Tag Archives: Key Ministry

Hidden Disabilities and Promotion Sunday

Kids with hidden disabilities and their families may not look forward to these transitions with the same anticipation as their peers at church. Transition times all too often result in kids and families falling away from church programming. With a little understanding of the ways in which transitions may impact kids with specific disabilities and some advance planning, church staff, volunteers and parents can help most have positive experiences as they progress into their age-appropriate ministry environments with the onset of the new program year.
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Collaboration in the Special Needs/Disability Ministry Movement

From my read of the Bible, we were designed by God to collaborate with one another in our worship and service. No one has all the gifts. Everyone has some gifts. The gifts and talents of God’s people were designed to work in concert with one another. It never made sense to anyone at Key Ministry to build our organization around a single leader or personality because such approaches seemed to run counter to God’s design.
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Inclusion Fusion…Call for Presentations

We’re delighted to offer the opportunity to participate as a faculty member to any member of our larger family in Christ with resources or wisdom to share to help us more effectively serve families of persons with special needs. After all, doesn’t that reflect what it means to be inclusive? Continue reading

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Final Key Ministry Lineup…Bioethics Conference and Through The Roof Summit

Our team is honored to participate in the Bioethics Conference and Through The Roof Summit at Cedarville University on September 15-17, co-sponsored by Joni and Friends. Here’s the final lineup of presentations from Key Ministry staff and volunteers: Continue reading

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Stuck…by Rhonda Martin

Rhonda Martin’s new book, Stuck, is an invaluable resource for kids with OCD and their families because it helps kids and parents to recognize that others experience similar types distressing thoughts, irrational fears and compulsive behaviors. The ability to attach a name to symptoms is often the first step in the process of seeking help. The kids I see in my practice have often suffered in silence for years. The availability of Stuck will undoubtedly result in thousands of kids and families seeking help who wouldn’t have otherwise experienced relief from a condition that prevents them from becoming the people God created them to be. Continue reading

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What Happens After the Benediction?

So much of what we at Key Ministry, along with other special needs ministry leaders focus on is creating welcoming and inclusive environments to help families be able to attend church. But how do we come beside families of kids with disabilities and “do life” with them after the connection has been made and the families we serve are now part of our church?
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How I let my team down…The key ingredient

Maybe if I learn my lesson more quickly and pray and the first sign of adversity as opposed to plan, I’ll spare my team too many more humbling experiences. Continue reading

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Harmony Hensley: God’s Grace in the Voice Mail

I listened to the message again and just smiled. I was reminded that sometimes in ministry we get so caught up in the litany of tasks and events that we execute that we lose sight of the real impact they have on those we serve. The Prom isn’t just a party. It’s a night where the playing field is level, the kingdom advances, and a people who have been marginalized and often forgotten are celebrated. So it only makes sense that our friends would begin counting down the days for their next dance the moment the DJ stops the music. They thirst for the same thing you and I do – to belong. Continue reading

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Information Overload

One of the downsides of this proliferation of ministry content and resources is the danger that ministries can get into an escalating “arms race” in which leaders feel they need to promote more and more content in overlapping social networks in an effort to be heard above the “noise” caused by the volume of social media available. There’s also a risk of churches and parents who want to start ministry initiatives becoming paralyzed by the range of resources available to them through what’s referred to as choice overload theory. I think it’s also easy for ministry leaders to get so caught up in keeping up with social media and measuring success in terms of Facebook fans, Twitter followers and website hits that we lose sight of the ultimate goal…sharing God’s love with the people around us in such a way that those people are drawn to Jesus. Continue reading

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Defining Moments

These experiences have been instructive. I’ve felt like an outsider looking in. I think that feeling is similar to the experience I’ve heard from many parents of kids with disabilities who’ve wanted to get more involved at church but describe the sense of being an outsider whose presence is an intrusion into the ways that things have always been done. Continue reading

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