Church, Families, and People with Special Needs
Written by Tim Witte
You may find yourself looking around your church and wishing for greater diversity; maybe because your church doesn’t have a lot of diversity, or maybe because your congregation doesn’t reflect the Kingdom of God in its inclusion of people from different backgrounds.
Many churches (90%, some statistics say) have an overlooked population already present--a group of people who often feel ignored, unwelcome, and devalued among the people of God.
Individuals in our community with disabilities or special needs.
Individuals with disabilities or special needs are often around us, but most times, we pass over their presence. Between 14 and 20 percent of the US population lives with a special need or chronic disability; but many aren’t coming to churches. This would be puzzling; since polls show these individuals rate going to church as just as important to their lives as those without a special need or disability.
The sad (yet clear) factor here is that many churches aren’t prepared to include people and families with special needs. Remember that 90% statistic mentioned above? That is the rough percentage of churches who have no program, strategy, or ministry for persons with a special need or disability. This is a group of people who may attend your church, but attendance doesn’t mean they feel valued or truly embraced as part of the Body of Christ.
To seek real wholeness as the Body of Christ, we must live with and learn from those with special needs. God actually gives us plenty of examples of this throughout history and in Scripture. Moses had a stutter, Jacob had a limp, Isaac was blind, Paul likely had disfigurements and some blindness, and Mephibosheth had disabled legs. Did you notice a few were founding figures of our faith and ancestors of Christ Himself?
Beyond the fact that God gave us this example (which should be sufficient to convince us of how essential this is), it is also important to have those with special needs and their advocates in places of leadership, because they will often speak up on behalf of those in your community who would otherwise remain excluded. If those in leadership gave proportional representation to those in the congregation, around one-sixth of church leaders would either have a special need, or be an advocate for someone who has a special need/disability. This kind of representation helps church boards, committees, and organizational leaders make informed decisions on how the church can partner with families with special needs.
On a personal level, one of the greatest gifts you will receive by embracing the special needs community is learning about yourself. You’ll be exposed to what your needs--the ones God endowed us all with--really are. No matter our ability or disability, our shared humanity binds us to the shared needs to experience love, to be valued, to find belonging, usefulness, generosity, safety, purpose, independence, and a deep knowledge of mystery and beauty.
If you’re interested in building relationships in your community with individuals/families with a special need or disability, the following steps and resources might be helpful. But it’s important to remember that the first--and most important--thing you can do is to take a step toward building relationships.
Do
Volunteer at a nursing home reading, visiting, chatting with some of the elderly or a local agency that serves those with special needs.
Talk to the staff at your church about how it serves the special needs community. See if you can get involved. They should be able to train you.
Choose to sit near individuals in the worship service who have special needs and may be louder or “disruptive.” This can insulate them from new attendees that may be less understanding.
Volunteer for the Special Olympics.
Listen
To individuals you already know. Here what they have to say and learn from them.
To podcasts. There are plenty of great podcasts on special needs. Type “special needs” or “disability” and choose one topic you are interested in.
Watch
Youtube videos:
Things People With Down's Syndrome Are Tired of Hearing
Things Not To Say To People With Tourette's Syndrome
Ted Talks
I'm Not Your Inspiration, Thank You Very Much
Changing The Way We Talk About Disability
Movies
The Peanut Butter Falcon on Hulu (beautiful friendship develops between characters played by Shia LaBeouf and Zack Gottsagen)
“Loop” by Pixar on Disney+ (Gives lead character with autism a powerful voice)
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (main character believed by actor Eddie Redmayne to be on the autism spectrum)
Forrest Gump on Hulu
Radio on Amazon Prime (Ed Harris and Cuba Gooding Jr)
Read
Books
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (to see what friendships can be)
Leading a Special Needs Ministry by Amy Fenton Lee
From Brokenness to Community by Jean Vanier
The Heart of L’Arche by Jean Vanier
Articles (check out CWC’s own articles on the subject that are just a 1 minute read).
Don’t get bogged down thinking you have to do everything on this list. Just choose one or two to start and go from there. I especially recommend starting with one of the “do” items. You may be nervous at first, but that will quickly fall away the more you embrace persons and families with special needs.
Before He entrusts us with more people of diverse ability, ethnicity, language, religion, or socioeconomic backgrounds into our churches, perhaps God invites us to embrace, learn from, and elevate into leadership those diverse individuals already in our churches.
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Carter, E. W. (2010). Including people with disabilities in faith communities: A guide for service providers, families and congregations. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing, p. 7
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Tim Witte is the Special Needs Pastor at College Wesleyan Church in Marion, Indiana. Having a heart for those often overlooked or ignored by the Church, Tim strives to see people where they are and help them be seen for who they are. He describes his role as two sides of a coin, accommodation (helping the church transform to welcome those with special needs) and assimilation (helping those with special needs transform to welcome the church) with a little bit of advocacy on the side. He finds value in all people and believes there is always something we can learn from one another.