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.
“I am disabled. For years that was so hard to admit. I couldn’t mention out loud my neurodivergence. I whispered about my post-traumatic stress disorder, insisting ‘I’m better now.’ I was a champion for the disabled who didn’t want to talk about her own disabilities. It was disingenuous, but I didn’t know how to come to terms with the fact that I was disabled. I was still scared that admitting my disability publicly would convince people I was not able to do anything.” Joanna French writes on her experience with disability.
Beth sits down with the always delightful Marie Kuck, who has a special invitation for our listeners for a behind-the-scenes tour of Make ‘m Smile in Orlando.
In today's episode, Sandra chats with Tracy McElhattan, PhD about how to apply universal design for learning principles to our children's ministry classes so everyone is included and engaged!
Mark Arnold belongs to the Disabled Children’s Partnership, a UK-based organization that recently released the results of a series of surveys of UK families with children and young people with disabilities. The results are stark: the impact of the 18-months of the COVID-19 pandemic has been harrowing.
I still remember waking up in the hospital, surrounded by about a half dozen men and women in white lab coats. They were all just looking at me, like I was a new species or a classroom exhibit. With this and many related experiences, all this time later, I routinely follow a thoughtful process, researching potential supplements, medications and alternatives to medicine, whenever my doctor makes a recommendation, and that includes vaccines. COVID vaccines are no different.
A few months ago, Barna Group released a book titled Restoring Relationships that looks at their research on the challenges individuals and couples are experiencing with mental, emotional, and relational health, and how the church could help. Updated for the impacts of COVID-19, the research also looked at pastors’ mental health. But the most important question of all, which can help inform ministry for 2021, may be this: do people still feel connected during the pandemic?
Many of the concepts that the general population have experienced for the first time in 2020 are all too familiar to some in the disability community. The new reality that many of us are experiencing for the first time is all too familiar for many families living with disabilities who face manifold barriers to leave their home on a typical day. So what if we took this opportunity to re-imagine a church that was accessible to 100% of people—rather than just the 85% who don’t live with disabilities?
I’m willing to guess that everyone on the planet has experienced life off kilter in some way this year. Wow! 2020! A year we won’t easily forget. Life right now is hard for so many, feeling messy and downright immobilizing. There’s much confusion and unrest in the world today. What do we do? What do we believe?
One of the challenges I constantly face is change. Change means that the old way is no longer working. Change means that a new way is begging for opportunity. I can’t but help to think that with all the changes we are being forced into making in our churches, the way that we worship God must be at the very top of the list of changes that we are seeking to make.
