Navigators, M:MM Merge for Faster, Bigger Impact
The Navigators is officially merging with a small discipling group called Mission: Moving Mountains, an announcement Wednesday said.
The merger is said to represent a milestone for both ministries with the combined history and widespread reach of The Navigators and the keen awareness M:MM has in some of the poorest places in Africa.
"We desperately need what M:MM will bring to the combined organization," said Alan Andrews, U.S. director of The Navigators, in a news release.
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The M:MM Board of Directors voted unanimously for the merger on Sept. 30, weeks after the campus ministry board had their vote on Aug. 18. The two ministries have worked side by side for decades to spread the gospel especially in poor and under-developed communities.
M:MM Founder Dr. Richard Patterson noted, "In the early days of our ministry we learned a lot about discipleship from The Navigators."
M:MM's vision is to help poor and underdeveloped communities become all that God intends for them to be in all areas of life. Although the ministry has a "keen awareness" of how whole-life transformation works in some of the poorest places in Africa, its capacity to reach Africa is limited, according to the news release.
The Navigators works to advance the gospel through "spiritual generations of laborers living and discipling among the lost." With a history of over 70 years, the ministry has spread into over 100 countries and has a staff of more than 4,000 including over 200 in Africa.
Currently, The Navigators serves in 25 sub-Saharan countries in Africa, yet many of the African communities are beyond the ministry's sphere of influence, as the release stated, primarily because of their limited development experience among the poor.
"We need to learn how to minister among oral societies which make up about 80 percent of Africa – the impoverished and the pre-literate – if we expect to have any hope of impacting them with the gospel," said Rod Beidler, The Navigators' director of the U.S. International Ministries Group. "It would take us 25 years to learn to do what M:MM already knows how to do. If we can blend M:MM’s competence with our capacity, together we can advance the gospel much more quickly throughout Africa than either of us could ever hope to do alone."
The chairmen of the two ministries' Board of Directors highlighted the impact and speed at which they can now work.
Combined, the two organizations will have a "greater impact on God's Kingdom much faster" than when they were independent, said Bob Brydges, chairman of the M:MM Board of Directors.
The Navigators Board of Directors chairman, Dr. Jerry White, commented, "Together we are believing the Lord to further His Kingdom through this bold initiative."
