Meet Kelsey, our church's Access Ministry intern extraordinaire!

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Kelsey is a high school senior. And our special needs ministry would not be what it is without her. (After you read this, you can see why by reading here guest posts here, here, here, and here!)

I planned to do a week of Kelsey's posts around her graduation to celebrate the end of high school and the transition to my alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (Go Heels!) But given that I could be in Taiwan then to bring Zoe home and given that Kelsey's passion, maturity, and servanthood blew folks away this weekend, it's clear: this is the week.

Me and Kelsey on the red carpet before the shindig got started!

Kelsey didn't mean to dip her toes into special needs ministry the first time. She started helping in a preschool Sunday school class. Josiah was in that class, and he - in addition to a mischievous smile and fine blond hair - has Down syndrome. (Some day soon I'll blog here about how an encounter with Josiah brought me into special needs ministry too. God has great plans for that sweet boy!)

(Nope, we weren't part of the medical team. We just liked the smiley balloon!)

Then, as you'll read tomorrow, she wanted to go to a prom during her sophomore year of high school. As she'll admit, she thought she was settling for the Joy Prom, our dinner, dance, and celebration for guests with special needs, ages 16 and up. It's an annual event that our church started eight years ago and that we now host every even year while another church joins us in hosting the odd years.

My shoes? Comfy with old lady orthopedics. Kelsey's? Beautiful strappy sandals with heels.

This year the theme was Around the World, and guests and volunteers were invited to either wear formal attire (like Kels!) or something with an international flair (like me, with jewelry from Africa, a skirt and bracelets from India, and a belt from Ecuador).

We're in the volunteer check-in area, which didn't have much decor... but note the flags on the left!

You'll read her words this week about her passion for ministry, and you'll be blown away. In the words of one of my friends, "I want to be Kelsey when I grow up." While the pictures below show that she's still a teenager, I must admit that it wasn't  Kelsey who said, "Let's make silly faces!" (Maybe someday I'll be as mature as she is.)



Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example
 in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
{1 Timothy 4:12}

And what an example she sets!



Kelsey, I am so proud of the woman you are becoming, and I can't wait to see what God has in store for you in the future. (So glad you'll only be about 30 minutes away for college! I can't think of a better excuse than YOU for many, many trips to Chapel Hill next year.) I've never turned this blog over to someone else for four days straight, but I can't think of a better person to encourage and inspire other churches in what they are doing to welcome those with special needs.

Kelsey, you humble me.

Gospel > inclusive ministry

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Friends, I'll be blogging next week to share with you pieces of this past weekend's Accessibility Summit, especially for those of you who couldn't be there or who couldn't be in my session on recruiting, training, and supporting volunteers.

But first.

I've been challenged by God with a truth that we all ought to be mindful of. While it is a blessing to labor hard after the inclusion of all people of all abilities in this Christian community that we - and the Bible - calls the church, sometimes we can get so focused on the efforts that we forget why we're doing it.

Sometimes we exalt the idea of inclusive ministry so much that we begin to worship that idea rather than the God who placed it on our hearts.

Remember this, my friends. If our churches become places in which people of all abilities are included and in which everyone is knowledgeable about autism and in which no family is turned away because of disability and in which people can be real in admitting their struggles and in which our inclusion of our friends with disabilities doesn't end at age 12 (or 15 or 18), we have failed if the gospel isn't proclaimed.

 We are never called to worship the church, even though we love the description of it including all weak parts in 1 Corinthians 12. We are never called to worship people with disabilities, even though we love Jesus' words in John 9 describing the man's blindness as a way for "the works of God to be displayed." We are never called to worship the created thing, including our own created programs of ministry, no matter how effective they are.

Inclusive ministry is great, but we must be careful not to love it so much that it becomes an idol. Let's not be guilty of this:

...they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator...
{Romans 1:25}
Treasure Christ, not special needs ministry. And then, as we treasure and esteem the gospel, we'll desire to bear fruit through ministry.

VIDEO: Nicole's testimony of Christ, whose gospel is sufficient for those of all abilities

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Some of you are here for the first time, and thank you for visiting! Please feel free to click around or email me at shannon@theworksofgoddisplayed.com if you'd like to learn more about how your church can include wonderful friends like Nicole and other families affected by disability.

I have the privilege of coordinating Access Ministry, the special needs ministry of Providence Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC. I am thankful for my church, and I am thankful that Nicole and her parents are allowing me to introduce you to this sweet young friend of mine.

The video below says it all, but here are three extra points that aren't obvious in it:
  1. By the end, every person in the worship center was singing with Nicole. And many of us were wiping our eyes.
  2. This baptism was at a Sunday night service, and the video was shown in each of our Easter morning services. Many, many people witnessed the gospel of Christ proclaimed in word and song by Nicole.
  3. No one - not on the night of the baptism nor on Easter morning - emphasized or even mentioned Down syndrome. This was and is not the testimony of a girl with Down syndrome named Nicole. It's just Nicole's testimony of Christ, whose gospel is sufficient for those of all abilities. 
And now, meet Nicole: