I’m looking forward to seeing some old friends…and meeting new ones at the Faith and Disability Symposium, scheduled for Saturday, October 13th at St. Peter’s United Methodist Church in Katy, TX.

The conference keynote speaker will be Arland Nichols, National Director of Human Life International America. Denise Briley, well-known author, speaker and Director of Special Needs Ministry at First Baptist Church in Houston will also be speaking, along with a number of highly regarded speakers from across Texas.

I’ll be doing two different presentations at the conference…Barriers to Spiritual Growth in Kids and Teens With Mental Disorders and Including Kids at Church Who Behave Aggressively. In the first presentation, I’ll discuss obstacles to spiritual maturity resulting from the functional impairment associated with common mental health disorders seen during childhood and adolescence and outline strategies for promoting inclusion at church and spiritual growth at home. In the second presentation, I’ll seek to help churches include as many families as possible by establishing ministry environments that minimize risk factors contributing to aggressive behavior, offering strategies for church staff and volunteers who interact with kids at risk of behaving aggressively and identifying strategies for ministering to families when a child presents too great a risk of aggressive behavior to be safely included in church programming.

Here’s a link to the complete program for the conference, and here’s a link to register.

Hope to see you in Katy, TX for the Faith and Disability Symposium on Saturday, October 13th!

Key Ministry is coming up on our tenth anniversary, but churches and families everywhere will be getting the presents. Stay tuned for a big announcement on Tuesday, September 4th.