About Us

Four BIG convictions that drive our work: 

1. Heart transformation becoming more like Jesus is the essence of vibrant faith. 

2. Faith is formed through intergenerational “family” relationships – in families and through church communities. 

3. Lifelong – the Spirit forms us at ALL stages and ages of life. 

4. Living our God-given callings is the journey of vibrant faith. 

The key to our process:

We root our process in history while adapting it to our current world

The work of Vibrant Faith helps Christian churches develop effective faith forming approaches that embody both historic practices of Christian formation and address changing cultural realities. We walk through this process to train and coach faith communities to create or prioritize ministry that is intergenerational, lifelong, relational, and helps people to name and claim their callings. We offer churches focus and accountability for adaptive leadership through coaching, training, courses, resources, and support.

This organization was born out of tragedy…

…In order to bring hope and faith to life. 

In 1997, Dr. Mert and Irene Strommen founded The Youth & Family Institute  in memory of their son David, a young seminarian and youth worker who was killed by lightening while leading a youth trip in the Colorado mountains. The organization was renamed Vibrant Faith Ministries in 2010. The Strommens’ vision was to take the best research and academic insight, ground and deepen it with Christian theology, and instill an evangelical spirit of ministry to help congregations strengthen families to nurture faith. The call across the Christian church  to claim the role of the family in the formation of faith actually began from this small organization. 

Now we have an additional calling.

Sensing the need for change in the faith forming systems of the church, Vibrant Faith has re-organized around defining new services to churches, organizations and leaders. Our coaching and training is designed to partner with faith-formers and pursue innovation for the church’s processes of faith formation. Our projects and initiatives are designed to call churches to what matters most for effective faith formation in the 21st century.