About Us

Our Vision

Our vision is to transform the lives of children by equipping the church and home for family discipleship with biblical worldview at the center. We work with the four primary spiritual influences in the life of young people: parents, grandparents, educators, and church leaders. We are passionate to see young people treasure Christ, live according to the Bible, and transform the world for the sake of Christ. We’re Bible-based, Christ-centered, and gospel-focused in all that we do.

Here are a few of the problems we are seeking to address:

Current Situation

No family worship, intentional plan, or training by church.George Barna states, “A majority of parents [and grandparents] do not spend any time during a typical week discussing religious matters or studying religious materials with their children…parents typically have no plan for the spiritual development of their children; do not consider it a priority, have little or no training in how to nurture a child’s faith.”
Infrequent church attendance. Larry Fowler has found that “the average child attends an evangelical megachurch less than two times per month.”
Limited grandparent influence. Less than 1 in 4 grandparents understand their role according to the Bible and, as a result, have a minimal impact on the faith of children and grandchildren.
Strong media and educational influence. The average young person logs 4-8 hours of TV, video, internet per day and 16,000 educational hours between K-12. Children will be in school 60 times as much as in church.
Unhealthy reliance on children’s or youth ministry. Barna discovered that only 1 in 6 senior pastors believe getting parents involved with spiritual formation is a top goal for youth ministry. Parents generally rely upon the church to do all the religious training their children will receive.

Parents and grandparents are relying on this pattern for the spiritual training of their family and the results are not good.

Our Strategy

We are accomplishing our cause through the following five strategies:

C hurch revitalization for family ministry. The trend is entertainment oriented, church-growth focused, pragmatism. Children’s and youth ministries are Disney-like and doctrinally-light.

A ctively training pastors with a biblical philosophy of ministry. Many church leaders have no theological education resulting in a corporate approach to ministry. We provide children’s, youth, and family pastors with a biblical foundation for ministry.

U rgency to reach future generations with the gospel and shape beliefs with the Bible. Children are being reached with the missionary zeal of a secularized culture and classroom. Only 4% have a biblical worldview.

S cripture-saturated resources for the home. We create resources that equips the family to disciple future generations and apply the Gospel to family life.

E quip parents and grandparents to disciple future generations. Less than 25% nurture a child’s faith. Few have any intentional plan. Homes are discipleship-light and children are walking away from the faith. We want to see every family worshipping together at home and church.

What We Offer

Josh Mulvihill and the Gospel Shaped Family team train parents and grandparents to disciple their family with a biblical worldview and equips church leaders to develop and implement a biblical strategy for children, youth, and family ministry. Explore the parenting and grandparenting books for families, ministry resources for Christian leaders, speaking topics for your event, and family ministry coaching or consulting options for your church. Get to know the talented team of speakers and consultants and contact us today to learn more about how we can serve your family, church, or school.