Building Bridges to Faith: From the Parking Lot to the Altar

Embark on a journey with me, Tracie Corll, as we uncover the heart of what it means to create a truly inclusive church community, embracing individuals with disabilities from the parking lot right through to the altar. This episode of Indispensable People is a heartfelt exploration of the transformative power of disability ministry and the subtle yet significant changes that can make a world of difference. We delve into the nitty-gritty of specialized parking and the finesse of training parking lot teams, ensuring a seamless and dignified experience for all congregants. It's not merely about fulfilling a checklist; it's about cultivating a culture that honors every person's inherent value and nurtures their unique gifts.

Join us as we navigate the delicate balance between accommodating essential needs and respecting personal preferences within the church setting. I'll share insights on fostering a holistic environment that truly reflects the image of God in each member of the congregation. This isn't just a conversation about accessibility—it's a call to action for continuous learning, compassion, and the utilization of every individual's talents in service. Let's lift the veil on the misconceptions and biases that can inadvertently isolate our brothers and sisters with disabilities and stride forward into a future where faith and inclusion walk hand in hand.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Hi, my name is Tracy Coral and welcome to Indispensable People. I'm a wife, mom, teacher, pastor and missionary, and I believe that every person should have the opportunity to know Christ, row in Him and serve Him with the gifts that he has given, no matter their ability. Over 65 million Americans have a disability. That's 25% of the population. However, over 80% of them are not inside the walls of our church. Let's dive into those hard topics biblical foundations, perceptions and world-changing ideas. Welcome to episode 24 of Indispensable People, and today we're going to be talking about disability ministry from the parking lot to the altar, because, let's be honest, there's so much more than a special needs room that has to happen for a church to be effective at ministering to people with disabilities.

Speaker 1: 1:09

Just recently I was reading an article by Ability Ministry of the top four reasons not to have a disability ministry. You're right, it's one of those semi-starkastic articles that kind of help put some checks and questions in balance so that we can determine whether or not we are in line with what we need to be. So first it said don't start a disability ministry if you don't understand being made in the image of God. Don't build a disability ministry. Don't start a disability ministry if you want to flex your moral superior over your community. You know we're reaching out to these people, so we're better. Another one was that you think you already know what people with disabilities need. And last this is the one I kind of want to focus on today it says don't start a disability ministry if you are unwilling to change your church culture. In addition to that, a few weeks ago I came across a statement and I wish I knew who I could credit the author to, but I don't and it says are you willing to replace an entire idea, even if you thought it was a great one, if it alienates someone with a disability? Why is this important? Well, we strategically plan things in our church. We put things together, we make some plans and decisions based on kind of the general population. So you'll hear things in different churches where they refer to oh, we're an older congregation or we have a lot of new young families or whatever, and a lot of times the churches will make decisions based on that.

Speaker 1: 3:18

But here's the thing who is more flexible in the way that we do things? Is it people with disabilities or people without disabilities? Listen, if I am a wheelchair user, if there is not a ramp or an accessible way. No matter how flexible my personality may be, I still can't get in the door if you don't have a ramp or some kind of accessibility. If I feel and hear things to a more intense depth than you, it isn't a preference of how I like the worship to sound. It is honestly my body's reaction to something of the sound, whether it's loud, whatever. So I guess what I'm trying to say is our general population can be more flexible in their preferences, because that's what it is, a preference. However, individuals with disabilities, this is not a preference. This is their life.

Speaker 1: 4:41

So when we take into consideration opening our doors to families and saying we want to be disability-friendly, we want to make people know that they are welcome and they are valued inside the doors of our church. Listen, we have to go outside of the door to start in the parking lot. Do we have specific parking spots for our families? Does our parking lot team have disability ministry training? Have they been through some disability awareness things? Do they know what is appropriate in assisting someone in through the doors? Do they know how to offer help instead of immediately think that they need to just give it? There are lots of different things that start from the moment they open their car door, and so I guess what I wanted to do was open the conversation that, listen, you can have a special needs room inside your church. That's the only thing you're doing.

Speaker 1: 5:52

It is very likely that you are going to alienate some families, and not on purpose, right? None of that is on purpose. It is honestly just because of this sounds like a more harsh word than it is but ignorance, right, in the sense that we just didn't know. It's not something you were taught about, it's not something that you had specifically taken the time to learn about or to consider. And that doesn't mean that they're bad people or that you're a bad person. It doesn't mean any of that. It just means it's something that you need to learn about.

Speaker 1: 6:32

So when we're serving these families and individuals with disabilities of all kinds, we have lots to consider. It's not just the accessibility, but it's also are we asking kids with sensory processing to enter into very, very busy, noisy areas when they first go to their special needs class? That's going to make a very big difference for those families and how the transition from outside to inside go. Also, do we have a buddy team and things ready so that if we have a new family attending that we can jump right into action in helping? Do we take the time to get to know those families? Do we invite them out for coffee or ask them to come to the church to have you know, just a chat in a very non-threatening way like, hey, I just wanna get to know you, and through that can we get to know their needs? There's a lot of options and things to do that we can make available. Also, do we have an understanding that, okay, once we get through the parking lot and we get in through the doors, back it up a bit before we even get to check in or buddies or anything like that? What about our greeters at the door? Is a greeter at the door unaware of individuals with special needs, thinks that they understand the situation and then speaks to an adult with disabilities like a child? That is something that can be taught or trained or helped to understand.

