September 30, 2025 • 41 mins
What happens when a pastor and a musician raise five children, run a farm, and still find time to equip families to disciple their children and grandchildren? In this premiere episode of the Gospel Shaped Family Podcast, Josh and Jen Mulvihill invite you into their world: a home filled with music, ministry, and a mission to raise children who love Jesus, live in obedience to God's truth, and make a difference in this world for Christ.
You’ll hear their story 25 years of marriage, a growing family, and a passion for biblical parenting, intentional Christian grandparenting, and family discipleship. Learn how this podcast is an extension of their ministry with RenewaNation, equipping parents and grandparents to pass on a biblical worldview in today’s culture.
Whether you’re a parent, grandparent, church leader, or just longing to raise children who love Jesus, this episode sets the tone for what’s to come: real conversations about life and family, biblical guidance, gospel-centered insights, and theologically rich resources to help you shape your family with God's Word.
In this episode:
- Meet Josh and Jen: their family, farm, and ministry life
- Why they created this podcast and what you can expect
- Their vision for encouraging and equipping parents and grandparents
- Book recommendations based on what they are reading right now
- A goldfish story you don’t want to miss
Subscribe now and join us as we shape hearts, homes, and churches around the gospel one conversation at a time.
Book 50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving Home: https://bit.ly/50thingspc
Renewanation: https://bit.ly/rangsfpc
Gospel Shaped Family Homepage: https://bit.ly/gsfhpc
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I'm Josh and I'm Jen.
Welcome to the GospelShaped Family podcast.
Each episode brings biblical wisdomand practical conversations
on parenting, marriage, and family,and we discuss
how to disciple the next generationwith a biblical worldview.
Whether you're raising children,shepherding a church, or longing
(00:20):
to build a legacy of faith in your home,this podcast is for you.
Join us as we explore how to shapehearts, homes, and churches
around the gospel,one conversation at a time.
Hey, everyone.
Welcome to the GospelSheep Family podcast.
Hey, it's good to see y'all.
Episode one.
Yeah. This is a special day for us.
(00:43):
So fun.
Podcasting.
Our next hurdle. It's going to be great.It's going to be fun.
I'm so glad you guys are here.So what are what?
What is this all about?
What is the podcast all about? Well.
Gospel sheep family.
It's a reflection of us.
It's an invitation to come on overand have a seat and grab coffee
with us and hear what's on our heartsand hear what's on our minds,
(01:06):
and get a little glimpseinto what's going on in our home and
and how God's shaping usand our families in real time.
Yeah.
So we wanted to introduceourselves to you all.
So you may know us, probably most don't,and give you a glimpse into who are Josh
and Jen Mulvihill and talk aboutwhy this podcast and what it's all about.
(01:30):
So, Jen Mulvihill,who is who is this Jen?
While the Hill, well.
Hey, everybody, I'm Jen,I'm married to Josh, obviously.
Here we are.
I've been married for 25 years.
Just celebrated 25 years.
(01:50):
Special little tripto London to celebrate.
It was very dreamy.
It was good.
Yeah, we were actually.
We met in collegeour very first day of college.
Freshman year.
You know,whenever you go off to Christian college,
there's like this jokethat you're going to have a ring
by spring, and,yeah, we just hit it off right away.
We dated all through collegeand then got married and right away,
(02:14):
like, sprung into ministryand moved and done
all these different funadventures together.
But 25 years goes by fast.
25 years goes by fast.
When you consider yourself the,us, the old couple.
Now we're old.
We're old? Yeah, we're getting there.
I'm glad, though. Old is a blessing.
Right? Good.
(02:35):
Especially all that old and marriedis not the norm, right? Yes.
Yeah, that doesn't always.
It's not that way for everybody. Yeah.
So 25 years, we're still best friends.
We're still doing everything together.Very fun.
Yeah. So we have five kids.
And I would say our original intention
was not to have a large family,but it has been amazing.
(02:56):
Five kids, our oldest now is 19.
His name is Jay, and he's going to bea junior in college this fall.
And he is, you know, your firstbornwho is just delightful.
He's an artist.
He loves the Lord.
He's going to school for ministry,worship, ministry.
(03:17):
So Jen's a musician. I was a pastor. Yes.
What do you get when you have a musicianand a pastor?
You get a worship pastor,that's for sure. Oh.
This is on the pathway.We'll see if he sticks with that.
Oh, he's very talented,but he's so talented and he's got his.
He plays the guitarand he plays a lot of other instruments.
And he he's alwaysreally had a song in his heart, hasn't he?
(03:41):
And so it's fun to see him grow and to seehim, just be where he's at right now.
This is a great season for him.
So that's Jay.
He he is 19.
We have a 16 year old named Asher.
Our second son just got his driver'slicense.
License. So last week last week ago today,
(04:01):
that thedriver's license was an adventure.
We should do a whole podcaston teen driving.
Yeah. That. Yes.
No accidents for either of our drivers.
Yeah, nobody likes it.
He's a great driver,but he got his driver's license.
That was an adventure.And Asher lives big.
He is gregarious and funny
(04:22):
and, just he makes me
laugh out loud literally every single day.
He's very generous.
Both of the older boysare working at a greenhouse this summer.
And yesterday he came home from workand our entire front steps
were coveredin like colorful potted flowers.
(04:43):
Like.
Like what?
Like right.
Like a load.
Oh, like a carload of fresh flowers. Home.
It was beautiful.
That's who he is. Is wonderful.
Our third child is Kate.
She's 14, and Kate is the first daughter.
Always by my side.
Just wonderful to spend time with.
(05:04):
She cooksand she makes the most intricate recipes.
I mean, she's gonna put MarthaStewart to shame someday.
I mean, she cooks,she's so good at doing all just intricate
things like hairbraiding and crafting and sewing and.
(05:24):
Yeah, she's wonderful.She plays the flute.
She loves the flute.
She plays very well.
She's got a whole groupof teen girl friends that are a delight.
They are so much fun.
But, yeah, I love I love
teen the teen years, and they are good.
People say, wait, just you wait for the,the teen years.
(05:47):
If if your relationship is solid
in the younger years,they tend to tend to go well.
And they have for us.
Not without bumps,but it's been it's been wonderful.
Yeah. We're having a great time.
Her, me and her.
Plus the, like coffee run.
That's fun.
Yeah.
And then number four is number John. Yeah.
Tell us about him. Well,I'll share with John.
(06:07):
So John is awesome guy.
John I like to say never stops working.
So we live on a farm hereand John is just Mr.
Farm Managerand this is actually his time.
We've given him farm manager title.
He thrives.
He takes the initiative.
(06:28):
He relishes in working
hard for caring for people and for things.
He can milk a cow and raise chicken.
He can, like, wrangle,you know, shoo the pigs and mow the lawn.
He can drive the tractor.
I mean, he is a workerand he's an outdoorsman.
(06:51):
He's an outdoorsman. Usually won't last.
And looked out, look outsideand he's walking away with a gun in his
he goes to go hunt something
and I'll come back with somethinghanging over his shoulder.
Always. Yeah. Always.
He's he's a lot of fun.
He, he's like a numbers guy.
And so if you talk to him, guaranteehe'll, like, ask numbers.
(07:13):
When he was little,sometimes it was inappropriate.
He'd be like,how much is in your checking account?
Yeah, it's a total stranger.
But he, like,
he's smart and he's good with numbers,and he's always thinking about that stuff.
And so that'll do him well in life.
And then bring it.
Bring it up. The caboose is Emily.
Yeah.
She just turned ten.
(07:34):
Emily got her ears pierced last week.
It's a big week in our house.
Driver's license, ears pierced.
It was good stuff. It was so fun.
Emily also plays the flute.
She is a singer and a musician.
She loves cats.
And she raises cats every single yearfrom our little farm cats.
(07:54):
And she nurtures the litters,and then she finds homes for them all.
We have a kitty ministry.
So if you ever need a cat,you ever need a cat.
You just shoot us a message.
And we'll hook you up with a really cutecat raised by Emily.
But she is very delightful.
Always singing,very funny and full of laughter.
(08:16):
And together, their, their personalitiesreally balance each other out.
And so they are, I would sayour five kids are fun as individuals.
I genuinely love spending time with eachand every one of them as individuals.
But then as a whole,the dynamic is exciting.
It's exciting.
(08:36):
Like,we have such a great time all together.
And it's just, it's a joy.
It's a joy to be with all of them.
Yeah.
The season we're in,it feels like we've moved from this,
kind of the younger little kids yearsinto the teen young adult years.
