In our 100th episode, Sandra Peoples shares three ways to increase ministry visibility on your church website. Most disability families are going to visit your church website before they visit your actual church. Does your website communicate everything they need to know for a smooth visit?
“I shared my family’s hurt and pain of feeling excluded and unaccepted by the very church that I, as its pastor, am called to love and serve. I shared offensive words shared with me regarding my autistic son’s needs. I shared how these actions created a wall between our family and the church. We felt unwelcome.” Shannon Blosser shares about church hurt, and where the church can grow.
Beth Golik and Sandra Peoples give a Disability & the Church 2024 Conference Recap that happened this past week in Orlando, FL.
Dr. Steve Grcevich sits down and interviews Dr. Lamar Hardwick on his new book How Ableism Fuels Racism. This is Part 1 of a 3-part series! Dr. Lamar Hardwick will be speaking at Disability & the Church 2024 Conference in Orlando, FL May 1-3. Go to www.keyministry.org/datc2024 to register now!
Recently, Catherine had a conversation with Dr. Jim and Heather Sells, authors of the new book “Beyond the Clinical Hour: How Counselors Can Partner with the Church to Address the Mental Health Crisis.” Jim, Heather and their co-author Dr. Amy Trout offer a valuable resource to both mental health professionals and ministry leaders as a way to meet the heartfelt mental health needs impacting both churches and our culture. Take a listen to this thought-provoking conversation.
Strength in Numbers is a slogan that not only helped create a winning culture for an NBA team, but it also echoes the message from Scripture in Ecclesiastes 4 where a “cord of three strands is not easily broken.” In this week’s episode, Garett Wall examines how strength in numbers and the cord of three can serve as the foundation for helping your church build a pathway to belonging for adults with disabilities.
As we move from a knowledge-hungry world to one saturated with information, it is more important than ever to stop teaching children lots of memorized facts—but instead, instill them with the ability to discern information with wisdom. I also believe that even children with learning challenges and disabilities can cultivate discernment, especially as we show them through our examples and teach them to lean into the Holy Spirit for help.
Life is a juggling act, and sometimes I have too many balls in the air. Sometimes, no matter how hard I try, one or more of the balls drop. By identifying which balls you can let fall, you can prioritize the breakable ones, like relationships with your spouse and kids, growing your faith, and even your mental health.
Guest bloggers Gail Averette and Sheila Sullivan share helpful tips and approaches for parents of teens and adult children with disabilities to help prevent sexual abuse. Join us on October 27 as Gail and Sheila will share tips and strategies for ministry leaders to prevent sexual abuse.
My children have autism. The children at our church are great with our kids: patient, kind, accepting and open to them. I am thankful, but—that is not enough. I want them to have authentic, organic friendships with people their own age. Here are four questions to help churches be places where the neurotypical and neurodivergent can grow together.
Parents of children with special needs are often labeled negatively: ‘troublemakers,’ ‘confrontational,’ ‘needy,’ ‘over-sharing.’ The reason we (as yes, I’m one too) can sometimes pick up some of these negative labels is that we won’t take no for an answer when it comes to our child. Why do we enter into conversations, meetings and appointments with our boxing gloves firmly on? Because the world cannot understand.
On this particular morning, several years ago, my Bible reading for the day took me to Romans 10:9-10, the Scriptures that lay out God’s path to salvation. What wasn’t so clear to me was how my son, who suffered with cognitive disabilities, would be able to meet these requirements. “How, LORD,” I asked, “is Myles gonna be able to receive salvation?”
