"Disability Isn't Our Thing"

When I talk about my work encouraging and equipping churches to be places of belonging for people with disabilities I sometimes hear a version of “that’s not what our church is called to.” I'm told that “We don’t have anyone with disabilities” or "our church isn’t big enough to have a disability ministry” or that someone would “be better served at the church down the road.” Let’s take a closer look at these responses.

The Myth: Disability is Elsewhere

Every church has people with disabilities in it. The question is not if they are there. The question is whether or not people with disabilities are experiencing belonging. It is common for churches to be unaware of people with disabilities in their church family. This leads to unawareness about how their decisions, worship, attitude, communications, and architecture may be affecting individuals s with disabilities in their congregation. 

When people hear the words “someone with a disability,” they often picture someone with an intellectual and developmental disability like Down syndrome. 15-25% of people have a disability, but only 1-3% of people have an intellectual and developmental disability. Perhaps this is why people have concluded that they don’t have people with disabilities in their church. The majority of disabilities are actually nonapparent, meaning you can’t easily tell the person has a disability. You likely can’t tell when someone has a mental health disorder, chronic pain, a sensory processing disorder or ADHD. 

The idea that “disability ministry” is only for large churches, or certain churches with that calling, implies that ministry is done “to” or “for” people with disabilities, rather than “with and by” people with disabilities. Christian Reformed member Dan VanderPlaats created a tool called the 5 stages of changing attitudes. The 5 stages helps individuals and groups evaluate their attitudes about disability and is available in over 20 languages. The attitude of one person or culture of a church can have a significant impact on the experience of an individual. If you or your church is at a place of feeling sorry for people with disabilities, or thinking of them primarily as people in need of care, this tool may be helpful.

1 Corinthians 12 paints a picture of the church as a body made of many parts. “But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other” (1 Cor. 12:24b-25, NIV). To heavily paraphrase this passage’s emphasis on the body with many essential parts, if your church is in the habit of sending someone with a disability to the church down the road, it’s the equivalent of telling your arm it would be happier on someone else’s body. 

Changing the Mindset, Changing our Ministry

When people say, “disability ministry,” too often they are talking about a separate program that is for people with disabilities. It used to be that children with disabilities were in different schools or classrooms than their peers with the assumption that it was the best way to serve them. But schools have found out that including kids with disabilities in traditional classrooms (with the support needed to succeed) is better for the child with disabilities and better for the rest of the children in the class. Churches have found this too. 

Rather than thinking of disability ministry as a program, I encourage churches to consider worship practices, programs, communications and architecture. Would providing large print bulletins or information ahead of services and events be helpful? Could tools like noise canceling headphones, cushions for hard pews, fidgets, hearing loops or wiggle seats improve someone’s experience? Are people with disabilities participating in the typical things others in their age or life stage participate in? Are kids with disabilities attending Sunday school and invited to profession of faith classes? Are adults coming to potlucks, small groups, and asked to use their gifts as volunteers? As people acquire disabilities with age, do they keep coming to worship services and weekly Bible studies? Are their barriers, such as a pulpit that is only available by stairs, that send the message that they or their gifts are not needed? 

Every church includes people with disabilities, the question is whether they are doing it well, poorly, or somewhere in between. A church that has concluded that disability isn’t their thing is probably doing it poorly.