And they're, you know, every season isgot its choice in its challenges.
(08:59):
This is a particularly fun one, though.
So it's spring season.Yeah. It's been fun.
All right.
So that's our family which of courseis gospel shaped family podcast.
We thought it'd be good for you to knowa little about our kids, about our family.
But tell us a little about you.
You love music, as we heard.
And, you went to school to be a music educator.
(09:21):
Band aid is like your world.
Everyone in this house is a musician.
Except for me. That's okay. You.
So that's that's wonderful,because I get to hear everybody
playing and singing,and there's always music in our home.
And that's thanks to you.
You're very good musician.
So tell us about that part of your life.
Well,I was a flutist, when I was young. Man.
(09:45):
Oh, man,I just had dreams of being a band teacher.
Always.
So, I played the flute
and piano,so I have a degree in music education.
And did that love that.
I taught public school and private schoolbefore we had children.
I, I loved, I especially loved teachingat Shafer Academy in Rochester.
(10:09):
Just the most wonderfulprivate Christian school, and I helped.
They actually had no band programwhen we got there, and we built that band
program just from 20 kids, and now it'sjust flourishing and beautiful.
But knowing, you know,that we were going to have children.
So when J was born,I took a pause from teaching band,
taught private lessons at home for many,many years, had a pretty large studio.
(10:34):
And, you know,with the help of my parents, we,
you know, I taught in the evenings,and we kind of made that work.
But, you know, fast forward,we're homeschooling,
which, again, we we can share about that.
Such a blessing.
But homeschooling, you know,our oldest was going into fourth grade,
and the band teacher in mesaid we have to find a good band for him.
(10:56):
But in the Twin Cities where we live,Minneapolis area, there's just
there was not a distinctlyChristian band option for him.
So, I just decided, let's let's start it.
Let's start that.
So we startedthis is this will be our 11th year.
Now, we started with 22 kids
(11:18):
at our church, and,band has really become
our homeschool bandhas grown into being a huge program.
So now we have three full bands.
We have a beginner band.
I start a whole group of beginnersevery year.
I've been working on that,middle school band, high school band.
And we give homeschoolersjust the full musical
(11:42):
high school musical experiencethat, that they would receive
in any traditional schoolwith the high level of excellence.
And you just do that on in your spare timeon the side.
Yep. On the side.
But all the kids come.
Yeah.That's wonderful. Play an instrument.
Amazing what you can do in a few hoursevery week.
Power hour is power hours, my friends.
Yeah, yeah. So I teach band.
(12:03):
We homeschoolthe children, and I love doing that.
And then, like we said before,we have a little farm.
Little.
So it's a it's a good size farm.
Yeah.
And, what do you have?
Oh, I say we have we have this.What do we have on this.
What do we have on this farm?
Okay. So do you might want it.
Well, introduce you to some, yeah.
(12:25):
Well, some of the, all of our,all of our animals have names.
And, and we'll introduce you to them,throughout the podcast.
But who's on the farm?
Okay.
Well, just quick that we don't have to gothrough with the chickens.
We've got egg layers.
We've got, like, 60 egg layers.The best one.
Her name is Miriam.
She used to be a city chicken,and now she's a country chicken.
(12:46):
She relocated here to our farmand she loves hugs and carrying around.
She's the sweetest chicken.
She's a big, fluffy white chicken.
Our only big, fluffywhite. Only white one. Yeah.
And so we know when she lays eggs,we can see this is Miriam's
egg in the sea of, you know, eggswe get every day.
We have pigs, we raise Cooney Cooney pigs.
(13:08):
You know, Annie's my best girl.
And Betty's out there.
Perpetua is one of Our lady.
She's got an attitude. So she has an ad.
She may go to freezer camp laterthis year.
Freezer? We'll see. Yes.
Our.
We have a, boar named Alexander Hamilton.
And hammy for sure.
(13:28):
Can be for short. And they're all.
They're friendly and sweet, and they lovebelly rubs and they're delicious.
And so we raise our so legal to say so.
Yeah. That's right.
Yes.
They go and we just had a litter of pigs.
So we got a lot of piglets two weeks ago.
Yeah, they're super cute.
They're running all roundand you can pick them up and snuggle them.
(13:52):
Yeah.
So we've got the piggiesand then we have cows.
Now we have Jersey cows.
I milk Jersey cows.
So right now I'm milking two cows.
I'm milking Foxy.
And, she's a dream.
She's given us between 3and 4 gallons every morning.
And then Dolly.
(14:12):
Dolly is my best girl.
And Dolly, she's given us between 2 and 3gallons a day, and we keep their calves.
We raise their calves for beefand they are rotationally grazed, grass
fed cows.
We have, many acres here
for themjust to graze and to eat and to roam.
And they live a beautiful life.
(14:34):
So did, did you grow up on a farm?
Oh, no.
No, no,I grew up as a city girl. City girl?
Okay, so why a farm? Why a farm?
Gosh, Josh, you're pushing me there.
I just just yeah.
That's great.
No. So the farm stemmedout of a few years ago.
It was pre-COVID.
We're both big breeders,and I kind of went on a reading tangent.
(14:57):
Reading books by Joel Salatin,by Michael Pollan,
reading about real foodand some of the effects of that.
And at that time, Asher, our second son,
was just strugglingwith a lot of allergies.
Our kids would get sick every year,and as we started reading,
(15:18):
we both were reading
and it just seemed to make senseto make some changes to our food.
So at the time we we raised chickens,we did honeybees.
Josh and Jay did the full U of M
Learn to Raise Bees program.
We added our sweet pigs that we have hereat our at our previous little house.
(15:38):
And and over timewe've just become passionate
about eating, real food,eating clean food, eating food
that is in its original stateas God intended, as God gave it to us.
So that includes cowsthat only eat grass and milk.
Mostly, mostly grass. Well,they milk cows.
Need a little bit extra effort.
(15:59):
Yeah,but yeah, it's helped for health reasons.
We want clean food and it has,as we've been a lot more healthy.
Not that we haven't been
sick once in a while,but it's really rare compared to what we.
So we might end uptalking about some food stuff
because that impacts our family.
We see it in a way that we see itin our kids, in their health.
Yeah. So yeah.
And then wrap upwith, couple of, of your favorite hobbies
(16:22):
when you're not doingmusic, homeschooling, farm.
All of the other stuff, all the things.
What do you doif you got a little bit of time?
What do I do?
Oh, boy.
Well, I'm a coffee drinker.
I love to read, read, read, read.
I was reading, I like to sew and do,like, embroidery things.
(16:42):
I love to do a DIY project.
I've got a lot going at the same time.
Shopping.
That's okay, I was good.
I was waiting for that.
Good.
I that's not so holy, though. Josh.
I do love to go shopping for a deal.
I love a good deal. Yeah.
(17:04):
And then, I love, you know, just,like getting together with friends.
Or we go out and we have so much fun.
So, yes, outlaughing over coffee and catching up and.
Yeah, well, that's good.
You're going to be the star of the show.
Stop again. No, no, you're the star.
That's okay.
(17:24):
Well, okay, I'll tell you,I saw you. Yeah.
Oh. You okay?
So where did you growup? Born in Arizona.
Raised in Texas.
Now we live in Minnesota, and I.
I love the weather in Minnesota,even though January's
got a little sketchy.
Other than that is good. But, yeah.
Minnesota.
Now, I was a pastor for about 20 years,all year
(17:48):
in Minnesota working with families,children and students.
And transitioned out of thatabout seven years ago.
And I serve on staff with Renew Nationand get to train
pastors,get to equip parents and grandparents.
This podcastis kind of an extension of that.
We're super passionateabout family discipleship.
(18:11):
And I that was part of my background is
my parents were very intentionalwith, with me and my siblings.
And, I'm really grateful for that.
The Lord's been really,
has really blessed our lifeand our family as a result of that.
I'm on the board of Awana,so I don't know if we got any Awana
alumni out there or individualsthat are in Ohio.
(18:34):
And I give a shout out, it goes back.
Yeah.
I go through our keys,all of our four five kids went through.
I know, and it's been a huge blessingfor our family.
Just hiding God's Word in your heartand learning core doctrines of God's Word.
I've been on that,
six years now,and I'll be moving into the chair role
in the next year, at Awana and,
(18:56):
got I actually got a PhD, a number of years ago, which is so funny,
because when I first,when I finished my undergrad,
I thought in my head, I thought to myself,I am done.
I am never going back to school again.
