Who is Josh Mulvihill?

In his own words:

I married Jen in 2000. We have the occasional argument about how many throw pillows is too many; but otherwise, being married to Jen has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. We homeschool our five children. We live in Victoria, MN on a small hobby farm where we have bees, chickens, cats, a black lab, and pigs. We’ve been renovating a 100 year-old farmhouse, which has been a labor of love. Jen and I love laughing with friends over coffee, mentoring younger parents, and reading or writing a great book. I also love to fish, camp, and a crackling bonfire. My greatest privilege is being a husband to Jen and together raising our children to know, love, and serve Christ.

I like to joke that I’ve been in full time ministry my entire life. My parents served with Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru) for 37 years, so I guess that makes me a missionary kid. My parents trained Christian professors at state colleges to integrate Christianity into their classroom. Education, apologetics, and discipleship were key pillars of my parent’s ministry and I had the joy of being their ministry associate and learning on the job. My parents did a fantastic job of discipling us as children and often reminded us to “Live in light of eternity.”

It was 2000 that I stepped into my first pastoral role. One of my first priorities was to get to know each of the families at the church and learn about what they were doing to disciple their children at home. What I learned turned out to be alarming and transformational for me as a pastor.

Parent after parent confessed that beyond mealtime or bedtime prayers and the occasional faith conversation, that they were not doing much to intentionally disciple their children. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that this was a major problem. The secular influences from media and education combined with limited discipleship at home and irregular church attendance was a recipe for disaster for children.

This problem sent me on a path to learn how to equip parents. I enrolled at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary to get a PhD in Family Ministry and my course work trained me in three areas: Family Ministry, Education, and Leadership with a focus on biblical worldview. On that journey, God opened my eyes to the importance of grandparents in the discipleship of children and I wrote my dissertation on the biblical role of Christian grandparents. At the time, the topic was largely ignored by churches and my professor told me that the only people who would want to read it where my wife and mother.

Dennis Rainey heard about my research and invited me to join him on Family Life Today radio. During a three-minute recording break Dennis asked me to provide the title of my grandparenting book (which didn’t exist) and informed me that I had seven weeks to get it published. That’s how the book Biblical Grandparenting came into existence, which eventually grew to be a seven book grandparenting series with Bethany House Publishers called Grandparenting Matters. Since I’m not a grandparent, I still marvel that God used me for this purpose. God spoke through a donkey, so I guess He can speak through anyone. God has used these books to create a Christian grandparenting movement and I’m honored to have been a small part of it.

In 2017 I joined the staff of Renewanation and have the amazing privilege of working with pastors and church leaders as well as parents and grandparents all over the United States and Canada. I help families and churches apply the Bible to life and ministry. I’m a regular preacher, conference speaker, radio guest, and writer. I’ve had the opportunity to speak at D6, Mega Con, Children’s Pastors Conference, Truth78, Legacy Summit, Family Life Today, Moody Radio, and Focus on the Family. Many of these talks or interviews are available in the speaker tab. You can also learn more about some of the topics and conferences I offer in the speaker section. I have the joy of serving as the Vice-chairman on the board of Awana, a ministry that impacts five million children weekly.

Take a moment to explore this website https://gospelshapedfamily.com/ to learn about what I do and how I can serve you. You will see a passion for the discipleship of children, love of the family, and the importance of a biblical worldview. Feel free to reach out to me. I would love to hear from you!

Josh Mulvihill       

Review:

Discipling Your Grandchildren: Great Ideas to Help Them Know, Love, and Serve God

(Part of an 8 book series: Grandparenting Matters)

You are a grandparent with a passion to impact your grandkids for Christ, but sometimes you struggle to find fun and meaningful ways to disciple them and leave a lasting legacy of faith. Help is at hand in Discipling Your Grandchildren: Great Ideas to Help Them Know, Love, and Serve God, in which grandparenting expert Dr. Josh Mulvihill has compiled dozens of suggestions and strategies to help you do just that.

With an assortment of actionable ideas–from pragmatic tips on how to better connect with your grandchildren to fun, age-appropriate activities–Discipling Your Grandchildren is an invaluable tool chest for grandparents who want to build a biblical foundation, lead by example, and point their grandchildren to Christ. Practical yet powerful, the information, ideas, and best practices shared by Mulvihill can be implemented and adapted in ways that work for your unique grandparenting situation, whether your grandkids are two or twenty, around the corner or across the globe.

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