Dr. Janine McNally
Originally a high school teacher in her native Australia, Janine McNally has partnered with her husband for many years of pastoral ministry. Janine graduated with a Master of Theology degree from Dallas Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Grace School of Theology. She passionately believes in reaching kids for Jesus and enlightening leaders, parents, and grandparents about Generation Alpha. Janine and Gary were married in 1995 and live in Panama City, Florida. They are the parents of three grown children: Hannah (married to Kevin), Jonathan, and Jami, and grandparents to Garyson, Hunter, and Emerson. She led Equipping Fireflies, a non-profit dedicated to providing gospel-centered resources for children, and is the author of When You See Fireflies: Equipping Leaders and Parents to Minister Effectively to Generation Alpha. Janine joined the Renewanation team in 2025 and speaks, writes, and provides leadership to the blogs at familyministry.org and christiangrandparenting.com.
Seminars
Most parents desire to nurture faith in their children yet confess to feeling overwhelmed and inadequate. Providing parents with resources is only a part of the job. A more complete and effective strategy involves much more. To truly partner with them, we must first earn their trust and then equip and train them to disciple their children. They need encouragement and support, and then we need to engage them as a family. This session will provide practical suggestions to successfully navigate each of these key components of an effective ministry.
To reach Generation Alpha, we must adapt our teaching style to be more active, interactive, and learner-centric. The old linear monologue approach will not engage this highly visual and diverse group. How can we be more prescriptive and less descriptive? How can we facilitate doing and experiencing by using questions, stories, serving, and fun to become more relevant and effective? It’s facilitating instead of lecturing, active instead of passive learning, and stimulating their inquisitive minds rather than spoon-feeding. With their limited attention spans, we must teach them well. This new generation doesn’t respond well to old teaching methods. How can we adapt to better meet their needs?
How can we increase family engagement by encouraging parents with support and equipping them with resources? Make the most of every opportunity by celebrating milestones and prioritizing family events. You will leave this breakout with practical suggestions that you can immediately apply so that you are not just relying on those take-home pages that end up scattered in the church hallway or email newsletters that are never read. Desperate parents are frustrated and fearful, ill-equipped and unprepared, and looking for help from the church. The church is beginning to acknowledge the need to collaborate with parents; however, research shows that current efforts are inadequate. We must find a way to support them when they feel overwhelmed, anxious, fearful, or unsure about navigating their children’s challenges.
The final years a child spends in grade school might be the most critical. The preteen years are a “magical age” as the brain becomes malleable again and undergoes a significant transformation in preparation for adulthood. Monumental developmental shifts are taking place as they transition from concrete to abstract thinking and decide what information is necessary and what can be eliminated. This is the age when the questions begin. How can we minister to this age group so their cognitive “pruning” doesn’t involve their relationship with God?
We have assumed that children leave the church when they enter college, but statistics show that it is much earlier. The preteen and middle school years are especially critical because these are the years when the questions begin. The first fourteen years of life are a time of great receptivity, but the preteen years might actually be the most receptive of all and might be the last chance to curb this ebbing tide of unbelief.
It just might be the most critical time of our lives for influence. If you were to look at a scan of a two or three-year-old’s brain and compare it to an 11-year-old’s; the scans will look very similar. A toddler is beginning to learn while a preteen is transitioning to their teen years.
Family ministry is the goal, but are we succeeding? Parents are desperate for help from the church or others. They know that the primary responsibility of discipling their kids is theirs, but a lack of knowledge, time, or spiritual understanding leaves them fearful and overwhelmed. How can we help equip, encourage, and support them in their role? Without the family’s backing, children have little hope of succeeding either in life or spiritually. We need the help of the parents, and they need us. How do we build that critical connection with families which is essential to the long-lasting success of the kids in our families and ministries?
Generation Z has aged out, and Gen Alpha is now our ministry, but do we know them? Born into a world of ever-changing technology, a worldwide pandemic, and dysfunctional families, they have unique needs that have never been seen in previous cohorts. Who are they, and how can we effectively minister to them? We can’t hope to reach them if we don’t first seek first to understand them. The biggest mistake we can make is to keep repeating the same programs year after year with no adjustment for our unique audience.