And then I wanted to, you know,
was trying to get my first jobas a pastor, 22 years old.
(19:17):
You know, most churches aren'tclamoring to hire 22 year olds as pastors.
But it's one church in Rochester.
Gave gave me a shot.
But they said one requirement isyou have to go back to school to
to seminary and get your seminary degree.
And, you know, it's kind of like,I'm I'm not super excited about that.
But but I agreed to it.
(19:38):
In the hindsight, I'm really,really grateful they asked me to do that.
And as I was going through,
grad school, seminary, I realizedI actually kind of like some of this.
I actually am studying thingsthat I'm interested in, not,
not things to get through a list.
And, and so I went back for PhD focused
on family ministry that was at SouthernSeminary in Kentucky.
(20:03):
And, was funny.
After I got that degree,my dad said to me, and this was like,
don't, don't take this like as a negative.
But he, you know,he's really proud, of course.
But he said you were the lastof the four kids that I ever thought
would get to think that.
Just so you know, for the record,I just really didn't care.
(20:23):
In high school, I didn't get bad grades,but it was like BS, you know?
And I was like, CSget degrees, CS get degrees. Yeah.
I was like, I don't care.
I mean, like there's no practicalapplication to half of this stuff.
So, but once I finally got interestedin it, that that changed.
And so my dad was kind of funnywhat my dad said, but,
that's been a great blessing.
It's that PhD taught me how to think well,and it taught me how to write well.
(20:48):
And so out of that,I've ended up writing a number of books.
So author of,
I think about ten, books onparenting and grandparenting
and one of themyou'll get to hear a little bit about,
you'll probably hearabout a number of them, but,
specifically, we're launching out with one of them called 50 Things
Every Child Needs to KnowBefore Leaving Home.
(21:10):
And we'll talk a lot about that bookspecifically here
at the beginning of this podcastand in some future episodes,
I serve with a ministrycalled Renew Nation.
We are focused on helping kidsdevelop a biblical world. Yes.
Renew Nation dawg,go check out that ministry.
It's fantastic.
And, just it is, I love,I love serving with this organization,
(21:36):
vision, the mission,the team that God has brought.
And, I
get to do stuff with families that,you know,
I firmly believe we, you know,church is really important for our family
and our kids.
And, a lot of people build into their lives.
It's absolutely critical.
But in the home, as the home goes often,so goes our children.
(21:58):
And, so renew nation,I get to help strengthen the home and help
parents get serious and grandparentsget serious about passing their faith on.
And how do we do that?
And, you'll get to hear some of that herewith this, this podcast
and then my hobbies, I was going to say,Josh, what are my hobbies?
It was like a lot.
What are you doing for fun? Fun,I love it.
I love the outdoors as well.
(22:20):
So hunting, fishing, camping,always outdoors, always outside.
And I'm, you know, I'm behind the computerfor a lot of the day.
So, going and working with animalsor going outside and, hopping
on the four Wheeler or, movinghay, moving hay, all those things.
That's really good.
In fact, we leave here in a few days.
(22:40):
I'm going up to, Minnesota border into Canada.
We go, my sons and I, this is this is a,
I think and we, my,my sons get to come when they turn seven.
So I think this is year12 or 13 for my oldest.
We've been doing this for 20 some years
and we drive till you can't goany further.
(23:00):
Put everything that we needfor a week in a boat,
and then we drive out, many miles to an island.
And that's where we live for a week.
We're pretty much off the grid.
It's glorious.
And, you know, the boys and I were, like,counting down the days.
They love it.
So if I don't make it back from that, I.
It's nice knowing you.
(23:21):
You. Do you see morethe plug in the boat before?
Yeah, we did forget that one year.
That was a little adventurous,but that's great.
This is, like, full on guyadventure. Yeah.
And it's, it's fantastic.
So, outside stuff's really fun.
And, Yeah. There.
I love the Viking football.
I'm a glutton for punishmentbecause they are just good enough
(23:41):
to get you excited,and then they always let you down.
But I'm sorry. I'm coming back for more.
I know you know, that's how it is.
All the Minnesota sports teams, they.
You say at the start of every yearI love them.
I have hope it's going to be great.
And then nothing pans outexcept for the 91 twins.
(24:01):
Then one of these years.One of these years. Yeah.
(24:35):
We're.
Now it's time for a segmentwe're going to call.
What are you reading?
What are you reading?
Okay. Whatwhat are you reading? When you read it?
You want me to answer?I can answer, okay, go for it.
Okay.
We both are really big readers,so this is going to be a regular segment
on the podcast.
(24:56):
This summer ismy summer of Edith Schaffer.
I'm reading as much Edith Schafferas I can this summer, so
man, oh man, I can't rememberwhen I read hidden Art of homemaking.
It had to have been a number of years agoand I love that book.
I always come back to it.
Two years ago I read justa boatload of Francis Schaffer.
(25:20):
I ordered all, you know, all those books,and I did read Francis
Schaffer as a requirementfor teaching at the classical school.
But so now after I've read all this,Francis Schaffer,
I thought, well, this will be my summerto read Edith Schaffer.
So I read, what is a family
where she talks a little bit about,like, family life, and she talks about,
just some nuances of their homeand things that she learned.
(25:46):
She writeswith, I would say, very flowery language.
And so you can just picture herspeaking as you read her.
But I read that and I read, Common Sense
Christian Living, where she speaks a lotabout continuity in the Christian life.
Continuity in your homecontinuity in relationships.
And would you recommend Edith for othersat this point?
(26:09):
I would, I would recommend Edith Schaefer.
I, I'm finishing tapestryand then I'm going to read affliction.
I would recommend Edith Schaefer.
I would definitely recommendThe Hidden Art of homemaking.
I think that belongs in everyI think every woman needs to own it,
young and old.
Hidden Art of homemaking is just a
(26:29):
gem of a book.
I am not sure.
I'm going to be honest.
I felt a little stressedwhen I was reading the tapestry.
I was so stressed about
their travelsand they lived a very busy lifestyle.
She had a stressful childbirthand it was stressful,
(26:50):
so I had to take a breakin the middle of that.
But, but I loved the Schafer'sand would recommend it.
I will linkwe're going to have show notes.
I'll link in our show notes.
These books, you know,I think everyone needs hidden art.
Can I tell my goldfish story?
Should I tell the goldfish story?
Sure. Short, but yes.
(27:11):
I don't know how much time we've got.
So I was reading what is a family?
And Edith Schafer is just her language is
sometimes, like, borderline poetic,you know?
And so she's talking aboutall of these things that make your home,
a center for, like, fostering creativity.
(27:31):
And I'm reading this like, I want my hometo be a place that fosters creativity.
And so she has these lists, and it's like,you know,
music and books and fresh flowers
and windows and time outside and pets and,
you know, and I was like,check, check, check, check, check.
(27:51):
I got them, except for she's.
Oh, now I know what you're talkingI love like goldfish.
What is it?
So it says inthe book that you should have
like makes
11 and think about it,a live fish in your home.
So I was like and she describes it,this is just like two months ago
(28:11):
right when I started and I was like,I don't have a live fish.
And so I was like, I'm goingto get a fish, and I'm going to put it
in a fishbowl on the kitchen islandwith a kitchen island.
And I could just picture, you know,children sitting there eating and a fish.
And they're going to say,this is because we need more
(28:32):
thingsthat are living farm and animal farm.
And and I thought that. Yes.
So I took the children.
We oh, we got in the car.
Josh was out of town and we went tosometimes I show up
and there are more living animalsthis house.
Sometimes it's fine.
And so I said,we're going to go pick out a fish, kids.
(28:54):
So we go to the pet store.
I'm not going to see the chain.It was a chain.
And we looked at all the fishand we chose just a fantail goldfish.
It was like $1.19. It was not expensive.
So we go to the manand I said to the man working there,
I was like,I told him what I just told you.
I've been reading Edith Schaeferand she talked about inspiring creativity,
(29:15):
and I want this to be like an animal
that lives and thrivesand is beauty in our home.
And he was like,the requirement to purchase a goldfish is
that you need to have a 30 gallon aerated
tank pre-prepared for your goldfish.
And I was like,
are you serious?
I had no idea that they have a requirementabout a 30 gallon tank.
(29:40):
I don't have that.
And and you know, all the kids were thereand they were like, it's fine.
She knows how to take care of animals.
My mom's going to love this goldfish.
And I was denied buying a goldfishat a pet store.
And the kids were like,they literally told her that I couldn't.
My and they didn't sell it.
