We’re introducing our readers to different people God is lifting up as part of a larger movement within the church to welcome and include persons with disabilities in our weekend blog series Faces of the Movement. This week, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to one of the most interesting leaders you’ll meet anywhere in the church.

Carlyle King describes himself as a Christian with Asperger’s Syndrome. In his own words, Carlyle’s ministry seeks to “help other Christians better understand Asperger’s syndrome and welcome those who have it into their churches, their ministries, and especially their hearts”. Carlyle connected with our team a couple of years ago. As our staff partnered with Carlyle, I can truly say that no one else we’ve ever worked with has ever been held in higher esteem by our team than Carlyle.

I hadn’t heard from Carlyle in many months. He posted on my Facebook wall yesterday in response to my blog post earlier this week on Lifeway’s research related to attitudes about mental illness in the church. He’s been a tireless advocate for inclusion of everyone with special needs in the church. Here’s something Carlyle graciously allowed be to share from his ministry blog, One Odd Duck, which I very much encourage our readers to check out. This post was entitled A Confession and a Challenge to My Fellow Christians…

I have a confession to make. I haven’t written anything here in quite a while, but not because of a lack of ideas. It’s because I’ve been struggling with some of the same junk I’ve struggled with my entire life. Like most aspies, I’m well aware that I’m different from most other people. Even if I were unable to observe for myself that there are differences, people often point them out to me. I have often thought that I simply do not fit anywhere, and because I do not fit, there is no place for me. Because there is no place for me, I should not exist. I have been thinking up ways to end my existence since before I was a teenager.

I have been wrong.

In 1 Corinthians 12:12-20, the Bible tells me:

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body— Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

It is true that I do not function like most of the people around me, but neither does the nose function like any other body part. The conclusion that I do not fit does not follow from the premise that I function differently. I confess that I was wrong to walk away from the body as a young man, but I realized that and I am back. However, I know that I’m not the only one that left because of feeling different. Many have even been asked to change or leave. Continuing in 1 Corinthians 12, we read:

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

My challenge to my fellow Christians is this: Reach out and reconnect with our missing parts. Help them find that place where they honor God by functioning as they were made. Recognize that, if they don’t seem to fit, you may be the part needing adjustment. I invite you to learn more at http://www.keyministry.org/.

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Key Ministry’s mission is to help churches reach families affected by disability by providing FREE resources to pastors, volunteers, and individuals who wish to create an inclusive ministry environment. We have designed our Key Catalog to create fun opportunities for our ministry supporters to join in our mission through supporting a variety of gift options. Click here to check it out! For a sixty second summary of what Key Ministry does, watch the video below…