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Category Archives: Families
Mental health recovery and the role of the church…Joe Padilla
If you approach your pastor by saying you want to “start a ministry for mental illness,” they immediately start thinking: money, people (leaders), building space, and then they are naturally flooded with “stigma” concerns regarding liability (remember they do not have a full understanding … yet).
We need to take a different approach that doesn’t overwhelm the pastor. Instead, let’s invite them into a new process of understanding and the implementation of practical support that will not overwhelm church resources. Continue reading
To love adoptive and foster families, (5) be willing to listen and learn.
Listen to the challenges we encounter as adoptive and foster families, such as being conspicuous in public due to adopting or fostering a child of a different race, considering dissolution or disruption of a child’s placement within our family in favor of another family who might be better equipped to meet the child’s needs, losing friends or family who don’t agree with our choice to adopt or foster, and struggling with the special needs of our child, whether known before placement or presenting as a surprise post-placement. Continue reading
A small church doing big things…Ellen Stumbo
If a mom is sitting in the foyer with a child, we make sure that mom is not sitting on her own, because what is the point of going to church if you sit alone in the foyer trying to keep your child calm from the overwhelming stimulation of church? Sometimes, some of the best conversations happen in the foyer, or walking around the church parking lot pushing wheelchairs. Continue reading
Posted in Families, Inclusion, Inclusion Fusion, Key Ministry, Ministry Environments, Strategies
Tagged Disability Matters, Disability Ministry, doing life together, Ellen Stumbo, Inclusion Fusion 2014, Key Ministry, microchurch, Orchard View Alliance Church, organic, sensory rooms, Why Disability Matters
3 Comments
The responsibilities of church leaders who promote adoption
I’d like to challenge church leaders to assume responsibility for supporting their families when they pursue adoption ministry. Continue reading
Posted in Adoption, Families, Foster Care, Key Ministry, Strategies
Tagged Adoption, church leaders, churches, Foster Care, Inclusion, Orphan Sunday, pastors, responsibility, trauma, trauma-informed
4 Comments
To love adoptive and foster families, (4) let our kids be kids…
But they are kids, first and foremost. Welcome them as you would any other child. Work with their parents or guardians to figure out how to include them well.
Continue reading
To love adoptive and foster families, (3) partner with us…
So it makes sense that one way to love the adoptive and foster families in your church is to partner with us. In many ways, this looks just like family ministry does for everyone else. Continue reading
Five ways the church can love their adoptive and foster families
When their parents are being elevated with comments about what a great thing they did, then those children may feel like they are less deserving of their families than a biological child might be. Continue reading
Are parents of kids with ADHD stigmatized at church?
Would it make more sense to err on the side of grace in how we view families of kids with ADHD, at least until we know them well enough to feel we could walk in their shoes? Continue reading
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