Research tells us that families feel that the church has lost its relevance. They have lost their trust in an institution that has become known for its politics and abuse, and many no longer believe in God, as evidenced by their dwindling attendance. How can we reverse these frightening statistics? We are losing families at an unthinkable rate. How is it possible that they think that the church is irrelevant, untrustworthy, and unnecessary? We must do something!
How do we cater to Alpha’s constant engagement with technology? Is there a way to incorporate a healthy balance in our home or ministry? Pretending it’s going away is naive. Technology is here to stay, and we must equip our children and their families to engage with social media and YouTube from a biblical perspective. Technology surrounds us, and we must incorporate it into our ministry, engage with our kids, and help them create a healthy balance.
Who is Generation Alpha, and how are they unique from previous generations? Where do you want your child or grandchild to be in 20 years, and how can we parent/grandparent so that the ultimate goal of knowing Jesus is reached? Most parents/grandparents tend towards being either “tigers” or “helicopters” out of fear for their child’s future. What are the warning signs and consequences of each, and how can we exchange our fear for trust?
It’s easy to lose sight of our priority amid unrelenting tasks and responsibilities. We must keep the gospel central and ensure our presentation is clear, concise, and consistent. How well-trained are you, leaders? Are they prepared to share their faith?
Half and Full day Conferences
Biblical Parenting
What is the goal of parenting? The world encourages parents to raise happy, healthy kids, but the Bible encourages us to nurture the faith of children so they treasure Christ. Dr. Josh Mulvihill will teach you how to develop a biblical foundation to reach and disciple your children to maturity in Christ.
The Biblical Parenting conference is designed to equip this generation of parents in the battle for the hearts, minds and souls of the next generation—their children. This event will help parents understand the cultural realities of today and how to prepare our children to walk in the truth in a world that rejects Christ. The conference is helpful for parents with children of any age and stage.
What is the goal of parenting? The world encourages parents to raise happy, healthy kids, but the Bible encourages us to nurture the faith of children so they treasure Christ. Dr. Josh Mulvihill will teach you how to develop a biblical foundation to reach and disciple your children to maturity in Christ. In addition, you will be given practical methods to help children grow in their faith in Christ. Parents will have time during the conference to create their own discipleship plan for their children and leave with a vision to be an intentional Christian parent.
Available as a single seminar, full day conference, multi-day conference, or preaching in Sunday services.
9:00 Welcome
9:15 Assessing Parenting Priorities
10:15 Parent Planning Workshop 1
10:45 Break
11:00 How to Help Children Understand and Defend Faith
12:00 Lunch
12:30 Discipling Children: 8 Biblical Methods Every Family Can Do
1:30 Break
1:45 Begin With the End in Mind
2:45 Parent Planning Workshop 2
3:15 Q&A Panel
We ask that host churches or groups provide an honorarium plus travel (airfare and rental car), lodging and meals costs related to the event you will be hosting. For specific information about honorarium fees, please contact us by email at jmulvihill@renewanation.org. We will be happy to discuss these costs with you prior to sending out a contract.
Here are a few additional expenses you will need to consider when planning your event:
- Lunch: If you are a church, you decide whether to cater or provide a meal prepared and served by volunteers.
- Promotion/Publicity: You will want to print fliers, perhaps submit a press release to your local paper or radio stations, and put up posters.
- Facility: Will you have facility expenses to host the seminar? Will you need to provide overnight housing for participants?
- Handouts for the seminar: We will provide a printable handout for each of the sessions that you can copy for participants to take notes.
Biblical Grandparenting
The Biblical Grandparenting Seminar or Conference is a partnership with a local church or organization to equip grandparents in their God-designed role to be intentional, godly grandparents so that future generations may grow up with a biblical foundation that will enable them to follow Christ wholeheartedly in today’s world.
The Grandparenting conference is designed to equip this generation of grandparents in the battle for the hearts, minds and souls of the next generation—their grandchildren. This event will help grandparents understand the cultural realities of today and how to prepare our grandchildren to walk in the truth in a world that rejects Christ.
