About us
We've been discipling in the UK since 1955
For over 70 years, Navigators UK have been getting alongside people, helping them know Jesus personally and do the same with someone else. God has grown generations of disciple makers through these ordinary people.
We're part of a global movement that is spreading across the world. There are now Navigators getting alongside people in over 100 countries, using more than 150 languages across six continents. Over 5000 staff serve a much bigger movement of ordinary people who are seeing what God can do in their everyday relationships.
"Soul winners are not soul winners because of what they know, but because of Who they know, and how well they know Him, and how much they long for others to know Him."
Dawson Trotman
Founder of the Navigators
Our Calling
Our Core Values
Our Vision
Leadership Team
Board of Trustees
Navs and Church
We believe that you are uniquely placed in this world for profound spiritual impact. We believe that the future of the church in the UK depends on a movement of communities of ordinary people, who know that God has made no mistake in where he has placed them (in families, friendships, communities, workplaces, local churches) and that he wants to use them.
We believe that central to this movement will be a profound recovery of faith in God’s promises for our lives – that each of us, because the promises are ‘yes and amen’ in Jesus, will see our lives swept up into these promises (2 Corinthians 1:20). Because of the promises of God these alongsiders realise that they are fully a part of God’s purposes right where they are and that they are empowered by him to bring grace, justice and love to all around. They are ‘oaks of righteousness for the display of his splendour’ (Isaiah 61:3).
Navigators UK is a part of the global disciple-making movement of the Navigators. Find out more about The Navigators in the USA and about the Worldwide Partnership by following the links below.
Our Calling
The Navigators is a global movement of everyday people who are dedicated to a single calling:
To advance the Gospel of Jesus and His Kingdom into the nations through spiritual generations of labourers living and discipling among the lost.
Our Core Values
Inner-Life Core Values:
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The passion to know, love and become like Jesus Christ
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The truth and sufficiency of the Scriptures for the whole of life magnificent
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The transforming power of the Gospel
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The leading and empowering of the Holy Spirit
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Expectant faith and persevering prayer rooted in the promises of God
Community Core Values:
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The dignity and value of every person
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Love and grace expressed among us in community
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Families and relational networks in discipling the nations
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Interdependent relationships in the Body of Christ in advancing the Gospel
Our Vision
We see a vital movement of the gospel, fueled by prevailing prayer, flowing freely through relational networks and out into the nations. Workers for the Kingdom are next door to everywhere!
What characterises this movement?
A heart for the whole person, climates of grace, compassion for the vulnerable and broken, sacrificial unity embracing diversity, cultural relevance and sensitivity, interdependence with others in the wider family of God, transformed men and women, fragrant with humility and the aroma of Christ.
They are marked by a deep engagement with and obedience to the Scriptures as the Word of God. They believe the promises of God. Both personally and in committed communities, they seek to know and pursue the purposes of God.
Labourers and leaders are emerging, with an increasing passion for Jesus Christ. They demonstrate faith and courage as they live and move among their friends and families. As spiritual parents, they model authenticity and relevance.
Ordinary people, in many walks of life, are joyfully leading integrated lives. They live as fruitful insiders among the lost. There is perseverance in the face of hardship and suffering. Around the world, many are coming to faith. As they become established in discipleship, some grow to be foundational for further generations. The gospel spreads naturally and powerfully, as believers share Christ, life upon life, family to family.
Crossing cultures into new cities and nations, teams of mobile pioneers intentionally proclaim and embody the Good News of Jesus Christ, in such a way that transformed communities multiply. These communities are bringing joy and hope to their surrounding environments as relationships are healed and justice increases. Indeed, the lost and unreached burn in their hearts, as they move the gospel into the nations.
The leaders of this movement, developed and empowered for God’s service, live out a growing commitment to Christlikeness. They are dependent upon the Holy Spirit. New generations of leaders are emerging, rooted incarnationally in their local and national contexts. An international leadership community brings focus, alignment, and energy to their movement. These leaders are clearly committed to long-term impact in generational ministry.
Our Leadership
Phil Boydell
Phil oversees and leads Navigators UK. His childhood dream was to play for Arsenal, but when that didn’t work out he tried studying, pizza-making and working in bioethics. All this time he was being discipled by the Navs and found himself captured by a different goal: the vision of getting alongside others. He brings the energy of a premier league footballer to his role, seeking to empower and enable others in the purposes God has for their lives.
Adam Simmonds
Adam works from Leicester but makes a difference across the UK. Leading two new initiatives over the next few years (membership and city collectives) Adam bringstwo decades worth of experience from politics and public service, including the founding and running of a charity, an institute, and an all-through school. He enjoys the cinema and all things film, history, and political leadership!
Nick Baker
Nick is the guiding hand and running feet behind the finances of the Navigators UK. He loves spreadsheets and connecting people’s generosity with God’s work. In his spare time he is a local councillor, part of the leadership team of his local church and hangs out at history festivals with his wife and son.
Mike Spencer
As well as having involvement in many areas of the UK ministry, Mike acts as the point person for much of what happens in England and Wales. If he doesn't know what's going on, he (probably) knows someone who does. Although dreams of being an ice hockey player have long since faded, to relax you will often find him trying out new tricks at his local rink.
Hanna Van der Meer
Hanna lives in Edinburgh, having moved to the UK from the Netherlands in 2025. She's part of the National Directors Team at Navigators UK, focusing on Training and Development. Before this, she worked for the Navigators in the Netherlands for 12 years, during which time she also set up her own company designing training programs and training organisations and teams on intergenerational collaboration — something she's still involved with today alongside her work at Navigators UK.
Our Board
How is the Navigators connected to the Church?
One of the most helpful ways of understanding us is to recognise that there have been at least two broad structures of how the church has functioned in its history: the local parish, where churches focused exclusively on particular locations, and what are called ‘orders’.
Orders (and later, mission societies) were networks of disciples who were dedicated to a specific calling (in the broader calling of the church). These orders often connected people over vast geographical distances. Some orders were about being separated from the world like the monastic orders, others were known as apostolic orders and were made up of everyday people who lived normal lives in the world and yet sought to partner together to live out a specific calling in the world.
Put simply, orders and parishes have marked a significant part of how the church has operated for well over a thousand years. We as Navigators see ourselves in this broad historical tradition of an apostolic order with our vision, values and calling marking the specific centre that defines our shared journey.
Orders are fascinating! They were both international in reach and yet also locally rooted. They were just as much ‘church’ as the local parish church and they worked both in dynamic partnership with local churches and were also creative in producing new forms and expressions of the church. We see that across the global work of the Navs today, as people work together in and with local churches, to serve the purposes of God’s kingdom.
As Navigators we love the church and, like an order, we want to be both creative and faithful to our calling in the midst of the wider church so that, by the grace of God, we glorify Jesus to whom the whole church belongs.