Mark Stephenson
After receiving an M.Div. degree, I served as pastor of two Christian Reformed churches for a total of 17 years. From 2006 through 2021, I was the Director of Disability Concerns for the Christian Reformed Church, and relish the close working relationship CRC Disability Concerns has with the Reformed Church in America Disability Concerns ministry. I have served as interim Director of the CRC's Offices of Race Relations and Social Justice since Feb 2020. My wife Bev and I have five living children, two daughters-in-law, and three grandchildren. Our oldest child, Nicole, was born extremely prematurely in the late 1980’s and lives joyfully with severe, multiple impairments. That label does not define her. She loves magazines, loves interacting with people, loves roller-coasters and wild amusement park rides, and she loves to worship and to pray with God’s people. In any group, she shares her own unique gifts.
Posted in: Parenting Children With Disabilities
Chong,
Thanks for sharing this resource. The Registered Disability Savings Plan is another program for people in Canada that people with disabilities and care givers need to learn about.
Mark
Posted in: Jesus' Disability That Came With His Incarnation
Like you, I believe that God is omniscient. However, one of the great mysteries of the incarnation is that God was able to empathize with us in a new way through the incarnation according to Hebrews 4: "14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." The word "tempted" can also be translated "tested." I find great comfort in the fact that not only does God have knowledge about us, but also God walks the path with us in the good times and the painful times. In Jesus he is Immanuel, God with us.
Posted in: Caring for Parents Who Have a Child with a Disability
Thanks for your comment. You are so right. Many kind people made it possible for my wife and me to have time just with the two of us. I assume that single parents of kids with disabilities need respite help at least as much as couples. Some families could really use assistance during worship times on Sundays too.
Sometimes, government agencies will provide funding for or will provide places for respite care. Churches can come alongside families too. Among other ideas for caring, this page on the Disability Concerns website has suggestions for setting up respite care in a congregation.
Posted in: Amazing Gifts: Stories of Faith, Disability, and Inclusion
Yes, and if I remember right, he mentions by name an RCA pastor too, Rev. Judy Broeker.
Posted in: Churches Need to Address Allergies and Sensitivities
Great point. I've heard of people who have brought their own gluten-free bread from home. It's so much better when the church leaders accommodate this need. Otherwise, if someone with problems with gluten forgets to take their own bread, they cannot participate with the others. Then communion isn't really communion.
Posted in: Universal Design in a Church Setting
Great point. And I assume that you would agree that this "push" should not just on a "Disabilty Awareness" Sunday. The principle of intentionality would also suggest that people with disabilties are invited to be involved in leadership roles, and language should be inclusive. You and I have had some discussion about that already!
Posted in: Churches Need to Address Allergies and Sensitivities
Nick, thanks. Great idea to make your own hypo-allergenic communion bread. Recipe is here, for anyone interested.
Posted in: Including People with Autism in Church Life
Hi Joy,
Let's take these in opposite order. There are many theories regarding the increase in autism diagnoses. First and most important, the rise in autism diagnoses is NOT caused by the increase in vaccination rates. The theory of vaccinations causing autism has not only been shown to be false, but also a fraud perpetrated to line the pockets of certain people. The rise in diagnoses may not indicate that any more people today have autism than, say, 100 years ago. A diagnosis uses specific criteria, and as those criteria have changed over the years, rates of diagnoses have increased. Regarding the church's response, the important thing is not so much the diagnosis, but the welcome the church gives to people who bear the image of God.
That brings me to your first comment. Yes, it's true that some people who have autism are violent. It's also true that some men are violent, and some white people are violent, and some . . . are violent. We in the church should never hold prejudice against a whole group of people because they happen to share some characteristic. Instead, the church needs to be the welcoming community it is called to be, welcoming people with autism, and men, and white people, and . . . And if some individual, whether that individual has autism, or is male, or is white, begins to engage in inappropriate behavior, the church must take steps to set boundaries, not deciding immediately that he doesn't belong, but deciding to work with him to help him learn appropriate behaviors. I've consulted with a number of congregations who have done exactly that; what a beautiful expression of the love of God for all of us! "Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved." (Eph. 2:4,5)
Posted in: Understanding Autism From the Inside
Jeanne, I praise God for the loving community at your church. From your description, it sounds like your church, this family, and this young man made decisions about his involvement in church based on his needs and his spiritual growth rather than on what people are most comfortable with. An expression of what a healthy body of Christ looks like!
Posted in: Rethinking the Church’s Social Practices
Here's a great article by someone on the autism spectrum about developing Cultural Competency in interacting with people with autism. It's the same basic idea as McNair's applied specifically to autism.
Posted in: Two Paths to Inclusion
Fronse,
Great to hear from you. I hope you are doing well.
Have you done this before? It seems that you are picturing a group of people, some disabled and some nondisabled, with the disabled people sharing their stories and the nondisabled reflecting and interacting about those stories. Do I have that right? Sounds like it would be an excellent time of learning and growth for all.
I've done this kind of interaction before in anti-racism workshops in which people of color share their stories and the people from the dominant culture (the white people) listen and interact. It was very helpful to me as a white person to listen and learn.
Mark
Posted in: Two Paths to Inclusion
So in this case, absolution would be a feeling of the listener: "I'm absolved of my participation in ableism and/or racism because I have (partially) listened to this other person." I'm hearing your say that the story sharing is more helpful in assuaging the conscience of the listener than in bringing about a deeper relationship between listeners and speaker.
Like you, I wish we could dispense with language of disabled and non-disabled. At the very least, I myself should be careful never to talk about disabled people, but instead use language like "people with disabilities." But even then, the term "disabilities" labels people resulting in "categorization and sympathy" as you say.
Loving as Christ taught us to love is so difficult. You are talking about the huge challenges in people developing real understanding of each other, and the exclusion of some people from participating "fully in human experience." But I would hope that people in churches (and society) will not say, "It's too difficult, so why try at all?" My work as director of Disability Concerns is motivated by the hope that real change for the better can happen in church communities.
Have you ever experienced a situation in which people without disabilities have experienced change in their consciousness and approach to people with disabilities? Or to put it another way, have you ever seen some barriers to participating fully in human experience broken, with greater relationship and participation as a result?
Mark