They would not sell me a goldfish.
(30:01):
And then I just like,
how did he did she do with him? Yes.
She didn't have an aquarium at La Brea.
Let's be honest, which I I'm not sad,honestly, that we didn't get a goldfish.
But yes, I think the kids are havinga very creative summer.
They're also creative. Minus the goldfish.
So thumbs up in this.
Schaefer, what have you been writing?
(30:21):
I will honest truth.
Yeah.You read a lot fantasy football stuff.
You have to accept time.
Yes, yes I do.
I love fantasy football.
That's my, There's my honest submission.
I have been reading a lot of fantasyfootball.
But beyond fantasy football,I have been.
(30:41):
I just finished two, but I actuallygrabbed them so you could see them.
I brought, I read, I just startedwho, not how.
And this is basically a book of,like, delegating
and developing teams on steroids.
I'm about 35 pages in, so,
I'll tell you laterif it was a thumbs up or thumbs down.
(31:01):
I've heard a lot of people who have said,fantastic,
recommend that book all the time. Yes.
So I figured, there you go.
My other oneI just finished is this one is called
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
This one wasn't for the faint of heart.
I think it was 500 plus pages.
And, it's all marked up and dog eared for me.
This is by a guy named WestonPrice. Dentist.
(31:24):
Basically what he did.
It's a huge research study.
He went all over the worldand compared the,
the, the, the teethand the health of people
that were eating real food,indigenous diets versus, people
in the same proximity, in the same countrythat were eating
processed Western diets and compare them.
(31:47):
And it is crazy the health differences.
Basically, if you're eating a normal,real food diet,
you basically don't have cavities.
Your teeth are perfect.
You know, there was no such thingas orthodontics 100 years ago.
And you look at the pic like this,there's pictures all over the place
from 100 years ago in here,and their teeth are perfect.
(32:08):
It's crazy.
And their the how they, their,their health was, you just didn't have
a lot of the degenerative diseases at allor to the same degree that we have today.
It was almost unheard of.
And so he he shared his findings
on what leads to, physical health.
And he, you know,
(32:31):
it's a
high, a high fat diet basically every day.
It's either, seafoodbased or a or animal base
because you, you know, if you livein a cold climate like Minnesota,
you can only grow vegetablesfor so many months of the year.
And, you know, 100 yearsago, it's not like
you had transportation to ship them in.
So what did you eat?
(32:51):
You had, you know.
Yeah. Yet animals. And then.
Yeah, venison and,you know, all the other stuff.
But it's beenthat's been really eye opening.
We get told a lot in our cultureabout what not to eat.
I remember the fat free food crazewhen I was growing up in the 80s.
My mom had a, Yeah.
(33:12):
I don't know if you remember these nutterbutters that were like, fat free.
These cookies. Yeah,they said fat free. And my mom were like.
My mom was like, these are healthy.
They're fat free. Yeah.
I'm like, all right. You know, was great.
But that's been really good.
Highly recommend.
That is like, well put, like put a linkthat's like a game changer book
that will it'll mess your mind up likethis is I'm not.
(33:36):
This isn't the kind of stuffwe hear every day.
And, well,
even the topic of orthodontics, that'sso like, every kid gets braces nowadays.
But then to look at that because theywould say don't it's very controversial.
Yeah. Quite common.
But anyways, it'sif if you're trying to get healthy,
that's that's a real good bookto start with and and read.
All right, Jenna,I got a question for you.
(33:58):
Oh, so let's talk about a little
a little about the why and thewhat of this podcast.
Yeah.
So, would you rather question.
Oh, okay.
Would you rather shovel cow manure
or speakat a parenting conference with me?
That's a loaded question, Josh.
(34:19):
I'm generally interested in yourand I haven't
I didn't ask her this, so I haven'tI don't know what she's going to say.
In my real life.
I shovel a lot of cow food, honestly.
But I also speak at parentingconferences, so I love doing both.
And that's the truth.
I love my cows.
If you have to choose the only one,
(34:39):
I would choose you.
Oh good.
Any. Okay. All right, all right.
That's good.
I thought I might lose outto, to poo, so that's good.
Oh, no no no no no, I would love to dobecause traveling was kind of tough.
Yeah.
So we we had a season.
Well, a couple of yearsof pretty significant traveling
(35:00):
and speaking together.
Speaking about our book and speakingat different parenting conferences
and just out there encouraging familiesin, in a lot of different settings.
Which was great.
I mean, I love being with people.
I love meeting people and chattingwith people and doing all those things.
(35:20):
But the season of life that we're inwith kids, I just need to be home.
I just need to be home.
And so it's difficult to traveland to be speaking,
and leaving the leaving the babiesso it doesn't work.
Well, having, like, five kidsand a big farm and traveling after that.
You'd think it would. Yeah.You think you just.
(35:41):
That'd be super easy.
So for some reason, it's not solutionpodcast.
Podcast. Okay. There you go. That's good.
The podcast is it's it's a nice formatwe can record.
We're just right here in our home.
And, you know, it's like grabbing coffeewith a friend, right?
And so you get to chatand listen and glean insight.
(36:04):
And do we get to doand share the things that are on our heart
in real time as we wouldif we were speaking to a live audience?
But we have the the benefit of being ableto just be closer to home.
Yeah.
And it's fun to do something together.
Yeah. We're a good team, you know.
You know what they sayabout podcasts, what
(36:26):
they say that those who podcast togetherstay together.
So another another 25 years herewe can podcast together.
I heard some, there was some I read that,some I don't know, I'm just kidding.
You always whenever we.
So we go out on Friday nights
and Josh always has so many jokeswhen we go places.
It's very fun. That's what that was,
(36:50):
Ernie.
Ha ha.
That's true.
You do I, I do sometimes
get us in trouble.
That's likethat behind the podcasting line.
That's funny, I liked it.
Yeah.
So we're excited for the podcast and,
yeah, I mean, there's onlythere are only so many hours in the day.
Yeah.
So we want to maximize those.
We want to be good stewards of our time.
(37:12):
Just recognizing that we both dohave a heart for ministering to people.
We we do have a ministrythat we want to see flourish,
and we want to, you know,
kindle those those fires.
But just being good stewards of what God'sput in front of us right now.
Yeah. So what is this podcast all about?
(37:33):
You tell me,what is this podcast all about?
Josh?
Well, I mentioned Renew Nation,and so I want to introduce you
a little bitto the ministry of our new nation.
We exist to transform culture
by helping childrendevelop a biblical worldview.
So, we want the next generation. You.
If you've got kids, grandkids, you'rea pastor, you're a Christian educator.
(37:58):
We want those kids in your lifeto think biblically.
We want them to live biblically.
We want them to, to to learn God'sword, to love God's Word.
We want them to live according to it.
And of course,today it's a challenge to raise children
in the climate that we livein, to not absorb the messages and the,
(38:24):
just the unbiblical things that they hear
every single day with, you know, screenscoming in and all the education stuff
and, you know, the messagescoming through those two mediums and,
just all the stuff.
And so it takes a lot of intentionality
and it takes some significant commitmenton our parts as parents,
(38:47):
and those ministering to childrento, to do that.
We want this podcast to support you,
to strengthen you, to equip you,to help you in to that
end, and, and we think it will bea real good blessing.
And then we get to, have some just fun conversations
(39:08):
about, faith and family
and navigating some of the, challenges
and, issues that pop up for all of us.
We're, you know, we're experiencing,you know,
we're we're parents of a 19 year oldfor the first time.
And so we're learning,
(39:29):
what does what does that entailand what does that look like?
And, and then each episode that we have,
it will cover some kind of topics,
touching on things like parenting,
grandparenting marriage,family discipleship,
and those will all befrom a biblical worldview.
(39:49):
And then once in a while, we might even, bring a guest or two on that.
We'll offer somethingthat is way better than we can,
but we think they're great to hear from,
and people that we have really benefitedfrom in our life.
Could be some authors,
could be some speakers,could be some individuals in their fields
(40:11):
that are just, really,really helpful, helpful to hear from.
Yeah.
And, you know, especially with the culturebeing what it is,
I think sometimes we feel like we're notthat we're the we're alone.
Right? Or we're kind of swimmingagainst the stream.
So there is, you know,just like you have people in your life
who you are like minded with,there is something beautiful about
(40:35):
just sitting down with them and talkingand coming away feeling refreshed
and knowing that you are walkingshoulder to shoulder with people,
and that you're not alone in your desire
to raise your kids to know Jesus,and to love Jesus.
