiding students along the path toward achievement. Like a GPS, they might have to find alternate paths for some or help others get turned back around, but with a clear goal and markers on the way, teachers are able to guide their young disciples.

This is what we’ve been missing in our homes and churches — a discipleship map that states the goal for raising disciples and provides directions toward that goal.

In some Christian traditions, the goal for children has been a public confession of Christ; in others, submission through the act of baptism. In yet other traditions, it has been the completion of confirmation classes. Regardless of our tradition, our goal for raising disciples should be the same as the goal for all disciples: to become more and more like Christ every day.

For three years, Jesus taught the crowds, His enemies, and political leaders, but most often, He was teaching twelve ordinary men from various backgrounds, vocations, and experiences. When He chose the Twelve, He had a goal in mind. Jesus knew that at the conclusion of His earthly ministry He would redeem the world through His death, return to God the Father, and equip His followers with the Holy Spirit to disciple others. He needed a core group of leaders who would follow Him daily (Luke 9:23), continuing His mission “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10) and to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).

As Jesus prepared to leave the Twelve to continue His mission, He met with them to give them some final encouragements and admonitions. Woven through Jesus’ conversation in the upper room (John 13–17), we find descriptions of what it means to become like Christ:

• Follow His example (John 13:14-15),
• Love others (John 13:34),
• Believe in God (John 14:1),
• Keep God’s commands (John 14:15), and
• Remain in Christ (John 15:4).

These descriptors provide some direction toward the goal for all disciples.

With the destination of becoming like Christ as our goal, we can utilize childhood development information from the fields of social science, learning theory, and psychology to create a map for discipleship from infancy to adolescence.* Beginning at birth, there are seven directional discipleship markers — approximately one for every two years of life — that parallel the biological, cognitive, social, and moral development of children. Just as Jesus discipled the Twelve from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity, we can use this map to raise disciples who become increasingly more like Christ.

Did you like this article? Check out Teresa Roberts’ full book, Raising Disciples, as well as the accompanying free 8-week parenting curriculum today!

Discipleship Tip:

When discipling someone, consider verbally setting discipleship goals. With a destination in mind, you can orchestrate milestones and implement accountability, making sure that you both are progressing forward in their discipleship journey.

*The faith research of James W. Fowler (Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning, San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1981) and insights of spiritual development from John H. Westerhoff III (Will Our Children Have Faith?, 3rd. ed., Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse, 2012) has also informed this discipleship map.

Meet the Author

Teresa Roberts is Professor of Ministry and Christian Formation, Program Director of Children’s Ministry, and a vice president at Ozark Christian College. She is an expert in children’s spiritual formation training with more than 25 years of ministry experience.

Dr. Roberts holds a Master of Arts in Family and Youth Ministry, a Master of Divinity, and a Doctor of Ministry. She serves in children’s ministry at Carterville Christian Church where she attends with her husband and step-daughter. Learn more at discipleshipguides.com/.

The Holy Trinity is a mystery to me, with its three in oneness and its oneness in three, and I can just barely grasp the deep relational nature of how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit touch and spin and dance off each other and with each other. Hospitality — that generous making room for others and giving and receiving to and from each other from our plenty and sometimes from our scarcity but we do it anyway — seems to flow out of that communal and relational and so generous nature of God. Being holy as God is holy, if we can believe it, catapults us into relationship with others and the practice of hospitality. Holiness is relational, and that is why hospitality fits holiness like a soft leather glove.

Hospitality involves the holy practice of gratitude.

All of this is made easier alongside the holy practice of gratitude. I have this place, this food, this book; please take it and enjoy it as well. We try to believe that everything we have comes from God, and so it is ours not to own but to share. So hospitality is almost always best when it is gratitude adjacent. However, the discipline of hospitality can happen also while you are still a grouchy, miserly mess. Disciplines take discipline. Not everything is easy or feels good right away, but that might mean it’s even more worth doing, and not less.

Hospitality invites humility.

