Disability Concerns

Churches are called to grow the gifts of all members. Ideal Park CRC has found a way to do that for two members so that they can exercise their gifts for ministry faithfully. 

I’m more comfortable with answers than questions, authority than weakness, and qualification by academic degree than qualification by suffering. But I’m learning that effectiveness in chaplaincy requires me to walk into the circle of my discomfort.

How can we be extra mindful and supportive of persons and families affected by disability during this season? Here are a few ideas. 

One can be well and live with a serious mental illness or disability. But wellness does require community (such as a church). Therefore let's ask, "Is my church a place where people can be well?" 

I did not realize how much she would contribute to everyone’s learning, how the classroom would became a place where the societal barriers between people of various abilities would temporarily break down.

When I was 14, my 38-year-old mother sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI). When Mom came home from the hospital, her personality had changed dramatically. How can the church help?

Susie Angel talks about the rejection and the welcome she experienced in churches as a person with cerebral palsy. She says, "God needed me for a purpose to be the way I am, that purpose was to teach able-bodied people that it was okay to be different."

As congregational members who do not have intellectual disabilities engage week in and week out with those who do, everyone learns and grows. People have to learn how to talk with others who are much different from them. That requires everyone to take risks, to reach out to one another, to have awkward conversations that will, over time, become less awkward.

As an organization in a community, churches do the best job of knowing who currently has special needs within their congregations and often within their community.

Many people loathe December and January. Holiday parties can bring pain along with joy. People renew old tensions, unbury hatchets, and pronounce judgments on others. Perhaps even worse, some people sit home alone, uninvited to gatherings with loneliness blowing cold like a winter draft.

As I regularly assess my situation, I discover that there are lots of things I still can do. I can think, write, see, feel, touch, smell. When I look at all the possibilities, life becomes exciting again.

The novel, Divine Towels by Beau Jason McGlynn, describes a mother and son, Claire and Ethan, who are led by God to begin a healing ministry called Divine Towels. By washing the feet of those seeking to be healed God uses Claire and Ethan to effect healing.