And you're willing to dosome of the things
that are very counterculturalin that process.
(40:55):
So we're just hoping that the podcast willbe like grabbing coffee with a friend.
And you'll you'll walk awayfeeling refreshed as if you had had just,
you know, talk, talk with yourlike minded people.
So, we hope that that is that for you.
And if you have any topicsthat you would love
(41:16):
to have us explore, feel free to let us know.
Let us know. Yeah.
We'd, we'd love to hear from you.
Anything else before we wrap up today?
I think that's it. That's it.
All right.
One in the book.
Done. Bam!
All right, well, thanks for tuningin here, and we'll see you next time.
Bye bye.
(41:39):
Thank you for listening to the GospelSheep Family podcast.
Please share this episodeand give us a five star rating
wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Josh and I'm Jen.
Welcome to the GospelShaped Family podcast.
Each episode brings biblical wisdomand practical conversations
on parenting, marriage, and family,and we discuss
how to disciple the next generationwith a biblical worldview.
Whether you're raising children,shepherding a church, or longing
(00:20):
to build a legacy of faith in your home,this podcast is for you.
Join us as we explore how to shapehearts, homes, and churches
around the gospel,one conversation at a time.
Hey, everyone.
Welcome to the GospelSheep Family podcast.
Hey, it's good to see y'all.
Episode one.
Yeah. This is a special day for us.
(00:43):
So fun.
Podcasting.
Our next hurdle. It's going to be great.It's going to be fun.
I'm so glad you guys are here.So what are what?
What is this all about?
What is the podcast all about? Well.
Gospel sheep family.
It's a reflection of us.
It's an invitation to come on overand have a seat and grab coffee
with us and hear what's on our heartsand hear what's on our minds,
(01:06):
and get a little glimpseinto what's going on in our home and
and how God's shaping usand our families in real time.
Yeah.
So we wanted to introduceourselves to you all.
So you may know us, probably most don't,and give you a glimpse into who are Josh
and Jen Mulvihill and talk aboutwhy this podcast and what it's all about.
(01:30):
So, Jen Mulvihill,who is who is this Jen?
While the Hill, well.
Hey, everybody, I'm Jen,I'm married to Josh, obviously.
Here we are.
I've been married for 25 years.
Just celebrated 25 years.
(01:50):
Special little tripto London to celebrate.
It was very dreamy.
It was good.
Yeah, we were actually.
We met in collegeour very first day of college.
Freshman year.
You know,whenever you go off to Christian college,
there's like this jokethat you're going to have a ring
by spring, and,yeah, we just hit it off right away.
We dated all through collegeand then got married and right away,
(02:14):
like, sprung into ministryand moved and done
all these different funadventures together.
But 25 years goes by fast.
25 years goes by fast.
When you consider yourself the,us, the old couple.
Now we're old.
We're old? Yeah, we're getting there.
I'm glad, though. Old is a blessing.
Right? Good.
(02:35):
Especially all that old and marriedis not the norm, right? Yes.
Yeah, that doesn't always.
It's not that way for everybody. Yeah.
So 25 years, we're still best friends.
We're still doing everything together.Very fun.
Yeah. So we have five kids.
And I would say our original intention
was not to have a large family,but it has been amazing.
(02:56):
Five kids, our oldest now is 19.
His name is Jay, and he's going to bea junior in college this fall.
And he is, you know, your firstbornwho is just delightful.
He's an artist.
He loves the Lord.
He's going to school for ministry,worship, ministry.
(03:17):
So Jen's a musician. I was a pastor. Yes.
What do you get when you have a musicianand a pastor?
You get a worship pastor,that's for sure. Oh.
This is on the pathway.We'll see if he sticks with that.
Oh, he's very talented,but he's so talented and he's got his.
He plays the guitarand he plays a lot of other instruments.
And he he's alwaysreally had a song in his heart, hasn't he?
(03:41):
And so it's fun to see him grow and to seehim, just be where he's at right now.
This is a great season for him.
So that's Jay.
He he is 19.
We have a 16 year old named Asher.
Our second son just got his driver'slicense.
License. So last week last week ago today,
(04:01):
that thedriver's license was an adventure.
We should do a whole podcaston teen driving.
Yeah. That. Yes.
No accidents for either of our drivers.
Yeah, nobody likes it.
He's a great driver,but he got his driver's license.
That was an adventure.And Asher lives big.
He is gregarious and funny
(04:22):
and, just he makes me
laugh out loud literally every single day.
He's very generous.
Both of the older boysare working at a greenhouse this summer.
And yesterday he came home from workand our entire front steps
were coveredin like colorful potted flowers.
(04:43):
Like.
Like what?
Like right.
Like a load.
Oh, like a carload of fresh flowers. Home.
It was beautiful.
That's who he is. Is wonderful.
Our third child is Kate.
She's 14, and Kate is the first daughter.
Always by my side.
Just wonderful to spend time with.
(05:04):
She cooksand she makes the most intricate recipes.
I mean, she's gonna put MarthaStewart to shame someday.
I mean, she cooks,she's so good at doing all just intricate
things like hairbraiding and crafting and sewing and.
(05:24):
Yeah, she's wonderful.She plays the flute.
She loves the flute.
She plays very well.
She's got a whole groupof teen girl friends that are a delight.
They are so much fun.
But, yeah, I love I love
teen the teen years, and they are good.
People say, wait, just you wait for the,the teen years.
(05:47):
If if your relationship is solid
in the younger years,they tend to tend to go well.
And they have for us.
Not without bumps,but it's been it's been wonderful.
Yeah. We're having a great time.
Her, me and her.
Plus the, like coffee run.
That's fun.
Yeah.
And then number four is number John. Yeah.
Tell us about him. Well,I'll share with John.
(06:07):
So John is awesome guy.
John I like to say never stops working.
So we live on a farm hereand John is just Mr.
Farm Managerand this is actually his time.
We've given him farm manager title.
He thrives.
He takes the initiative.
(06:28):
He relishes in working
hard for caring for people and for things.
He can milk a cow and raise chicken.
He can, like, wrangle,you know, shoo the pigs and mow the lawn.
He can drive the tractor.
I mean, he is a workerand he's an outdoorsman.
(06:51):
He's an outdoorsman. Usually won't last.
And looked out, look outsideand he's walking away with a gun in his
he goes to go hunt something
and I'll come back with somethinghanging over his shoulder.
Always. Yeah. Always.
He's he's a lot of fun.
He, he's like a numbers guy.
And so if you talk to him, guaranteehe'll, like, ask numbers.
(07:13):
When he was little,sometimes it was inappropriate.
He'd be like,how much is in your checking account?
Yeah, it's a total stranger.
But he, like,
he's smart and he's good with numbers,and he's always thinking about that stuff.
And so that'll do him well in life.
And then bring it.
Bring it up. The caboose is Emily.
Yeah.
She just turned ten.
(07:34):
Emily got her ears pierced last week.
It's a big week in our house.
Driver's license, ears pierced.
It was good stuff. It was so fun.
Emily also plays the flute.
She is a singer and a musician.
She loves cats.
And she raises cats every single yearfrom our little farm cats.
(07:54):
And she nurtures the litters,and then she finds homes for them all.
We have a kitty ministry.
So if you ever need a cat,you ever need a cat.
You just shoot us a message.
And we'll hook you up with a really cutecat raised by Emily.
But she is very delightful.
Always singing,very funny and full of laughter.
(08:16):
And together, their, their personalitiesreally balance each other out.
And so they are, I would sayour five kids are fun as individuals.
I genuinely love spending time with eachand every one of them as individuals.
But then as a whole,the dynamic is exciting.
It's exciting.
(08:36):
Like,we have such a great time all together.
And it's just, it's a joy.
It's a joy to be with all of them.
Yeah.
The season we're in,it feels like we've moved from this,
kind of the younger little kids yearsinto the teen young adult years.
And they're, you know, every season isgot its choice in its challenges.
(08:59):
This is a particularly fun one, though.
So it's spring season.Yeah. It's been fun.
All right.
So that's our family which of courseis gospel shaped family podcast.
We thought it'd be good for you to knowa little about our kids, about our family.
But tell us a little about you.
You love music, as we heard.
And, you went to school to be a music educator.
(09:21):
Band aid is like your world.
Everyone in this house is a musician.
Except for me. That's okay. You.
So that's that's wonderful,because I get to hear everybody
playing and singing,and there's always music in our home.
And that's thanks to you.
You're very good musician.
So tell us about that part of your life.