In the Biblical Grandparenting Conference, Dr. Josh Mulvihill unpacks culture’s misleading messages about grandparenting, provides a biblical overview of the role of grandparents, and shares groundbreaking research that will give you a vision to impact the next generation for Christ. In addition, you will be given practical methods to disciple your grandchildren and navigate your place in the family.
Available as a single seminar, full day conference, multi-day conference, or preaching in Sunday services.
9:00 Welcome
9:15 What’s the Big Deal About Grandparenting?
10:15 Break
10:30 Rejecting the Cultural Messages About Grandparenting
11:30 Lunch
12:15 Understanding the Biblical Role of Grandparents
1:15 Break
1:30 Discipling Grandchildren: 8 Biblical Methods Every Family Can Do
2:45 Q&A Panel
3:45 Becoming an Intentional Christian Grandparent
We ask that host churches or groups provide an honorarium plus travel (airfare and rental car), lodging and meals costs related to the event you will be hosting. For specific information about honorarium fees, please contact us by email at jmulvihill@renewanation.org. We will be happy to discuss these costs with you prior to sending out a contract.
Here are a few additional expenses you will need to consider when planning your event:
- Lunch: If you are a church, you decide whether to cater or provide a meal prepared and served by volunteers.
- Promotion/Publicity: You will want to print fliers, perhaps submit a press release to your local paper or radio stations, and put up posters.
- Facility: Will you have facility expenses to host the seminar? Will you need to provide overnight housing for participants?
- Handouts for the seminar: We will provide a printable handout for each of the sessions that you can copy for participants to take notes.
Promotional Support
We are dedicated to helping your event be successful and ensuring that you get the most impact possible. We provide promotional materials such as social media items, posters, and flyers.
What Others Are Saying
Practical and biblical advice. A wonderful resource.
Josh Mulvihill’s approach is straight from the Bible, full of great insight and advice, and incredibly helpful.
Josh Mulvihill provides truth packed, gospel rich, invaluable resources we can all use to disciple our children.
Nothing is closer to the heart of God or more central to the priorities of His kingdom than the calling of bringing little ones to Him. And, no one can do it quit like you, through your unique relationship—Josh Mulvihill shows you how!
Josh Mulvihill has created biblical tools that parents can use to help their kids challenge worldly norms that they are exposed to regularly.
Josh Mulvihill will equip you to sharpen your thinking, increase your impact, and influence young people to apply the truth of God’s Word to their lives.
A prophetic voice, strong biblical foundation, and groundbreaking research makes him the thought leader in Christian grandparenting today. Every one of the 30 million Christian grandparents in America should have a copy of his inspiring books in their homes. Every church should have it available in their library, preached from our pulpits, read in our small groups, gratefully taken to heart and then acted upon. I highly recommend Josh and his awesome books.
When we first met, Josh was the Pastor to Families and Children at a megachurch in Minnesota. I wondered if he would be someone who was chasing all the latest church fads or if he was serious about the biblical worldview development of the children and parents in his care. I soon discovered that he was not only serious about it, but had put programming in place to make it a reality, and he practices biblical worldview development in the lives of his five children every day.
I often receive emails from grandparents who are seeking advice on how to be a stronger spiritual influence on the lives of their grandkids. I always point them to Josh Mulvihill’s excellent resources! Discipling Your Grandchildren in particular is a virtual treasure trove of godly and practical ideas for creating a deeper spiritual connection with your grandchildren. If you sometimes find yourself wondering what more you can do to help your grandkids know and love the Lord, this book is for you!
God requires all parents to instill a biblical worldview in their children’s hearts and minds. Parents are in desperate need of resources to assist them in this monumental task. Dr. Josh Mulvihill provides parents, church leaders, and educators with such resources.
Dr. Josh Mulvihill is an outstanding advocate and supporter of the family. His research delivers new insights. Dr. Mulvihill’s writing and speaking is tempered in biblical truth which will inspire you in your journey.
Dr. Josh Mulvihill has written a clear, powerful, truthful Biblical Worldview book that is critically important to internalize as you answer God’s call to “bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4).
