Serving Atlanta: Different Expressions of Our Calling

The city of Atlanta is active and multi-faceted. Thereโ€™s a lot more to it than meets the eye. The same can be said for The Navigators ministry in Atlanta as Matt Letourneau, who heads up Navigator efforts in Atlanta, explains.

He describes how Matt Maxwell (who met The Navigators at Penn State University) left his jobโ€”managing 150 people with a multi-million dollar budget working to rebuild the factory of Americaโ€™s largest and best-known chocolate manufacturerโ€”to join The Navigators staff and work with urban youth in Atlanta.

โ€œMaxwell is building on the four decades of work in the community done by another Navigator, Rich Berry,โ€ says Letourneau. โ€œHeโ€™s focused on kids between the ages of four and 14 living in the city. And the relationships that Rich established over the years have opened up all kinds of possibilities.โ€

โ€œMaxwell has been doing this nights and weekends on his own for 17 years,โ€ explains Letourneau. โ€œBut now heโ€™s doing it full time while living the heart of the city.โ€

Thereโ€™s also a significant student population in Atlanta. Thatโ€™s what led Dave Bowman, a veteran of Navigator student ministry, to leave Penn State to direct all campus initiatives here. โ€œDave has trained more than 100 Navigator staff members, who now serve all over the world,โ€ says Letourneau. โ€œNow heโ€™s responsible for the staff on four campuses in Atlanta. But these four campuses plan to reach out to 12 additional campuses in the Atlanta metro areaโ€”passing on what theyโ€™ve learned.โ€

Atlanta also boasts a thriving business environment, which brought Gary Christopher, who works with The Navigators Church Discipleship Ministry, from the suburbs into the city. โ€œGary is partnering with our Nav20s work to reach young business people in the city,โ€ says Letourneau. โ€œHe teaches them how to walk with Jesus in the workplace, and how to train others to do the same.โ€ Currently, there are more than 50 of these young adults dispersed throughout the city, having an impact on those around them.

Navigators arenโ€™t the only ones engaged in ministry in Atlanta; God has opened up opportunities to work with other groups in the area. One organization serves homeless men in the city. โ€œThey do rehabilitation with about 1,000 men every day,โ€ says Letourneau. โ€œThey came to us and said that even though theyโ€™d been doing this for a long time, they werenโ€™t seeing the kind of long-term transformation in the lives of these men that theyโ€™d hoped for.โ€ So they asked The Navigators to help them develop programs that would allow Letourneau to follow up the individuals going through their programs.

There are many sides to Atlanta. And that means many opportunities for ministryโ€”something that excites Letourneau. The variety of initiatives provide individuals who are trained by The Navigators to be involved in advancing Godโ€™s Kingdom wherever God leads them.

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