Well,I was a flutist, when I was young. Man.
(09:45):
Oh, man,I just had dreams of being a band teacher.
Always.
So, I played the flute
and piano,so I have a degree in music education.
And did that love that.
I taught public school and private schoolbefore we had children.
I, I loved, I especially loved teachingat Shafer Academy in Rochester.
(10:09):
Just the most wonderfulprivate Christian school, and I helped.
They actually had no band programwhen we got there, and we built that band
program just from 20 kids, and now it'sjust flourishing and beautiful.
But knowing, you know,that we were going to have children.
So when J was born,I took a pause from teaching band,
taught private lessons at home for many,many years, had a pretty large studio.
(10:34):
And, you know,with the help of my parents, we,
you know, I taught in the evenings,and we kind of made that work.
But, you know, fast forward,we're homeschooling,
which, again, we we can share about that.
Such a blessing.
But homeschooling, you know,our oldest was going into fourth grade,
and the band teacher in mesaid we have to find a good band for him.
(10:56):
But in the Twin Cities where we live,Minneapolis area, there's just
there was not a distinctlyChristian band option for him.
So, I just decided, let's let's start it.
Let's start that.
So we startedthis is this will be our 11th year.
Now, we started with 22 kids
(11:18):
at our church, and,band has really become
our homeschool bandhas grown into being a huge program.
So now we have three full bands.
We have a beginner band.
I start a whole group of beginnersevery year.
I've been working on that,middle school band, high school band.
And we give homeschoolersjust the full musical
(11:42):
high school musical experiencethat, that they would receive
in any traditional schoolwith the high level of excellence.
And you just do that on in your spare timeon the side.
Yep. On the side.
But all the kids come.
Yeah.That's wonderful. Play an instrument.
Amazing what you can do in a few hoursevery week.
Power hour is power hours, my friends.
Yeah, yeah. So I teach band.
(12:03):
We homeschoolthe children, and I love doing that.
And then, like we said before,we have a little farm.
Little.
So it's a it's a good size farm.
Yeah.
And, what do you have?
Oh, I say we have we have this.What do we have on this.
What do we have on this farm?
Okay. So do you might want it.
Well, introduce you to some, yeah.
(12:25):
Well, some of the, all of our,all of our animals have names.
And, and we'll introduce you to them,throughout the podcast.
But who's on the farm?
Okay.
Well, just quick that we don't have to gothrough with the chickens.
We've got egg layers.
We've got, like, 60 egg layers.The best one.
Her name is Miriam.
She used to be a city chicken,and now she's a country chicken.
(12:46):
She relocated here to our farmand she loves hugs and carrying around.
She's the sweetest chicken.
She's a big, fluffy white chicken.
Our only big, fluffywhite. Only white one. Yeah.
And so we know when she lays eggs,we can see this is Miriam's
egg in the sea of, you know, eggswe get every day.
We have pigs, we raise Cooney Cooney pigs.
(13:08):
You know, Annie's my best girl.
And Betty's out there.
Perpetua is one of Our lady.
She's got an attitude. So she has an ad.
She may go to freezer camp laterthis year.
Freezer? We'll see. Yes.
Our.
We have a, boar named Alexander Hamilton.
And hammy for sure.
(13:28):
Can be for short. And they're all.
They're friendly and sweet, and they lovebelly rubs and they're delicious.
And so we raise our so legal to say so.
Yeah. That's right.
Yes.
They go and we just had a litter of pigs.
So we got a lot of piglets two weeks ago.
Yeah, they're super cute.
They're running all roundand you can pick them up and snuggle them.
(13:52):
Yeah.
So we've got the piggiesand then we have cows.
Now we have Jersey cows.
I milk Jersey cows.
So right now I'm milking two cows.
I'm milking Foxy.
And, she's a dream.
She's given us between 3and 4 gallons every morning.
And then Dolly.
(14:12):
Dolly is my best girl.
And Dolly, she's given us between 2 and 3gallons a day, and we keep their calves.
We raise their calves for beefand they are rotationally grazed, grass
fed cows.
We have, many acres here
for themjust to graze and to eat and to roam.
And they live a beautiful life.
(14:34):
So did, did you grow up on a farm?
Oh, no.
No, no,I grew up as a city girl. City girl?
Okay, so why a farm? Why a farm?
Gosh, Josh, you're pushing me there.
I just just yeah.
That's great.
No. So the farm stemmedout of a few years ago.
It was pre-COVID.
We're both big breeders,and I kind of went on a reading tangent.
(14:57):
Reading books by Joel Salatin,by Michael Pollan,
reading about real foodand some of the effects of that.
And at that time, Asher, our second son,
was just strugglingwith a lot of allergies.
Our kids would get sick every year,and as we started reading,
(15:18):
we both were reading
and it just seemed to make senseto make some changes to our food.
So at the time we we raised chickens,we did honeybees.
Josh and Jay did the full U of M
Learn to Raise Bees program.
We added our sweet pigs that we have hereat our at our previous little house.
(15:38):
And and over timewe've just become passionate
about eating, real food,eating clean food, eating food
that is in its original stateas God intended, as God gave it to us.
So that includes cowsthat only eat grass and milk.
Mostly, mostly grass. Well,they milk cows.
Need a little bit extra effort.
(15:59):
Yeah,but yeah, it's helped for health reasons.
We want clean food and it has,as we've been a lot more healthy.
Not that we haven't been
sick once in a while,but it's really rare compared to what we.
So we might end uptalking about some food stuff
because that impacts our family.
We see it in a way that we see itin our kids, in their health.
Yeah. So yeah.
And then wrap upwith, couple of, of your favorite hobbies
(16:22):
when you're not doingmusic, homeschooling, farm.
All of the other stuff, all the things.
What do you doif you got a little bit of time?
What do I do?
Oh, boy.
Well, I'm a coffee drinker.
I love to read, read, read, read.
I was reading, I like to sew and do,like, embroidery things.
(16:42):
I love to do a DIY project.
I've got a lot going at the same time.
Shopping.
That's okay, I was good.
I was waiting for that.
Good.
I that's not so holy, though. Josh.
I do love to go shopping for a deal.
I love a good deal. Yeah.
(17:04):
And then, I love, you know, just,like getting together with friends.
Or we go out and we have so much fun.
So, yes, outlaughing over coffee and catching up and.
Yeah, well, that's good.
You're going to be the star of the show.
Stop again. No, no, you're the star.
That's okay.
(17:24):
Well, okay, I'll tell you,I saw you. Yeah.
Oh. You okay?
So where did you growup? Born in Arizona.
Raised in Texas.
Now we live in Minnesota, and I.
I love the weather in Minnesota,even though January's
got a little sketchy.
Other than that is good. But, yeah.
Minnesota.
Now, I was a pastor for about 20 years,all year
(17:48):
in Minnesota working with families,children and students.
And transitioned out of thatabout seven years ago.
And I serve on staff with Renew Nationand get to train
pastors,get to equip parents and grandparents.
This podcastis kind of an extension of that.
We're super passionateabout family discipleship.
(18:11):
And I that was part of my background is
my parents were very intentionalwith, with me and my siblings.
And, I'm really grateful for that.
The Lord's been really,
has really blessed our lifeand our family as a result of that.
I'm on the board of Awana,so I don't know if we got any Awana
alumni out there or individualsthat are in Ohio.
(18:34):
And I give a shout out, it goes back.
Yeah.
I go through our keys,all of our four five kids went through.
I know, and it's been a huge blessingfor our family.
Just hiding God's Word in your heartand learning core doctrines of God's Word.
I've been on that,
six years now,and I'll be moving into the chair role
in the next year, at Awana and,
(18:56):
got I actually got a PhD, a number of years ago, which is so funny,
because when I first,when I finished my undergrad,
I thought in my head, I thought to myself,I am done.
I am never going back to school again.
And then I wanted to, you know,
was trying to get my first jobas a pastor, 22 years old.
(19:17):
You know, most churches aren'tclamoring to hire 22 year olds as pastors.
But it's one church in Rochester.
Gave gave me a shot.
But they said one requirement isyou have to go back to school to
to seminary and get your seminary degree.
And, you know, it's kind of like,I'm I'm not super excited about that.
But but I agreed to it.
(19:38):
In the hindsight, I'm really,really grateful they asked me to do that.
And as I was going through,
grad school, seminary, I realizedI actually kind of like some of this.
I actually am studying thingsthat I'm interested in, not,
not things to get through a list.
And, and so I went back for PhD focused
on family ministry that was at SouthernSeminary in Kentucky.
