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Category Archives: Ministry Environments
Mike Woods: So I Send You…Missional Special Needs Ministry
The first phase of a missional special needs ministry must be a willingness for us to move out—to simply make a decision to go to the people that we want to serve, wherever that might be. For most of us, what is required to engage in missional special needs ministry is to rely on the Holy Spirit to give us the desire to reach out to others, to take a risk and get involved in what God is already doing in our disability communities. Continue reading
What if a parent ALSO has mental health issues?
When we’re talking about kids experiencing mental health concerns that keep them from church, there’s a reasonable possibility that their mother or father experienced or continue to experience similar difficulties that kept them from attending church. Continue reading
Kids don’t want to be seen as “different”
The best possible solutions for including kids with mental illness at church would include those offering potential benefits to all children and families without drawing attention to any particular child, those that help kids to prepare privately for participation in church activities outside the scrutiny of peers and solutions that offer necessary supports without requiring children or families to self-identify in order to receive help. Continue reading
Barriers to inclusion…What if nobody knows the kid needs help?
Our existing disability ministries typically do a very good job of meeting the needs of families of children easily identifiable physical disabilities, or obvious weaknesses weaknesses in intellectual capacity or adaptive functioning. But what happens when the disability isn’t so obvious? Continue reading
Sensory processing as a barrier to “doing church”
Ministry environments that some kids find engaging may be experienced as noxious by children with heightened reactivity to sensory stimulation. Let’s consider the range of potential situations that would present challenges to families of kids with sensory processing difficulties. Continue reading
“Doing church” when kids struggle with social communication…
Let’s consider the challenges a kid would experience who has difficulty picking up on body language or the meaning behind the tone and inflection of speech if their parents decided to start attending your church. Continue reading
Posted in Autism, Families, Hidden Disabilities, Inclusion, Key Ministry, Ministry Environments, Spiritual Development
Tagged Autism Spectrum Disorders, children's ministry, church, Disability Ministry, Family Ministry, Inclusion, Key Ministry, Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder, social communication, youth ministry
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The Mission Field Next Door: Mark 2:1-12
When was the last time you took a chance in order to introduce a friend or a neighbor to Jesus? After all, we understand the stakes to be a lot higher. The friends were seeking to relieve their friend from the burden of ten or twenty years of paralysis. We who call ourselves Christians know the stakes are MUCH greater. Eternity is on the line! Continue reading
Key Strategy #6…Leveraging technology to maximize our impact
The greatest obstacle we face in sharing the Gospel with kids with disabilities and their families rests in the challenges presented by the environments in which we worship and do much of what we refer to as “ministry.” Our newfound ability to connect with people anywhere, at any time provides us with a tool to bridge the barriers that currently exist at church for kids who process sensory information differently, evaluate risk differently and maintain self control differently than kids considered more “typical.” Continue reading
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