In Luke 14:12-14, Jesus tells us how to throw a dinner party. Dinner parties are, after all, what most of us think of first when we think about hospitality: “‘When you put on a luncheon or a banquet,’ he said, ‘don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. For they will invite you back, and that will be your only reward. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you’” (NLT). In Luke 14:8-10, He even discusses seating plans: “When you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t sit in the seat of honor … Instead, take the lowest place at the foot of the table” (NLT).

Jesus knows me so well. He predicts my thirst for status. When we practice hospitality as part of our holiness, we will come face-to-face with our desire to invite first our friends, the people we especially like or those whom we want to especially like us, along with the relatives we are most comfortable with, and, of course, our rich neighbors. We might strut around like a peacock in our own dining room and not even realize we are doing it. Again, our intentional moves toward holiness will show us how far we have yet to travel. Our efforts to do good on the outside will show us how far we are from good on the inside, and in that gap, we learn again of our need for the forgiving, restoring love of God in our own lives and hearts, and how much we need him, even when we are serving macaroni to friends.

We learn something about ourselves — and therefore move deeper into our holiness journeys — when we pay attention to whom we want to welcome in and how we want to welcome them to our homes, our tables, and our lives.

Hospitality helps us to examine our hidden motivations.

As we consider ourselves, we can confess ourselves to God and ask for help. Why am I making this so fancy? we can ask our inner hostess, in an examination of motivation that is a daily part of pushing into our holiness. What is my motivation? Also, Why am I talking about myself so much? And why can’t I stop?

Our honest answers do not bring the dinner party, the coffee date, or the open house to a screeching halt, but instead provide us another opportunity to be honest with ourselves and with God — who is the ultimate and gracious host of heaven and earth now and the new earth that is to come. Make me holy in my hospitality, we might pray. Kill off my show-off-ness, we might ask. Help me listen more than I speak, as my blunt spouse has said I need to work on.

Help me not to be so needy, I can pray as I juice blood oranges for udon noodles with fried tofu and orange nam jim from my expensive hardcover Ottolenghi Flavour cookbook propped open on the counter. Perhaps for a little while, as part of our own healing, we will make a simple spaghetti Bolognese, accept the offer of our guest to bring store-bought garlic bread and let Maureen help with the cleanup, like she always wants to do. We will resist the temptation to offer our guests a tour of our new barbeque and satisfy our thirst for thanks by turning it outward to gratitude to God. What if whenever we yearn for someone to say, “Thank you, you are marvelous for all you have done,” we accept that as a prompt to whisper, “Thank You. You are marvelous for all You have done.”

Hospitality exercises a variety of spiritual disciplines.

Food is just one expression of hospitality. Conversation is another. When we practice holiness through hospitality, we create a space in which other pursuits of holiness can be practiced, such as listening well and not interrupting, putting others first, and offering encouragement and companionship to the person God has placed and we have invited in front of us. From the way Jesus tells us to invite, and the humility presumed in His recommended seating plan, we can assume that we don’t invite people to our table so we can imprison them to hear all and only about us. We don’t tie them to their chairs with our story and our glory.

We can stretch our ability to put others first, and to forgive.

We can practice patience, a fruit of the Spirit we get to work with, toward friends who arrive late (or even worse, early) and those who stay too long. We practice not biting off the heads of those with whom we disagree. If we do bite their heads off at dinner, we can practice the art of unequivocal apology. Apologizing is a holy act. I’m sorry are holy, healing words. Through hospitality’s gift of space opened up and time slowed down, we can “be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep,” which Paul told us to do only two verses after he reminded us to “always be eager to practice hospitality” in Romans 12:13-15.

Discipleship Tip:

Hospitality isn’t about impressing others — it’s about making space for them. This week, invite someone into your home or life with gratitude and humility, focusing on listening and encouraging rather than showcasing. Ask the Lord for opportunities to be hospitable in your community in order to point others to Jesus.

About the Author

Karen Stiller is a senior editor of Faith Today magazine and writes frequently for magazines like Reader’s Digest, Ekstasis, In Trust, and other publications across North America. Stiller is a three-time winner of the prestigious A.C. Forrest Memorial Award from the Canadian Church Press for excellence in socially conscious religious journalism. She is author of The Minister’s Wife (2020, Tyndale Momentum); co-author of Craft, Cost & Call (2019), Shifting Stats Shaking the Church (2015) and Going Missional (2010); editor of The Lord’s Prayer (2015) and coeditor of Evangelicals Around the World (2015). She lives in Ottawa and has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Non-Fiction from University of King’s College, Dalhousie.