(20:03):
And, was funny.
After I got that degree,my dad said to me, and this was like,
don't, don't take this like as a negative.
But he, you know,he's really proud, of course.
But he said you were the lastof the four kids that I ever thought
would get to think that.
Just so you know, for the record,I just really didn't care.
(20:23):
In high school, I didn't get bad grades,but it was like BS, you know?
And I was like, CSget degrees, CS get degrees. Yeah.
I was like, I don't care.
I mean, like there's no practicalapplication to half of this stuff.
So, but once I finally got interestedin it, that that changed.
And so my dad was kind of funnywhat my dad said, but,
that's been a great blessing.
It's that PhD taught me how to think well,and it taught me how to write well.
(20:48):
And so out of that,I've ended up writing a number of books.
So author of,
I think about ten, books onparenting and grandparenting
and one of themyou'll get to hear a little bit about,
you'll probably hearabout a number of them, but,
specifically, we're launching out with one of them called 50 Things
Every Child Needs to KnowBefore Leaving Home.
(21:10):
And we'll talk a lot about that bookspecifically here
at the beginning of this podcastand in some future episodes,
I serve with a ministrycalled Renew Nation.
We are focused on helping kidsdevelop a biblical world. Yes.
Renew Nation dawg,go check out that ministry.
It's fantastic.
And, just it is, I love,I love serving with this organization,
(21:36):
vision, the mission,the team that God has brought.
And, I
get to do stuff with families that,you know,
I firmly believe we, you know,church is really important for our family
and our kids.
And, a lot of people build into their lives.
It's absolutely critical.
But in the home, as the home goes often,so goes our children.
(21:58):
And, so renew nation,I get to help strengthen the home and help
parents get serious and grandparentsget serious about passing their faith on.
And how do we do that?
And, you'll get to hear some of that herewith this, this podcast
and then my hobbies, I was going to say,Josh, what are my hobbies?
It was like a lot.
What are you doing for fun? Fun,I love it.
I love the outdoors as well.
(22:20):
So hunting, fishing, camping,always outdoors, always outside.
And I'm, you know, I'm behind the computerfor a lot of the day.
So, going and working with animalsor going outside and, hopping
on the four Wheeler or, movinghay, moving hay, all those things.
That's really good.
In fact, we leave here in a few days.
(22:40):
I'm going up to, Minnesota border into Canada.
We go, my sons and I, this is this is a,
I think and we, my,my sons get to come when they turn seven.
So I think this is year12 or 13 for my oldest.
We've been doing this for 20 some years
and we drive till you can't goany further.
(23:00):
Put everything that we needfor a week in a boat,
and then we drive out, many miles to an island.
And that's where we live for a week.
We're pretty much off the grid.
It's glorious.
And, you know, the boys and I were, like,counting down the days.
They love it.
So if I don't make it back from that, I.
It's nice knowing you.
(23:21):
You. Do you see morethe plug in the boat before?
Yeah, we did forget that one year.
That was a little adventurous,but that's great.
This is, like, full on guyadventure. Yeah.
And it's, it's fantastic.
So, outside stuff's really fun.
And, Yeah. There.
I love the Viking football.
I'm a glutton for punishmentbecause they are just good enough
(23:41):
to get you excited,and then they always let you down.
But I'm sorry. I'm coming back for more.
I know you know, that's how it is.
All the Minnesota sports teams, they.
You say at the start of every yearI love them.
I have hope it's going to be great.
And then nothing pans outexcept for the 91 twins.
(24:01):
Then one of these years.One of these years. Yeah.
(24:35):
We're.
Now it's time for a segmentwe're going to call.
What are you reading?
What are you reading?
Okay. Whatwhat are you reading? When you read it?
You want me to answer?I can answer, okay, go for it.
Okay.
We both are really big readers,so this is going to be a regular segment
on the podcast.
(24:56):
This summer ismy summer of Edith Schaffer.
I'm reading as much Edith Schafferas I can this summer, so
man, oh man, I can't rememberwhen I read hidden Art of homemaking.
It had to have been a number of years agoand I love that book.
I always come back to it.
Two years ago I read justa boatload of Francis Schaffer.
(25:20):
I ordered all, you know, all those books,and I did read Francis
Schaffer as a requirementfor teaching at the classical school.
But so now after I've read all this,Francis Schaffer,
I thought, well, this will be my summerto read Edith Schaffer.
So I read, what is a family
where she talks a little bit about,like, family life, and she talks about,
just some nuances of their homeand things that she learned.
(25:46):
She writeswith, I would say, very flowery language.
And so you can just picture herspeaking as you read her.
But I read that and I read, Common Sense
Christian Living, where she speaks a lotabout continuity in the Christian life.
Continuity in your homecontinuity in relationships.
And would you recommend Edith for othersat this point?
(26:09):
I would, I would recommend Edith Schaefer.
I, I'm finishing tapestryand then I'm going to read affliction.
I would recommend Edith Schaefer.
I would definitely recommendThe Hidden Art of homemaking.
I think that belongs in everyI think every woman needs to own it,
young and old.
Hidden Art of homemaking is just a
(26:29):
gem of a book.
I am not sure.
I'm going to be honest.
I felt a little stressedwhen I was reading the tapestry.
I was so stressed about
their travelsand they lived a very busy lifestyle.
She had a stressful childbirthand it was stressful,
(26:50):
so I had to take a breakin the middle of that.
But, but I loved the Schafer'sand would recommend it.
I will linkwe're going to have show notes.
I'll link in our show notes.
These books, you know,I think everyone needs hidden art.
Can I tell my goldfish story?
Should I tell the goldfish story?
Sure. Short, but yes.
(27:11):
I don't know how much time we've got.
So I was reading what is a family?
And Edith Schafer is just her language is
sometimes, like, borderline poetic,you know?
And so she's talking aboutall of these things that make your home,
a center for, like, fostering creativity.
(27:31):
And I'm reading this like, I want my hometo be a place that fosters creativity.
And so she has these lists, and it's like,you know,
music and books and fresh flowers
and windows and time outside and pets and,
you know, and I was like,check, check, check, check, check.
(27:51):
I got them, except for she's.
Oh, now I know what you're talkingI love like goldfish.
What is it?
So it says inthe book that you should have
like makes
11 and think about it,a live fish in your home.
So I was like and she describes it,this is just like two months ago
(28:11):
right when I started and I was like,I don't have a live fish.
And so I was like, I'm goingto get a fish, and I'm going to put it
in a fishbowl on the kitchen islandwith a kitchen island.
And I could just picture, you know,children sitting there eating and a fish.
And they're going to say,this is because we need more
(28:32):
thingsthat are living farm and animal farm.
And and I thought that. Yes.
So I took the children.
We oh, we got in the car.
Josh was out of town and we went tosometimes I show up
and there are more living animalsthis house.
Sometimes it's fine.
And so I said,we're going to go pick out a fish, kids.
(28:54):
So we go to the pet store.
I'm not going to see the chain.It was a chain.
And we looked at all the fishand we chose just a fantail goldfish.
It was like $1.19. It was not expensive.
So we go to the manand I said to the man working there,
I was like,I told him what I just told you.
I've been reading Edith Schaeferand she talked about inspiring creativity,
(29:15):
and I want this to be like an animal
that lives and thrivesand is beauty in our home.
And he was like,the requirement to purchase a goldfish is
that you need to have a 30 gallon aerated
tank pre-prepared for your goldfish.
And I was like,
are you serious?
I had no idea that they have a requirementabout a 30 gallon tank.
(29:40):
I don't have that.
And and you know, all the kids were thereand they were like, it's fine.
She knows how to take care of animals.
My mom's going to love this goldfish.
And I was denied buying a goldfishat a pet store.
And the kids were like,they literally told her that I couldn't.
My and they didn't sell it.
They would not sell me a goldfish.
(30:01):
And then I just like,
how did he did she do with him? Yes.
She didn't have an aquarium at La Brea.
Let's be honest, which I I'm not sad,honestly, that we didn't get a goldfish.
But yes, I think the kids are havinga very creative summer.
They're also creative. Minus the goldfish.
So thumbs up in this.
Schaefer, what have you been writing?
(30:21):
I will honest truth.
Yeah.You read a lot fantasy football stuff.
You have to accept time.
Yes, yes I do.
I love fantasy football.
That's my, There's my honest submission.
I have been reading a lot of fantasyfootball.
But beyond fantasy football,I have been.
(30:41):
I just finished two, but I actuallygrabbed them so you could see them.
