Dawson Trotman

Life

Trotman was born in 1906 in Bisbee, Arizona, and grew up in Lomita, California. His family traditionally belonged to the Presbyterian Church but did not actively practice the faith, and as a child he attended Sunday school only occasionally. By around the age of twenty he had gone astray, smuggling liquor during Prohibition and committing theft. According to accounts, in 1926 John 5:24, which he had memorized for a church memorization contest, suddenly came to mind, leading to his conversion (turning one's heart to embrace the faith). In 1929 he studied at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA), and in 1932 he married Lila Clayton.

On June 18, 1956, Trotman was serving as a speaker at a Word of Life conference at Schroon Lake, New York. While boating there, he and a girl fell into the water; he saved the girl, but he himself drowned at the age of fifty. At his funeral, Billy Graham eulogized him as having died just as he had lived, holding someone else up. He was buried at Glen Eyrie in Colorado Springs, where the headquarters of the ministry he founded is located. After his death, his wife Lila briefly led the organization, followed by Lorne Sanny.

Ministry and Achievements

The Navigators began in 1933 when Trotman started studying the Bible with U.S. Navy sailors and discipling them. As its name suggests, the organization likened the Christian life to a ship navigating the sea. During World War II, the ministry spread widely among soldiers and sailors. Trotman's lifelong motto was "To know Christ and to make Him known."

He regarded Scripture memorization as the foundation of spiritual growth. In 1928 he compiled a list of 85 verses worth memorizing by every believer, later reducing it to 49. This list was subsequently refined into the Topical Memory System (TMS), in which verses are memorized by topic. He emphasized one-to-one follow-up, in which one person takes responsibility for nurturing another. He also stressed "spiritual reproduction," in which those who have been discipled go on to disciple others; this idea is set forth in Born to Reproduce, a booklet drawn from his testimony.

At the request of Billy Graham, he designed a system for counseling those who made decisions for Christ at large evangelistic crusades and for following up with them afterward. This system was used at events such as the 1954 Harringay Crusade in London. He also worked alongside other American evangelical leaders of the time, such as Henrietta Mears and Bill Bright.

Influence on the Korean Church

The Korean Navigators officially began their ministry in 1966. In the 1970s the ministry spread nationwide, centered on university campuses and workplaces, and in the 1980s and 1990s it sent missionaries abroad. The methods and materials for one-to-one discipleship, Scripture memorization, and Bible study that originated with Trotman are regarded as having influenced discipleship training in Korean churches and campus ministries across denominational lines. The organization has also held discipleship training seminars for local church pastors. His biography and booklets have been translated into Korean.

Assessment

Within evangelical circles, Trotman is regarded as a figure who awakened Christians to the importance of follow-up and spiritual reproduction. His death while saving another person is spoken of as a symbol of a life lived for others.

At the same time, criticism has arisen regarding the operation of organizations that inherited his methods. In Korea, beginning around 2007, some former members called for reform. They alleged that leaders chose members' marriage partners, demanded unconditional obedience, and distanced young people from the church and society. The organization rejected these claims as false and filed defamation complaints against them. Prosecutors reportedly declined to bring charges. This controversy, however, concerns the operation of the Korean organization rather than Trotman personally.