disability ministry weekly round-up {11-9-11}

/
My apologies that this is a little late! I'm excited about this week's round-up of links, and I hope you'll find them helpful too as you think about how you can do life and share Christ with people with disabilities in your church and community.

Registration is LIVE for volunteers and families for our December 10th respite care event. Check it out here! If you're in the Raleigh area and have a child with special needs, we would love to have you there. Feel free to share the link with friends, neighbors, and others - we want the word out! You don't have to have any connection to Providence in order to attend. Let me know if you have any questions!

Inclusion Fusion will be accessible online - all the videos and notes - through DECEMBER 3, so don't worry if you didn't get to watch them all last weekend!

Usually, I reserve these articles for the list at the end, but I want to call special attention to what Green Trails United Methodist Church in Missouri is doing. Instead of creating a completely separate service for people with special needs, they tightened up the typical service, shortening it and making some other changes. The feedback has been positive - from those with and without special needs. They are also started a sensory-friendly service as another option, but their efforts to welcome those with disabilities - from service changes to trainings to the use of Boardmaker - is much more comprehensive and inclusive than most churches.

Churches welcoming people with disabilities and otherwise engaging with the special needs community:
  • one holding an art show to benefit another organization's program for pre-teens with autism spectrum disorders
  • a pastor who makes pottery and donates a tenth of the income to charities, including a speech therapy center where his son has been treated
  • a church that held a sensory-friendly Halloween event for kids with special needs
  • a church that is briefly mentioned in a story about individuals with autism, one of whom attends a church's friendship group
  • a church hosting a day program for adults with developmental disabilities
And, finally, this presentation by Temple Grandin is very similar to the one she gave at the Accessibility Summit at McLean Bible Church earlier this year. I found it helpful, and I think you will too. (Be forewarned, though, that it's over an hour, so make sure you have the time to watch it!)

my sessions and notes from Inclusion Fusion 2011

/
I had the privilege of presenting two sessions at Inclusion Fusion, and you can find the links to the presentations (up through TODAY, and rumor has is that Steve will be making an announcement later today about if/how you'll be able to access the sessions after today) below, as well as the notes.

Common Misconceptions in Special Needs Ministry
  • The description: As more churches engage in special needs ministry, we need to take time to dispel some the most common myths. In this session, we’ll discuss common misconceptions, and you’ll leave with practical tools and tips to use at your church. Myths and half-truths that will be discussed are (1) disability ministry is a children’s ministry endeavor, (2) you don’t need to bother until you have someone with special needs come to your church, (3) you must use one particular model, (4) you need a special education professional to run it, (5) it’s just too hard (or, the flipside, “it’s easy”), (6) it’s just another program, (7) it’s all about ministering to people with disabilities, (8) it’s optional, and (9) it’s about people with disabilities.
  • The session: Click here
  • The notes: Click here
Disability, the Sanctity of Life, and the Church
  • The description: In Psalm 78:6, we are instructed to share the works of God with children, “that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn…” Church leaders are motivated to engage in disability ministry because we desire to include those with special needs in our congregations, both the current generations and those to come. However, when we consider Psalm 78:6 as well as the call in Matthew 25 to care for “the least of these,” we must recognize that the individuals with disabilities who are most vulnerable among us are those yet unborn. In this presentation, we will examine Bible verses about the sanctity of life and unpack the ramifications this has for both our understanding disability and our reaction to the rates of abortion of babies with disabilities. Practical ideas for showing the sanctity of all life in your church and to your community will also be discussed. The intended audience for this session is all Christians, not just those currently engaged with the disability community.
  • The session: Click here
  • The notes: Click here

Finally, I have agreed to speak at two large ministry conferences in 2012, and I'll be sharing more details about those later this week and next week.

Tomorrow I'll be posting the weekly round-up of links related to disability ministry! As usual, if you see one you think I should include (or even if you write one you think would be helpful to others!), shoot me an email: shannon [at] theworksofgoddisplayed [dot] com.

You don't have to be an expert; just be willing to do something

/
A couple weeks ago in Beijing, a two-year-old girl named Wang Yue and nicknamed Yueyue was "crushed by two vans...and then ignored by 18 passersby as lay bleeding on the street." She died on October 21 of organ failure as a result.

A similar case from New York City in 1964 is used as a case study in psychology courses. Kitty Genovese was murdered, and while neighbors either heard or saw her as she was stabbed, no one called the police.

Those 18 people who passed by Yueyue as she lay bleeding in the street and the neighbors of Kitty who heard her screams and saw her murder didn't have to fix it. They didn't have to perform surgery to save them. They didn't need any special expertise to help those who were bleeding.

They just needed to do something instead of walking away.

You don't have to know all of the answers either in order to welcome people with disabilities into your church. You just have to do something.

Resolve that you won't turn people with disabilities away if they come to your church and that your church won't be a stumbling block to those who need a place in God's community of believers.


~+~
If you haven't joined us already, come visit me and 20+ other speakers at inclusionfusion.org, a free webconference on special needs ministry! And, due to the technical glitches due to high demand yesterday, it has been extended through MONDAY. (And, don't worry, the glitches are fixed now!)

what does it mean to INCLUDE people with disabilities?

/
One of the points I bring up in my Inclusion Fusion session (which started TODAY, so CHECK IT OUT!), Common Misconceptions in Special Needs Ministry, is that it's not too hard, nor is it easy. It's worth it.

To help demystify this whole idea of inclusion, let's see what our friend Elmo has to teach us about the word "include." (Nope, not kidding. I have two little blessings around the house, a two-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter. Sesame Street happens around here.)



See? It's not complicated. It's just a willingness to invite others to join us. It's a commitment to be churches rather than Christianized country clubs. 

Granted, Elmo amd Mila were include for moralistic reasons - you know, the whole "it's the right thing to do" rationale. As believers, we have a better reason. God sent his one and only son to earth, and Christ lived the perfect life we could not live, died the sinner's death we deserve, and rose from the dead that we might live with him forever. As a result, you and I are invited into the family of God... or, you could say, included in God's family. To be redeemed by Christ and to be adopted as sons and daughters by God to share in the inheritance of Christ, that is the ultimate inclusion.

We don't seek inclusion for all people because it's the right thing to do. Just as we love because he first loved us, we include because he first included us.

It's not too hard. And it's not easy. But it is worth it, and it is right.