Part 2: An inteview about Inclusion Fusion ... what it is, why it matters, and how YOU can benefit

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Today I'll continue with my two-part interview with Dr. Steve Grcevich about the upcoming Inclusion Fusion web conference. (If you missed the first part yesterday, check it out HERE.) As I mentioned yesterday, the picture on the left shows Katie, Steve, and Chuck Swindoll, Inclusion Fusion's keynote speaker. Today you'll learn more about Steve's work with Key Ministry along with more details about Inclusion Fusion.

Before I dive into the interview, let me share a couple of stories about Steve and his team with you. Within hours of launching the Facebook page for this blog, Steve commented, welcoming me to the online disability ministry scene. Katie and I have had several phone conversations, and we're due for another coffee date via phone soon. And while this last one sounds inconsequential, I had a weird high school-esque moment at lunchtime at the Accessibility Summit in April when I had to decide whether I was going to eat alone or add myself to a group who may or may not want an extra person tagged on...and, before I decided, Rebecca walked over and invited me to sit with her and Harmony. It's the little things that demonstrate that they are more focused on serving Christ and His bride, the church, than they are about making names for themselves.

As such, though, Steve has already made a name for himself as a physician practicing in child and adolescent psychiatry, and as promised, here is the second part of my interview with him:


You were trained as a physician specializing in child and adolescent psychiatry. A handful of the other speakers for Inclusion Fusion aren't originally from ministry backgrounds, while others - like myself - are leaders in local churches. How will that diversity benefit those who attend?

Scripture clearly teaches that all of us who are brothers and sisters in Christ belong to one another and have been given gifts to share with one another for the purpose of advancing God’s Kingdom (Romans 12:4-8). One blessing we’ve experienced with Key Ministry is the way God has brought together a team of staff and committed volunteers who have demonstrated excellence in very diverse career and ministry pursuits. We want to share that blessing by introducing our friends in leadership at local churches (senior pastors, children’s and youth pastors) to our friends in disability ministry with great ideas, as well as (in future years) other friends who may or may not be Christ followers but can teach us how to do a better job of ministering to kids and adults with disabilities.

One of my ideas for Inclusion Fusion in future years is to invite the world’s top researchers in my field (Child and Adolescent Psychiatry) to do presentations for church leaders and parents helping them to understand how to better serve kids and families impacted by the conditions they study.

You lead Key Ministry in addition to wearing your MD hat. Why did Key Ministry
start, and what are y'all all about?

Key Ministry was established in 2002 to equip churches to minister to families of kids with “hidden disabilities”…significant emotional, behavioral, developmental or neurologic disorders lacking readily observable physical symptoms.

During the mid 1990s, a number of families from the church we attended (Bay Presbyterian Church in Bay Village, OH) adopted kids from Russia and Bulgaria with very complex emotional and behavioral issues. Libby Peterson (the Children’s Ministry Director at the time and an Inclusion Fusion speaker) recognized the need to help families who were struggling to stay involved at church because of the challenges their kids presented. I learned of Libby’s efforts while serving on the church Board and started asking questions about church involvement to parents of kids served by my practice. I discovered that most families coming to a practice like ours had no ongoing involvement with a local
church, in large part because churches weren’t prepared to meet the needs of their kids while the family took part in worship services or other church activities. Libby’s ministry at Bay Presbyterian grew to include families who hadn’t been part of the church, but discovered the supports offered there.

My participation in research offered me the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the U.S. to teach physicians and other health professionals. I routinely included a mention of Bay Presbyterian’s ministry as part of my standard introduction wherever I went. As the requests for assistance started rolling in, the need for a ministry to support churches serving kids with emotional, behavioral and cognitive disabilities became readily apparent. There are many outstanding ministries serving kids and adults with physical and developmental disabilities. At the time, no one was serving the kids and families we serve.

In helping individual churches to pursue and connect families of kids with hidden disabilities, Key Ministry suggests three general strategies: Serve them, create welcoming environments for the kids, their siblings and their parents, and include them in the activities vital to spiritual development. We do this by providing free training (Inclusion Fusion, our JAM Sessions that provide in-depth training to church leaders and key volunteers), consultation (on-site when possible, otherwise by phone or Skype) resources (our website, blogs and social media products) and support for church-based networks offering free respite care to families of kids with disabilities.

Who should attend Inclusion Fusion, and why should they want to?

Our hope is that any pastor, church leader, volunteer or parent with a passion for seeing families of persons with special needs connect with their larger family in Christ through the ministry of a local church will want to be part of Inclusion Fusion.

Okay, we're sold. How do we sign up?

FREE registration is available at http://www.inclusionfusion.org. 

Many thanks to Steve, for joining me over these last couple of days, and to entire Key Ministry team and PajamaConference.com, for providing this great event. 

While it feels weird to say "see you there" because I won't really see you (though you can see me if you check out either of my sessions!), I do hope you'll join us. You can pick and choose the sessions you'd like to see and watch them at any time during the conference (Nov. 3-5). It's a unique way to get equipped to do the work God has prepared for the church to do!

