Fifty years ago, The Navigators launched a book-publishing ministry with its mission to encourage readers to know Christ, make him known, and help others do the same. NavPress—whose new tagline is “Bold. Loving. Sensible”—has done just that over the decades through award-winning books like The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language and numerous other works.
“Care for the whole person is baked into what and how we publish: deep, enriching, biblically based, theologically sound resources for people who are not satisfied with easy answers,” said Caitlyn Carlson, senior editor. “We publish honest and compassionate resources that leave people feeling seen, cared for, and helped.”
Jeff Crosby, president of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, recalls NavPress’s impact on his life via the Design for Discipleship Series, as well as books by NavPress authors Larry Crabb, Dan Allender, Lois Mowday Rabey, and many others. “When I think of NavPress’s fifty years of impact, the words ‘discipleship’ and ‘life-changing’ are what drift to the top of my mind,” said Crosby. “NavPress has been a faithful guide, and I’m confident that it will continue to be a beacon in the future.”
NavPress’s first publication was Her Name is Woman, by Gien Karssen. A Bible study about 24 women in Scripture, it sold more than a half-million copies. Three years later came The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges, which has sold more than 2 million. Eugene Peterson’s The Message Bible is a perennial bestseller, with more than 20 million copies sold to date.
“In many ways, The Message is our program’s calling card,” said Olivia Eldredge, Message editor. “It’s the most conspicuous product in the catalog, and tonally and philosophically it still brings us into contact with authors who intuitively get what Eugene was doing, and write from a similar spirit.”
The Message: Women’s Devotional Bible, releasing in summer 2025, offers what Eldredge calls “a nice symmetry in our anniversary year”: NavPress started with Karssen’s book (written by a woman, and about women) and is now introducing a Bible for women with more than 70 female contributors. In fact, NavPress has made a point of publishing a range of voices, perspectives, and topics. Other impactful titles include Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture by Makoto Fujimura; Real-Life Discipleship: Building Churches That Make Disciples by Jim Putman; the Storyline Bible study series by Kat Armstrong; A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World by Paul E. Miller; and Becoming a Woman of Excellence by Cynthia Heald.
Over the years NavPress has weathered storms, as many publishers have. Deborah Sáenz, acquisitions editor, points to such challenges for publishers as more people leaving the church, discoverability difficulty, and a decline in functional literacy. But, she says, “We are convinced that there is a quiet audience out there looking for trustworthy writers to help them take stock of the meanings of our times.”
NavPress’s leaders believe the house is up to the task of reaching new readers. They are excited about 2025 releases that include Derwin Gray’s Lit Up with Love: Becoming Good-News People to a Gospel-Starved World; the children’s book Can I Sit Here? A Story about Feeling Lonely, Being Brave, and Making Friends, by Heather Thompson Day and her daughter London; and You Can Trust a God with Scars by Jared Ayers. And they look further ahead to the continued success of The Message and “a steady flow of books with an increasingly outsize impact on discipleship as a running conversation,” said Carlson.
While looking back at the last five decades with thanksgiving and joy, NavPress is anticipating the next 50 years with trust and conviction.
“We are confident that a decade from now, even fifty years from now, whatever NavPress is doing, it won’t be done out of fear,” said Sáenz. David Zimmerman, publisher at NavPress, agreed, saying, “It won’t be done out of selfindulgence or trend-chasing. It won’t be done in ways that are combative and uncaring. It will be characterized by boldness, love, and sensibility.”
