Tag Archives: Katie Wetherbee

The Next Chapter in a Remarkable Story

Annie’s story is a great demonstration of God’s plans being fulfilled through the adversity of a disabling condition… Continue reading

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A Great Mother’s Day Gift

The pressures that kids are under in our community are incredible and unlike anything that my wife and I ever encountered growing up. It seems as if every thought, behavior and idea they encounter in school, online and with friends is at work to undermine the values we’ve sought to impart to them. I showed up for our ministry team on Wednesday in a sleep-deprived state after contemplating for much of the night whether we’d done enough to prepare them to make the right choices in the months and years ahead. As our girls have gotten older and become more private about some of the issues they deal with on a daily basis, I worry that I don’t have the relationship with them necessary to be a positive influence when they need to make difficult decisions. I also worry I haven’t done enough to promote relationships between them and other like-minded adults who can provide wisdom and reinforce our values when stuff comes up that they’re not comfortable discussing with my wife or myself. I do know that being a part of a church has helped my wife and myself to be a far more positive influence to our kids than we could have been without that experience.
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Tips for Church Staff and Volunteers Serving Kids With Asperger’s Disorder

We’ve looked at some of the common characteristics of kids with Asperger’s Disorder along with the impediments they face to spiritual growth and the obstacles parents of kids with the condition face when attempting to “do church.” Today, we’ll get very practical and explore some helpful hints for church staff and volunteers involved in serving kids with Asperger’s. Continue reading

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Autism Awareness Day 2012…Chuck and Colleen Swindoll

In honor of Autism Awareness Day, we’d like to share an interview conducted by Katie Wetherbee in which Chuck and Colleen spoke at length about the impact of Jonathan’s disability on their family, how his presence in the family has been a blessing, and how Jonathan has helped Chuck become more effective in his ministry to people with disabilities. Here’s Part One of the interview…We’ll share Part Two tomorrow.
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Posted in Autism, Families, Inclusion Fusion, Key Ministry, Spiritual Development, Stories | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Spiritual Growth Challenges for Kids With Asperger’s Disorder

We spent time this past week reviewing the criteria used to diagnose Asperger’s Disorder, and looked at some of the challenges kids with Asperger’s experience as a result of other conditions frequently associated with the disorder. Today, we’ll use this information to anticipate the obstacles to spiritual growth kids with the condition are likely to encounter.
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Top Posts From Q1 2012

I’m grateful for the interest shown in all three of our “official” Key Ministry blogs. Along with Church4EveryChild, Harmony Hensley’s blog-A Reckless Pursuit and Katie Wetherbee’s blog-Diving For Pearls have been featured on the Wordpress Blogs of the Day feature. Katie’s blog alone has had over 200,000 page views in the first quarter of 2012! Continue reading

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Rhonda Martin…Nurturing Spiritual Growth in Kids With Anxiety

Rhett Smith’s outstanding interview on his new book, The Anxious Christian, has generated lots of interest in the topic of anxiety and church. In the process of compiling resources pertaining to spiritual development and anxiety, I came across this interview that Katie Wetherbee conducted with Rhonda Martin for the 2011 Inclusion Fusion Special Needs Ministry Web Summit.
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Lessons from failure…listen to Dicky Fox

“The key to this business is personal relationships.”
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Key Ministry’s Video Training Library

In the coming weeks, we’ll be making available videos of all training presentations offered by Key Ministry staff and Board members for Inclusion Fusion and the Children’s Ministry Websummit. This is the first step in the development of a free Disability Ministry video training library that will house the archives of presentations from past Inclusion Fusion conferences…the videos from the 2011 conference will be available online following the 2012 conference. Continue reading

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Communication Breakdown…Doing Ministry Together Without Diagnostic Labels

If we decide not to use a medical-based model as a common language around which to serve kids and families in churches, we need a common language for communication with one another that can be readily understood by every staff person and every volunteer at church. I’ll argue that it’s best to to use everyday language while guided by a set of communication principles. Continue reading

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