I brought, I read, I just startedwho, not how.
And this is basically a book of,like, delegating
and developing teams on steroids.
I'm about 35 pages in, so,
I'll tell you laterif it was a thumbs up or thumbs down.
(31:01):
I've heard a lot of people who have said,fantastic,
recommend that book all the time. Yes.
So I figured, there you go.
My other oneI just finished is this one is called
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
This one wasn't for the faint of heart.
I think it was 500 plus pages.
And, it's all marked up and dog eared for me.
This is by a guy named WestonPrice. Dentist.
(31:24):
Basically what he did.
It's a huge research study.
He went all over the worldand compared the,
the, the, the teethand the health of people
that were eating real food,indigenous diets versus, people
in the same proximity, in the same countrythat were eating
processed Western diets and compare them.
(31:47):
And it is crazy the health differences.
Basically, if you're eating a normal,real food diet,
you basically don't have cavities.
Your teeth are perfect.
You know, there was no such thingas orthodontics 100 years ago.
And you look at the pic like this,there's pictures all over the place
from 100 years ago in here,and their teeth are perfect.
(32:08):
It's crazy.
And their the how they, their,their health was, you just didn't have
a lot of the degenerative diseases at allor to the same degree that we have today.
It was almost unheard of.
And so he he shared his findings
on what leads to, physical health.
And he, you know,
(32:31):
it's a
high, a high fat diet basically every day.
It's either, seafoodbased or a or animal base
because you, you know, if you livein a cold climate like Minnesota,
you can only grow vegetablesfor so many months of the year.
And, you know, 100 yearsago, it's not like
you had transportation to ship them in.
So what did you eat?
(32:51):
You had, you know.
Yeah. Yet animals. And then.
Yeah, venison and,you know, all the other stuff.
But it's beenthat's been really eye opening.
We get told a lot in our cultureabout what not to eat.
I remember the fat free food crazewhen I was growing up in the 80s.
My mom had a, Yeah.
(33:12):
I don't know if you remember these nutterbutters that were like, fat free.
These cookies. Yeah,they said fat free. And my mom were like.
My mom was like, these are healthy.
They're fat free. Yeah.
I'm like, all right. You know, was great.
But that's been really good.
Highly recommend.
That is like, well put, like put a linkthat's like a game changer book
that will it'll mess your mind up likethis is I'm not.
(33:36):
This isn't the kind of stuffwe hear every day.
And, well,
even the topic of orthodontics, that'sso like, every kid gets braces nowadays.
But then to look at that because theywould say don't it's very controversial.
Yeah. Quite common.
But anyways, it'sif if you're trying to get healthy,
that's that's a real good bookto start with and and read.
All right, Jenna,I got a question for you.
(33:58):
Oh, so let's talk about a little
a little about the why and thewhat of this podcast.
Yeah.
So, would you rather question.
Oh, okay.
Would you rather shovel cow manure
or speakat a parenting conference with me?
That's a loaded question, Josh.
(34:19):
I'm generally interested in yourand I haven't
I didn't ask her this, so I haven'tI don't know what she's going to say.
In my real life.
I shovel a lot of cow food, honestly.
But I also speak at parentingconferences, so I love doing both.
And that's the truth.
I love my cows.
If you have to choose the only one,
(34:39):
I would choose you.
Oh good.
Any. Okay. All right, all right.
That's good.
I thought I might lose outto, to poo, so that's good.
Oh, no no no no no, I would love to dobecause traveling was kind of tough.
Yeah.
So we we had a season.
Well, a couple of yearsof pretty significant traveling
(35:00):
and speaking together.
Speaking about our book and speakingat different parenting conferences
and just out there encouraging familiesin, in a lot of different settings.
Which was great.
I mean, I love being with people.
I love meeting people and chattingwith people and doing all those things.
(35:20):
But the season of life that we're inwith kids, I just need to be home.
I just need to be home.
And so it's difficult to traveland to be speaking,
and leaving the leaving the babiesso it doesn't work.
Well, having, like, five kidsand a big farm and traveling after that.
You'd think it would. Yeah.You think you just.
(35:41):
That'd be super easy.
So for some reason, it's not solutionpodcast.
Podcast. Okay. There you go. That's good.
The podcast is it's it's a nice formatwe can record.
We're just right here in our home.
And, you know, it's like grabbing coffeewith a friend, right?
And so you get to chatand listen and glean insight.
(36:04):
And do we get to doand share the things that are on our heart
in real time as we wouldif we were speaking to a live audience?
But we have the the benefit of being ableto just be closer to home.
Yeah.
And it's fun to do something together.
Yeah. We're a good team, you know.
You know what they sayabout podcasts, what
(36:26):
they say that those who podcast togetherstay together.
So another another 25 years herewe can podcast together.
I heard some, there was some I read that,some I don't know, I'm just kidding.
You always whenever we.
So we go out on Friday nights
and Josh always has so many jokeswhen we go places.
It's very fun. That's what that was,
(36:50):
Ernie.
Ha ha.
That's true.
You do I, I do sometimes
get us in trouble.
That's likethat behind the podcasting line.
That's funny, I liked it.
Yeah.
So we're excited for the podcast and,
yeah, I mean, there's onlythere are only so many hours in the day.
Yeah.
So we want to maximize those.
We want to be good stewards of our time.
(37:12):
Just recognizing that we both dohave a heart for ministering to people.
We we do have a ministrythat we want to see flourish,
and we want to, you know,
kindle those those fires.
But just being good stewards of what God'sput in front of us right now.
Yeah. So what is this podcast all about?
(37:33):
You tell me,what is this podcast all about?
Josh?
Well, I mentioned Renew Nation,and so I want to introduce you
a little bitto the ministry of our new nation.
We exist to transform culture
by helping childrendevelop a biblical worldview.
So, we want the next generation. You.
If you've got kids, grandkids, you'rea pastor, you're a Christian educator.
(37:58):
We want those kids in your lifeto think biblically.
We want them to live biblically.
We want them to, to to learn God'sword, to love God's Word.
We want them to live according to it.
And of course,today it's a challenge to raise children
in the climate that we livein, to not absorb the messages and the,
(38:24):
just the unbiblical things that they hear
every single day with, you know, screenscoming in and all the education stuff
and, you know, the messagescoming through those two mediums and,
just all the stuff.
And so it takes a lot of intentionality
and it takes some significant commitmenton our parts as parents,
(38:47):
and those ministering to childrento, to do that.
We want this podcast to support you,
to strengthen you, to equip you,to help you in to that
end, and, and we think it will bea real good blessing.
And then we get to, have some just fun conversations
(39:08):
about, faith and family
and navigating some of the, challenges
and, issues that pop up for all of us.
We're, you know, we're experiencing,you know,
we're we're parents of a 19 year oldfor the first time.
And so we're learning,
(39:29):
what does what does that entailand what does that look like?
And, and then each episode that we have,
it will cover some kind of topics,
touching on things like parenting,
grandparenting marriage,family discipleship,
and those will all befrom a biblical worldview.
(39:49):
And then once in a while, we might even, bring a guest or two on that.
We'll offer somethingthat is way better than we can,
but we think they're great to hear from,
and people that we have really benefitedfrom in our life.
Could be some authors,
could be some speakers,could be some individuals in their fields
(40:11):
that are just, really,really helpful, helpful to hear from.
Yeah.
And, you know, especially with the culturebeing what it is,
I think sometimes we feel like we're notthat we're the we're alone.
Right? Or we're kind of swimmingagainst the stream.
So there is, you know,just like you have people in your life
who you are like minded with,there is something beautiful about
(40:35):
just sitting down with them and talkingand coming away feeling refreshed
and knowing that you are walkingshoulder to shoulder with people,
and that you're not alone in your desire
to raise your kids to know Jesus,and to love Jesus.
And you're willing to dosome of the things
that are very counterculturalin that process.
(40:55):
So we're just hoping that the podcast willbe like grabbing coffee with a friend.
And you'll you'll walk awayfeeling refreshed as if you had had just,
you know, talk, talk with yourlike minded people.
So, we hope that that is that for you.
And if you have any topicsthat you would love
(41:16):
to have us explore, feel free to let us know.
Let us know. Yeah.
We'd, we'd love to hear from you.
Anything else before we wrap up today?
I think that's it. That's it.
All right.
One in the book.
Done. Bam!
All right, well, thanks for tuningin here, and we'll see you next time.
Bye bye.
(41:39):
Thank you for listening to the GospelSheep Family podcast.
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