This article was originally published on the DiscipleMaker Blog by NavPress. You can also hear more from Karen Stiller through her book Holiness Here and NavPress’ new podcast, “Good Books, Big Questions,” where Karen hosts bold, loving, and sensible conversations about faith.

The glow of thousands of faces lights up the room, a powerful testament to the spread of the gospel from generation to generation. 

This was one of the many special moments from The Navigators 2023 National Staff Gathering.

Last month, over 1,300 Navigator staff came together in Irving, Texas. The theme of the weekend was Heartbeat: A Vital Movement of the Gospel, focusing on 2 Timothy 2:1-2: “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” (NIV).

The gathering held five plenary sessions, which were designed to inspire, uplift, and challenge staff attendees to continue the work to which they’ve been called. Staff heard insights on the Lord’s vision for grace, necessary aspects of prayer, and how He works through each and every one of us to reach the nations and spread His mission.  

Staff members also enjoyed times of fun and laughter, along with encouraging ministry stories from new and old friends, breakouts to equip and multiply disciplemakers, precious times of prayer and worship, and motivational messages from fellow Navigators and international leaders. 

For many, the National Staff Gathering was a reminder of why they became Navigators — to be a part of a vital movement of the gospel by connecting, resourcing, and developing everyday disciplemakers. 

Though this conference looked back over the past four years since our last National Staff Gathering, we also took time to look forward to the work that is ahead of us as a ministry. You can partner with us as we continue this work for years to come! 

Pray that the Lord works through The Navigators to reach the unreached and create new disciplemakers. Come alongside us to spread the gospel and disciple those in your circles, from family members to coworkers to neighbors and beyond.

Whether you serve on staff or through your everyday life, we are excited to see how the Lord moves through this next season of ministry!

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16 (NIV).

Discipleship Tip:  

Pull out your phone and find a photo of someone you’re discipling or have discipled. Pray for that person and reach out to offer them encouragement.

In March 2020, when COVID-19 hit the United States, it spread rapidly across the Navajo and Hopi Nations in Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. The Navajo Nation makes up 2 percent of Arizona’s population, but 26 percent of the coronavirus cases in Arizona were among the Navajo Nation, which had the highest per-capita infection rate in the United States. Due to the lack of testing, the infection rate was probably higher.

Why so many cases? Family clan systems and cultural norms create communities of interdependence fueled by the unemployment rate (55.9 percent) and the proportion of the population living under the poverty level (45 percent). Multiple generations and even multiple families live in one household, so it is hard to isolate those who are sick. Consequently, COVID-19 spread among families. In addition, 40 percent of the population still lives without running water and electricity.

The elderly are vulnerable and marginalized. Most communities on the reservation have senior centers that provide hot meals on a daily basis, as well as comfort and support. Normally, elders are picked up at their homes and brought to the center to be cared for. Unfortunately, due to physical distancing guidelines, they are no longer going to the centers. One center serves 10 communities with over 90 elders within a 50-mile radius. The need is great!

This need provided an opportunity to help the elderly through engaging young emerging Native leaders. Through prayer, conviction, and much planning, we sprang into ac­tion. We established the COVID-19 Navajo and Hopi Elder Support Project. Our team identified faithful Native leaders who intimately knew the needs of their communities. Quickly Redemption Church, our home church in Flagstaff and Central Church of Phoenix partnered with us. Indian Bible College of Flagstaff provided the facility to base our operations. We established monetary donation sites and procured other resources.

Our objective was to provide the Navajo and Hopi elders in the most remote locations with food, water, cleaning supplies, and PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). Deliveries were made every two weeks for a 16-week period. Together, we provided over 3,000 boxes of food, water, and other items to 11 remote communities for elders in need. This was made possible by ministry partners and over 100 faithful volunteers! Everyone had a deep sense of God’s Spirit, provision, and leading. The project also provided an amazing opportunity to empower, engage, and develop whole life dis­cipleship among the emerging Native leaders who surrounded us. These leaders desperately wanted to help their communities and we were able to provide that opportunity.

