Elder Ray Navarro has a passion for engaging people in a multi-sensory way. His interactive themes for the Junior department at camp meeting each year draw crowds. One year’s beach theme featured several inches of sand spread across the floor, while another year showcased a large entrance to a Reformation castle. A desire to engage with others fits with his overall philosophy of “serving others with whatever abilities you have.”
After nearly 16 years as senior pastor of the Tempe church, Navarro has been appointed to become executive secretary of the Arizona Conference. Starting his new position July 1, he stated that he is “excited about this new journey and learning other aspects of ministry.”
Raised in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, he struggled with the Lord during his teen years. “I stopped attending church, and it wasn’t until my early 20s that I felt a strong pull from God to get closer to Him,” he said. In April 1985, he decided to study for the ministry, and one of his greatest joys has been “witnessing the change that people experience when God uses me as His spokesperson to draw people to Jesus.”
In reflecting on his own growth through the years, he noted, “The lessons I have learned are too numerous, but I have learned over time that God is much broader minded and bigger hearted that I understood in my early years. I have grown in my utter dependence on Him.”
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By Jeff Rogers
