Being a disciple of Jesus is an important New Testament theme. Jesus Himself talked about the importance of following Him. The apostle Paul carried that theme out in many of his writings to the early churches.<\/p>\n
What does that mean for us today? What purpose do we serve in God\u2019s plan for His Kingdom? For The Navigators, part of the answer can be found in what we believe to be our calling from God:<\/p>\n
To advance the Gospel of Jesus and His <\/em> All of us as followers of Jesus are called to pass on our spiritual heritage to others. But what\u2019s the big deal about \u201cgenerations of laborers\u201d? Why is it significant for advancing the Gospel of Jesus and His Kingdom?<\/p>\n There are more than 150 biblical references to generations. As you read through the Scriptures, you pick up a sense of history, of permanence, of the passing on of truth and tradition throughout time. And some passages reveal why the concept of generations is so crucial.<\/p>\n \u201cRemember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you\u201d (Deuteronomy 32:7). God clearly communicates that we are part of something larger\u2014that existed long before we did\u2014that was passed down to us.<\/p>\n Generations also extend into the future. \u201cHis mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation\u201d (Luke 1:50). We are part of something that God is doing now\u2014that will continue long after we are gone.<\/p>\n And yet, generations are not automatic. \u201cAfter that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel\u201d (Judges 2:10).<\/p>\n Jesus didn\u2019t just preach the truth in the temple. \u201cHe appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach\u201d (Mark 3:14). He took his disciples with Him to ensure they understood His message, and could pass it on.<\/p>\n Paul didn\u2019t just teach in the synagogues and town squares. He took Timothy with him\u2014training him to follow Jesus and teach others. \u201cAnd 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\u201d (2 Timothy 2:2).<\/p>\n The Navigators founder, Dawson Trotman commented that the Gospel spread to the known world during the first century without the benefit of mass media because the early disciples \u201cproduced men who were reproducing\u201d\u2014producing spiritual generations of disciples who passed on their spiritual heritage and trained others to do the same.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why helping to establish \u201dspiritual generations of laborers\u201d is such a big deal. We hope you sense the passion and commitment behind the stories you\u2019ll read in the following pages and be encouraged to invest your life in future generations of disciples as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" God is working through the Navigators’ vision and ministries. Learn more about spreading the Gospel to future generations!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_helpful_pro_status":1,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1483],"mission":[],"topic":[44],"class_list":["post-3039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disciplemaking","tag-disciple","topic-discipleship"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/default-resized.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"The Navigators","author_link":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/staff\/thenavigators\/"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3039"},{"taxonomy":"mission","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mission?post=3039"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=3039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nKingdom into the nations through spiritual <\/em>
\ngenerations of laborers living and discipling <\/em>
\namong the lost.<\/em><\/p>\n