Church Revitalization for Children’s,
Youth, and Family Ministry
By Dr. Josh Mulvihill
T
here are reactive and proactive reasons why church leaders seek help from
Renewanation. Typically, a senior pastor or church leader contacts us with questions
about a specific issue within the children’s or youth ministry of a church.
Chief among the problems are reactive reasons to partner
with Renewanation:
• Attendance has plateaued or declined. Student atten-
dance is declining, and families are leaving.
• Conflict exists between pastoral leadership and
members of the congregation. Often, there is a grow-
ing dissatisfaction with ministry approach or ministry
results.
• A lack of vision and ministry direction.
Revitalization requests based on a desire to proactively
address the health and growth of the church’s children or
youth ministry fall into six primary areas:
• The church is healthy and growing and would like to be
intentional about the next season of ministry.
• The church does not have a plan for their children’s,
youth, or family ministry and wants to develop a stra-
tegic plan.
• The children and youth ministries are doing okay, but
the church is unsure of its strengths and weaknesses
and the next phase of ministry.
• A church leader wants to save time by assessing and
addressing issues more quickly than he could with his
own staff.
• There is a change in ministry leadership, which provides
an opportunity to assess the current state of ministry
and create a new plan.
The church revitalization program was created in
response to five major needs:
1. Poor evangelism and discipleship results
Many churches invest a significant amount of re-
sources to reach and disciple the next generation, yet
unprecedented numbers of young people are walking
away from Christ and the church. We help family min-
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istries reach young people with the gospel, retain them
in the life of the church, and raise them in the Lord, so
they have a deep and lasting faith.
2. Undeveloped theology and ministry philosophy
Many churches base their children’s and youth min-
istry approach on the latest trend or the large church
down the road rather than the Bible. Children and
youth ministry methodology have largely remained
stagnant for decades while families have grown dys-
functional and culture has changed significantly. We
help churches build their ministry on a strong biblical
foundation and methods.
3. Lack of family discipleship and biblical worldview
development
Most churches have a strong desire to support the
home but struggle to implement any regular, system-
atic training. Parents often outsource the faith training
of their children to paid church professionals and
substitute church programming for family discipleship.
Research reveals low numbers of young people develop
a biblical worldview. We help churches equip parents
and grandparents as well as integrate biblical world-
view training into their ministry.
4. No ministry measurements or intentional plan
A majority of family ministry leaders do not have a
ministry measurement system in place and typically
have no long-term plan for the spiritual develop-
ment of young people. We help churches measure
ministry results and develop a strategic plan.
5. Lack of coaching
Many children’s and youth leaders have limited theo-
logical education or church experience and benefit
from godly counsel in their life. We provide coaching
to help church leaders faithfully steward the important
role God has given them.