Speaker 1: 8:23

Again, it's not done purposely. It's not done to harm or to hurt anyone, but it is an opportunity to learn that. The Bible tells us that we were created in the image of God, that he has a plan and a purpose for our lives, and that's the same for every single person. There's no asterisk in the Bible that says except for, which means I am no less than the next person and the next person is no less than me, and that is not dependent upon their abilities. We are worth and our value comes from our creator and he is unchanging. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, and he didn't get tired on the day he created someone with a disability. Our God is sovereign. There is nothing that happens that he is not aware of, and that means that there is no person that is less than so.

Speaker 1: 9:22

We don't need to speak down to an adult with disabilities, with an intellectual disability, in the assumption that that's their intellectual capacity. And even if their intellectual capacity is that of a child doesn't mean that we need to speak to them like a child. We just speak to them like we would any other adult. The only thing that's going to change in those respects is the complexity in which we have those conversations. The next thing we wanna consider is how much we are educating the church as a whole. Are we doing maybe a highlight on disability ministry, maybe once or twice a year, where we help people understand the church and the background and the goals and the programs that we're trying to put forth. Do we share testimonies and things about our families that we're serving that help our congregation know and understand and have an awareness so that when someone comes into the church it's not foreign to them. So let me help you to understand why it is so important that the church as a whole has an understanding, that there is some disability awareness there, that some disability etiquette is available and specifically taught.

Speaker 1: 10:54

Here's the thing. Have you ever seen a meme on Facebook or something on Instagram that kind of refers to? You know, everybody has a story. There's a story behind the story. Right, I didn't wake up this morning and be cranky for no reason or, you know, maybe the reaction to certain things is because of some past reason. Right, there's a story and there's a purpose, and a lot of times kids, teens, get this kind of thought process that they're just misbehaved. Now this comes a lot with invisible disabilities, so things that people can't just see and know offhand that that person has a disability.

Speaker 1: 11:44

And I can tell you that I have that experience as a mom where my son attended a preschool who tried to do everything possible to serve him well and he had finally received an IEP and the itinerant teacher who was supposed to come and serve his IEP and help the preschool teacher learn how to best help him, told the preschool teacher listen, this child is the way that he is because of the way his parents raised him. So right there, tell him that he's a preschool teacher and right there, tells you how that individual is likely to treat my son. They think it's a behavior problem, something that he can control, and that he's just been taught negative things or allowed negative behavior his whole life. However, again, remembering that people with disabilities, that flexibility that someone who is typical in development that they have, as opposed to the flexibility that someone with a disability doesn't have, because it's not preference, it's literally something that they are dealing with, working through, trying to cope with. So if my son was that way because of poor parenting, then you would assume that some better parenting strategies would change or fix his behavior. Now, that doesn't mean that individuals with disabilities don't have behavioral things that they can learn and that they can deal with, and that some kinds of behaviors come from parenting and other things like that. That is.

Speaker 1: 13:42

I'm not saying that that's not possible. What I'm saying is our approach and our understanding needs to come from a place of compassion. It needs to come from a place of understanding. It needs to not land in kind of the old school thinking, where I've actually had someone say to me that those kids, they just need a good swift kick in the pants, as opposed to let's give them support. And so I'll give you one other example.

Speaker 1: 14:16

Quite a few years ago, a young lady attended our church and she was unable to attend the regular kids services due to her disability, and so she mainly stayed in the special needs room with buddies, and one thing that the buddies were able to know is that she very, very much enjoyed worship. However, she would not go into the kids room it was just too chaotic for her but she would go into the adult worship. Well, the behavior that she exhibited while she was in there was jumping up and down and sounds and things like that, but that was her way of worshiping. Now, if I was an individual who had no understanding of people with disabilities and I saw that, I might think well, that's not appropriate or that might be disruptive, or those kinds of things. Now, if we're educating our congregations, we're helping them to know and understand that, yes, there are people who do things in different ways. Yes, they look different than yours, and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. We don't have to look at them differently. We can be excited in the fact that they've found a way to worship that works for them.

Speaker 1: 15:45

I'm not sure if you're noticing a theme through this and I really actually didn't do this on purpose but the theme really is educate, and that doesn't mean long intensive classes, that doesn't mean you know college courses or anything like that, but it's avenues of opening the door to understanding, helping people to maybe change some perceptions that they might have had.

Speaker 1: 16:14

But the more we know that reminds me of a kid when I would watch my PBS shows the more you know, or was that? Oh, that might have been a different station, but anyway, the more we know, the better we can understand, the more compassion that we can have, the more understanding that we can approach an individual with. And that's what I'm talking about when we talk about serving people from the parking lot to the altar and everywhere in between. It needs to exist, because people exist in all of those places and the families that may walk inside your door, whether they're kids, teens or adults, have had experience of non acceptance, non value, being isolated, shunned in some situations, and so it won't take much for them to feel as though they are not wanted and they are not valued, and those families could very easily turn around and go right back out the door.

Speaker 1: 17:26

Now I don't want to put the weight of someone's salvation on a welcome, a hello, a door opening or not, but what I want to say is let's be prepared, let's do all that we can do to make sure that all people feel welcomed From the parking lot to the altar, because that is what makes the gospel accessible. Do I know everything about disability ministry? Do I have all the answers? Have I done everything perfectly? I've absolutely not, but we are going to continue this conversation so that people of all abilities can have the opportunity to know Christ, to grow in him and serve him with the gifts that he has given them.