Navigators to beef up staff
Raising funds for literature and facilities
By ChristianWeek staff
LONDON, ON–The Navigators of Canada hope to increase their workers by 150 in the next five to 10 years. The campus-based ministry now has 200 workers across the country.
The organization is currently on just 19 university campuses, explains Mike Noble, director of the Navs’ Catching the Wind fund-raising campaign. Also, in most cases there are only one or two workers per campus. "We’re finding if we have the manpower the teams are better," he says.
"There is a new openness to spiritual realities," adds national president Ross Rains. "Many people have lost faith in economic power, and now recognize the consequences of secularism and the loss of moral values."
Rains says a "movement of ordinary Christian men and women is needed to live out the gospel among those far from faith and the church."
Through the fund-raising efforts, the Navigators hope to raise $2.6 million in a year and a half once a concerted effort begins in the fall, Noble says.
Though staff generally raise their own support, this is becoming more difficult for new workers, Noble says, because they don’t have the network of donors established that older staff do. The organization hopes to provide a "financial on-ramp" to make it easier for new workers to join.
The Navigators also hope to produce a new set of literature for use in evangelism and discipleship. "We’re finding Generation X is a generation of change," Noble says. Older materials don’t communicate the way they used to. As well, he adds, the new literature will be more sensitive to Canadian culture than the U.S.-produced material is.
Besides staffing and literature, the money raised through Catching the Wind will go towards establishing a larger national office, most likely in London, says Noble.
