Why I’m Hopeful for the Future of Disability Ministry

I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma where my family attended First Baptist Church every week. That may sound like a common story, but what made my family’s consistent church attendance unique was my sister, Syble, with Down syndrome. A 2013 study shows families that have a member with a disability are less likely to attend church than typical families. When these families do attend, more than two-thirds report negative experiences.

Thankfully, my experience growing up in church with a sibling with a disability was mostly positive. Syble attended the typical children’s ministry classes with a helper who made sure she was safe and included. When she transitioned to the youth group, our church created a class for her and other teenagers with disabilities that was attuned to their spiritual and social growth. Since there was always an option for Syble, our entire family attended regularly.

Move forward in time to 2010. That’s the year my son James was diagnosed with autism. After his assessment, we looked around our rural church and realized there were no special-needs families there. An accessible church—something I’d taken for granted as a child and teen—wouldn’t be my son’s experience unless our church took steps toward inclusion.

Once again, God’s people took action. Our leaders found a buddy to support James in his Sunday school class. They purchased sensory toys (like an indoor trampoline) to address his extra sensory-seeking. In time, other kids with disabilities began to attend the church, and it even reached out to special-needs parents by offering respite nights and a fully inclusive vacation Bible school.

More and more, churches like these aren’t alone. I’ve never been more optimistic about evangelical disability ministry than I am right now. Here are four reasons why.

1. Church leaders see needs, and they want to include children and teens with disabilities.

Megachurches often design ministry programs and facilities specifically for kids with disabilities. However, according to one study, people who have disabilities but don’t require the level of support offered in these self-contained ministries often struggle to attend church.

Many children with diagnoses like autism, anxiety, and ADHD aren’t placed in special education classes in public schools. Yet they do receive accommodations to help them thrive in typical classrooms. When these kids come to church, such accommodations aren’t readily available. As a result, the kids can struggle to be successful in typical children’s and youth ministry environments.

Through my work with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC), I help churches across our state learn to welcome such families. Conversations with church leaders often begin like this: “We have kids with special needs in our ministry. We want to better support them, but we don’t know what to do.” I’ve seen this in church after church. When special-needs families struggle to connect with churches, it’s most often because ministry leaders don’t know how to support kids with disabilities, not because they don’t want to include them.

Studies support my anecdotal observations. Both parents and ministry leaders believe churches want to welcome children with disabilities but acknowledge the need their churches have for more training in the how. By God’s grace, the desire is there. And, thankfully, training is becoming more readily available too.

2. Colleges and seminaries now offer more classes (and even degrees) on disability theology and ministry.

Both parents and ministry leaders acknowledge the need churches have for more education and training on disability ministry.

According to the 2000 census, one in five U.S. families has a family member with a disability. But the Bible college and seminary leaders surveyed in a 2014 study believed their graduates were “not at all (3.4%) or only a little (70.7%) prepared to respond to spiritual and theological questions resulting from disability-related human experiences.” This lack of training affects ministers’ pastoral care, teaching, and ability to address families’ needs in a variety of ministry settings.

To address this weakness, several evangelical institutions have made changes. This fall, Liberty University (where I serve as an online instructor) will add a disability ministry minor to their undergraduate degree options. Other schools like Wheaton College and Moody Bible Institute provide similar opportunities, and I’m hopeful programs like these will expand in the future.

3. Denominational groups and parachurch organizations are providing more resources and support.

It’s not just Bible colleges expanding their training. The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) has a strong denominational disability ministry. It provides discipleship resources and coaching for churches wanting to include people with disabilities. In Southern Baptist circles, state conventions like the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware and my own SBTC provide church consultations, educational resources, and even financial grants for churches wanting to expand their reach to people with disabilities. Moreover, parachurch organizations like Joni and Friends and Guidelight offer consultations and resources to help churches start and grow disability ministries.

4. Jesus loves people with disabilities, and he modeled the way of inclusion.

My greatest hope for the future of disability ministry isn’t these expanded ministry offerings. My assurance is in Jesus’s love.

My greatest hope for the future of disability ministry isn’t in expanded ministry offerings. My assurance is in Jesus’s love.

There’s an often-overlooked verse in a well-known story near the end of Matthew’s account of Jesus’s life. In Matthew 21, Jesus drove the money changers and those buying and selling out of the temple. As a result, “the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them” (v. 14). Under Levitical law, people with disabilities were considered unclean. They only had access to the part of the temple grounds where the market had been set up. When Jesus cleared the temple, he removed barriers blocking the way for people with disabilities. He made a way for them to access him.

Because Jesus has made a way for us, churches today can follow his example. We can look for barriers that may be keeping families from accessing our churches and work to take them down. Through increased training and growth in denominational and parachurch support for ministry leaders, families like mine will have more opportunities to hear and experience Jesus’s good news.