A Hopi volunteer said, “I was so happy to see you all yesterday. I felt the love this organization has brought to our village. Thank you so much!”

Rebecca Begay, one of the Native leaders said, “It was amazing to pray for so many needs and to watch God meet those needs. My faith has grown, and I saw Jesus in what we were doing. We learned so much about how to lead in a crisis and it feels like there is nothing we can’t do.”

Pray for our next steps as we continue to engage with the Navajo and Hopi Nations, mentor and disciple emerging Native leaders, and deepen relationships.

Sign up for Native Nations Network ministry updates at tinyurl.com/MuttonStew.

Both sensed the call to serve the Native American community more than 20 years ago. Tom, a high school teacher, ministers to young Navajos through education and by personal example. Delphina, a Navajo Christian, felt God drawing her back to serve her people after college. Today, Tom and Delphina work together in Many Farms, Arizona—the heart of the Navajo Nation. The ministry God has built through this couple touches countless lives in a culture that has often struggled to accept the Christian message.

“Many Native Americans have difficulty getting past the westernized Gospel,” Delphina says. “They think becoming a Christian means that they lose their culture, their family, and their identity as a Native person.”

Such feelings are rooted in centuries of deep tension, but the Johnsons see the Gospel as mediator, equalizer, and advocate for these often marginalized people.

“We share that God loves and created diversity,” Tom says. “Acts 17:26 says ‘From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live’ (NRSV). We celebrate their identity as a Native person, affirming them that this has been ordained by their creator. This helps us to begin sharing about their spiritual connection to the creator through Jesus.”

And many do find that connection—to Christ, and to their roots.

“One of the greatest joys in this ministry is to see Native people come to a place of freedom,” Delphina says, “realizing that they can be fully Christian and still remain fully Native, loving who God created them to be.”

Every Nation, Every Tribe
One young man from the Quechan tribe outside Yuma, Arizona, found his identity in Christ at the University of Arizona after hearing Delphina give her testimony and Gospel presentation. Today, he is one of the first Native American EDGE Corps members The Navigators has ever had, serving at a college in California.

The Johnsons’ ministry intern, a Navajo man in his 20s, is currently serving in college ministry in northern Arizona. He desires to return to the Navajo Nation to teach, and has shown significant spiritual potential.

The Johnsons also work with a Yankton Sioux man who is ministering to Native Americans within the biker culture of Albuquerque’s metro area. He embraces this new and unique work with his wife, who rides with him and helps him share the Gospel with a tough but broken crowd.

“It’s very difficult to get Native American men to step up to take positions of leadership,” Tom says. “But these men are doing it with authenticity and integrity, and really holding to the Navigator DNA. We’re pretty excited about that.”

Photo courtesy of Delphina Johnson
The Johnsons recently took this group of Native college students to a Navigator conference—stopping here so one student could see the ocean for the first time.

The Great Commission
As The Navigators endeavor to honor the rich ethnic heritage of our country—both through celebrating ethnic heritage months and through increased cultural literacy within our ethnic and urban ministries—staff like Tom and Delphina Johnson are already running with that vision.

“We are fulfilling the Great Commission of Matthew 28,” Delphina says. “Cultural diversity has a way of challenging the Christian conscience and bringing the Gospel to a place of purity and its rightful place of prominence.”

The Johnsons challenge Native believers to become Christ’s ambassadors, and to look for cross-cultural settings to become cross-missional. They minister and are ministered to, teaching others about Native culture.

“It’s tearing down cultural bias and stereotypes,” Tom says.

Diversity is most beautiful when seen through the eyes of heaven—where we will worship the Savior of the world, in every language, hand in hand.

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, 5.2 million people in the United States identified as American Indian and Alaska Native.

Though there have been other successful efforts to honor Native American heritage over the last century, it wasn’t until President George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 “National American Indian Heritage Month” that this diverse culture enjoyed a full month of dedicated national celebration. Similar proclamations, under various names (including “Native American Heritage Month”) have been issued each year since 1994. Read more information at the Native American Heritage Month website.