With Inclusion Fusion now scheduled to run through Monday Evening, today marks the halfway point of the conference. Here’s some stuff to check out today:

For live chat, we’re featuring Rebecca Hamilton at 10:00 AM and Rhonda Martin at 11:00 AM.

Rebecca has served as the Executive Director of Key Ministry for the last five-plus years. Her job with Key Ministry at first was primarily administrative. In 2009, the church Rebecca attends (Fellowship Bible Church in Chagrin Falls, OH) called a new senior pastor who was very committed to disability ministry…respite ministry in particular. In addition to her duties with Key Ministry, Rebecca was recruited for the leadership team of the church’s Breathe Respite ministry. The Breathe ministry is now the largest respite ministry in Key’s Cleveland area respite network. Rebecca shares her experiences and practical ideas in her presentation Starting a Respite Outreach at your Church. Rebecca and Katie Wetherbee also have an excellent presentation for Inclusion Fusion… Got the Keys? Starting Your Ministry? designed to help ministry leaders and parents being led to start new ministry initiatives in their churches.

Rhonda Martin is a Key Ministry Board member and a well-known author and speaker. After starting her career in human resources, Rhonda transitioned into counseling, and developed an expertise in treating kids and adults with anxiety disorders. She is currently in the midst of a worldwide tour promoting her most recent release Stuck, a children’s book written to help kids and families understand and seek help for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Rhonda’s Inclusion Fusion talk is on Nurturing Spiritual Growth in Kids With Anxiety. Anxiety represents a classic “hidden disability”…an emotional, behavioral, developmental or neurologic problem lacking outwardly apparent physical symptoms. Rhonda’s talk will help church leaders and parents understand ways in which having anxiety can become an impediment to church attendance and participation, and offers practical strategies to help overcome these impediments.

One last Saturday suggestion from your Program Chair…An interesting talk that would be easy to overlook but worth checking out is Ryan Edlind’s presentation Church and Mental Health…Bridging the Gap From a Leadership Perspective. Ryan is a care and support pastor at a large, non-denominational church. In his presentation, he offers a primer explaining church politics for parents and leaders seeking to start special needs ministries, and offers some practical ideas useful for anyone seeking to launch new ministry initiatives through their local churches.

If there are folks you see at church tomorrow, feel free to invite them to check out the conference, since we’re now running through Monday night. Also, if you have ideas about speakers or topics or general comments about Inclusion Fusion, feel free to e-mail me at: steve@keyministry.org, or respond in the comments section below.

Hope you’re enjoying the conference!

INCLUSION FUSION NOW EXTENDED THROUGH MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7th! Chuck Swindoll and more than twenty-five ministry leaders are coming together on November 3rd-7th as part of a Special Needs Ministry Web Summit for church staff, volunteers, family members and caregivers everywhere. Inclusion Fusion is a Key Ministry event, presented FREE OF CHARGE with the support of Pajama Conference. Register here  for the Summit!