Part 1: An inteview about Inclusion Fusion ... what it is, why it matters, and how YOU can benefit

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I've never met Dr. Steve Grcevich. I haven't talked to him on the phone before, and I don't even know how to pronounce his last name, though I have finally learned to spell it. I do know, though, that he and his team, along with Jeremy Collins at PajamaConference.com, are on to something. How can you equip a wide range of ministry leaders, including those who can't afford traditional conferences (travel + hotel + conference fees + food ... it adds up!) and those who wouldn't typically prioritize a disability ministry conference?

Bring the conference to THEM via the beauty of technology.

Today I'm be posting part one of an interview I did with Steve about Inclusion Fusion, and tomorrow you'll get part two! Hopefully, it will answer any lingering questions you have. (And, yes, I'll be among the speakers!) To put a face with the name, that's Steve in the picture to the left, standing between the beautiful Katie Wetherbee and the respected Chuck Swindoll. Swindoll is the keynote speaker for the Inclusion Fusion websummit - he's another reason you should consider joining us!

Steve, what is Inclusion Fusion anyway?

Inclusion Fusion is a FREE, worldwide web conference to equip churches to more effectively minister to children and adults with special needs and their families. We wanted to create an opportunity for senior pastors, church staff members, volunteers and family members to come together to share ideas and resources and advance the movement among Christ-honoring churches to serve, welcome and include families touched by both visible and hidden disabilities.

Wow, that's different. Has anything like this ever been done before?

Several years ago, I was attending a meeting for leaders at a major ministry conference and observed lots of venting about the lack of interest among churches for disability ministry initiatives. It seemed to me that part of our problem was the absence of anyone in the meeting outside of special needs ministry. We’ll never overcome the obstacles to full inclusion of children and adults with disabilities in the local church until we seek to understand the challenges by church leaders and provide them resources to effectively serve families in their immediate communities.

Our team felt led to create an opportunity for folks with different roles in the church…senior pastors, church staff members, highly committed volunteers and families…to come together, learn from one another and form relationships in service of a common passion to build meaningful connections between families impacted by disabilities and local churches.

Inclusion Fusion seeks to overcome two previously insurmountable barriers to mutual understanding and collaboration. One is time…Ministry leaders and families face lots of competing demands on their time. Traveling to another city to attend a conference, packing, arranging child care…all impact other priorities. The other barrier is money…neither churches nor families touched by disability
have it.

We partnered with Jeremy Collins and his team at Pajama Conference to create an experience where anyone can see any presenter speak on any topic at any time during Inclusion Fusion. A pastor, ministry leader or volunteer can literally be part of our conference while in their pajamas. [Confession from Shannon: I filmed my sessions while in pajama pants. I was only filming from the waist up, so you won't see that in the videos, but now you know!] We also established that the conference will be offered free of charge, as is the case for any Key Ministry service or event. We don’t want money to be an obstacle to any church or person who wants to join us.


Come back tomorrow to hear more from Steve about what Key Ministry is all about, what his day job is, who should join us for Inclusion Fusion, and how to sign up!

it's a good thing she's good at what she does

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because if not, I'd probably hate my physical therapist by now. Today I learned from her:

that my knee has a MRSA infection. (Woohoo, more antibiotics!!! And praying, praying, praying that we won't have to do surgery again to deal with this.)

that my hips are funky and that we'll be working on that in a future session.

that my other kneecap - on the so-called good knee - is out of alignment and prone to needing this sort of surgery in the future. (I already had figured that one out, but it didn't help to hear it out loud.)

that even though I'm already making good progress in range of motion, physical therapy is going to be a rough road.

Instead of concerning myself with all that, I'm washing down my hard-core, MRSA-killing antibiotics with this loveliness.


Thanking God for my Bible study leader who fed us well tonight (with lasagna and salad and bread in addition to the pie!), even though my four-year-old admonished her for parking in "my Daddy's spot in the driveway" and declared "I think we're going to have to put a sign up so no one ever does that again."

Nicely done, Jocelyn. "Thank you" would have sufficed.

disability ministry round-up {10-24-11}

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Last Friday found me in the operating room for my knee surgery, and this morning found my husband in the pediatrician's office with a little boy struggling to breathe because of a nasty case of croup. I'm not going to sugarcoat anything: it's been a rough weekend, y'all. Thankful that God's mercies are new every morning, and looking forward to another day of recovery for me and my littlest guy!

Now, on to the links...

Joni Eareckson Tada's post on Facebook, Tough Questions ... Tender Answers, is a reminder that we need to be willing to tackle the hard questions, but that God is sufficient for tender answers.

In a reverse Carrie sort of situation, a girl with Asperger's was added to the ballot for homecoming princess as a mean joke...but other students found out, rallied in her favor, and ensured that she won. Made me think of these words of Joseph from Genesis 50:20: "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today."

Grace for our grieving: Grief can be part of both the diagnosis and the day-at-day lives of families with disabilities. This article, by Paul Tripp, offers biblical pointers for grief. 

This week the PBS documentary, Lives Worth Living, on the disability rights' movement premieres. Let more and find out the exact time it will air in your city here.

Churches and ministries showing love to those with disabilities...
Come back tomorrow for the first of a two-part interview with Dr. Steve Grcevich about the upcoming Inclusion Fusion websummit!