Everybody belongs. Everybody serves.
Disability
Terry
Jack
lynn
Staci
Church Disability Advocates seek to promote the full inclusion of persons with disabilities in the life of the local congregation so that everybody belongs and everybody serves. They can make significant progress in this work if church leadership supports them.
Disability advocacy can feel lonely. With years of advocacy experience, two veteran advocates inspire and guide people who are working to help churches become the welcoming and engaging communities that God calls them to be.
The Five Stages is a continuum of disability attitudes created by Dan Vander Plaats of Elim Christian Services. In this video, Dan briefly describes the continuum and how one can present this continuum.
These job descriptions give guidelines for volunteer disability advocates who serve individual churches and groups of churches.
One Sunday morning, sitting in middle of row, Ryan was having a very hard time. Several times, during the sermon, he made shriek-like screams, frightening noises. He was scaring people in church. Pastor Steve wondered what to do.
A responsive reading
A responsive reading
A study on the needs of families who live with disabilities and their desires for church.
As Teddie-Joy Remhild celebrates her 81st birthday, having lived 45 of those years as a blind woman, she reflects on the degree that limiting labels and perceptions have impacted her life.
Ratifying this international treaty will not right all the wrongs committed against people with disabling conditions, but it puts a line in the sand that squares with the message of Jesus.
In the May/June 2014 issue of the UMC's mission magazine the articles include embracing deaf ministry, ministering with a disability, and the value of doing an accessibility audit.
Check out this great little booklet on how to include and welcome people with developmental disabilities, together with their families. Written by Courtney Taylor, Erik W. Carter and others.
A social scientist, Erik Carter started his keynote address at the 2014 Summer Institute on Disability and Theology by saying he would be "preaching from Numbers." With data, he established the opportunity congregations and other communities of faith have to "welcome, receive, and be hospitable" every day of the week.
A bulletin insert addressing the needs of the youth, living with disabilities and church inclusion.
This revised edition and brand new resource kit guides Friendship leaders/mentors, elders, pastors, and families as they help persons with cognitive impairments prepare to express their faith and become full members of a faith community.
Our Mission is to share God’s love with people who have intellectual disability and to enable them to become an active part of God’s family.
A synopsis of what Disability Concerns is all about.
This list gives practical ways that churches can make their communication more accessible to people with visual impairments.
The 5 Stages is a simple tool for describing the journey of disability attitudes experienced by people in relationship with others who have disabilities.
Communion and Disability
What makes a human life worth living? Productivity – how much someone is accomplishing in life? The value of every single human comes from what she/he is: a creature made in God's image.
For a long time this man has lived with disability. For a long time he’s had no one to help him—no wife, no family, no friends. No one.
The film, "Labeled" exposes the shocking reality that some children diagnosed with genetic disorders are refused life-sustaining food and medical care without the consent or knowledge of their parents.
We would never say “It’s your kid, do the appendectomy at home.” Or “Your parents will have to deal with that gunshot wound.” But this is the system of care we have in place for people with severe disabilities. Why?
The means by which violence is perpetrated against people with disabilities varies widely, but the statistics clearly indicate that people with disabilities are much more likely to have emotional and physical violence perpetrated against them than the general population.