Have you ever caught yourself saying "it takes a special person" when it comes to loving and serving those with disabilities? While the intention is pure, we uncover the inadvertent barriers these words may create within our church communities. Join me, Tracie Corll, as I delve into the transformative journey of embracing all of God's children, disabilities, and all, in our ministries and daily lives. No special skills are required to extend a hand of kindness and hospitality; it's about finding common ground through our Creator and answering the universal call to love one another.
This episode is an invitation to venture beyond the church doors and into the world, where everyday encounters become divine appointments to connect with individuals with disabilities. The same sensitivity and understanding we naturally offer to children can open the door to richer, more inclusive interactions with everyone we meet. I share the compelling revelation that getting to know the lives of those with disabilities not only enriches our own but strengthens the fabric of our community. So let's rally together, equipped with Christ's love, to inspire a passion for outreach and celebrate the unique gifts everyone brings to the table.
Have you ever caught yourself saying "it takes a special person" when it comes to loving and serving those with disabilities? While the intention is pure, we uncover the inadvertent barriers these words may create within our church communities. Join me, Tracie Corll, as I delve into the transformative journey of embracing all of God's children, disabilities, and all, in our ministries and daily lives. No special skills are required to extend a hand of kindness and hospitality; it's about finding common ground through our Creator and answering the universal call to love one another.
This episode is an invitation to venture beyond the church doors and into the world, where everyday encounters become divine appointments to connect with individuals with disabilities. The same sensitivity and understanding we naturally offer to children can open the door to richer, more inclusive interactions with everyone we meet. I share the compelling revelation that getting to know the lives of those with disabilities not only enriches our own but strengthens the fabric of our community. So let's rally together, equipped with Christ's love, to inspire a passion for outreach and celebrate the unique gifts everyone brings to the table.
Speaker 2:
Hi, my name is Tracy Corral 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, grow in Him and serve.
Speaker 1:
Him with the gifts that he has given, no matter their ability.
Speaker 2:
Over 65 million Americans have a disability. That's 25% of the population.
Speaker 1:
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.
Speaker 2:
Hey, hey, welcome to this episode of Indispensable People. I'm so glad that you have joined me and I am ready to share with you about some of my least favorite statements. Well, some of my least favorite statements. I know that's a weird way to start out, but sometimes we, as Christians, believers, we tend to hang our hats on some good old statements that have been said for years and years, and some of them ring true and they have roots in scripture and basis that we can stand on, but some have been used to some degree as an excuse. So let's just get into it. What does that actually mean? Well, let's get to the first one, which is probably the one with the least basis scriptural basis that you could find. So, one of the things I've actually mentioned it before and in other podcasts and it's to say this statement that it takes a special person. Now, I always try to think about where a person's coming from and what their knowledge base is. I don't think anybody really sets out to purposefully hurt or harm people with the comments that you say. And when we say it takes a special person, now that is usually meant to be a compliment in the way of saying listen, the love and care that you share to people with disabilities is absolutely incredible, and I don't feel adequate enough to serve like you do. And that doesn't sound terrible, right, that isn't the end of the world, that isn't awful, but here's where the thinking takes a turn. But here's where the thinking takes a turn. The thinking takes a turn at the place where we use that as an excuse not to attempt to love, care and include people with disabilities. You see, if you stand on the fact that, well, I don't feel adequate enough, so I'm just not going to attempt, that's really not okay. It's kind of like when you meet someone for the first time, if they extended their hand to shake hands with you and you're like I don't know, don't feel real comfortable, so I'm just not going to, I'm going to turn the other way, walk away, because you know what? I'm not real sure how to shake their hand. I don't know how they would feel about me trying to shake their hand. There's just like a layer of just kind of a cop-out to a degree whenever it comes to that statement. So what we want people to mean by it is exactly what we said at first. Listen, you do a really great job serving other individuals with disabilities, and I am not at that place where you are. But here's the change. Here's the change.
Speaker 2:
I love Jesus, I follow God and he calls me to love all people. And if he calls me to love all people, that includes people who are different than me, who are maybe challenging to interact socially with, who maybe I just don't feel comfortable with because they're not exactly like me or they're not similar to me, or maybe we can't find a specific common ground. However, you can find common ground because of your Lord and your Savior that you serve, your Lord and your Savior that you serve. If you love him, then you can love his people, because that's your common ground. God is the creator, god is the designer. He has woven them together, he has formed them like the potter forms the clay, and he has done the same for you. And because he has created you, we can then assume and created them, we can make the assumption that he has a plan and a purpose for their life, and he has a plan and a purpose for your life. So your common ground is much more easily found than may be otherwise perceived. So taking the steps to love God's people, regardless of their ability or disability doesn't take a special knowledge, it doesn't take an education, it doesn't take training to just extend your hand and greet someone. Now that doesn't mean that if you choose to be a part of disability ministry or a special needs ministry, whatever the form that looks like, that you can't learn more and that you can't grow in your ability to better serve those individuals your ability to better serve those individuals. But you don't have to have training to share the love of Jesus, to say hello, to include someone or to help them to feel comfortable in your presence. That just comes with being a human being and showing love, kindness and welcoming other people outside of yourself.
Speaker 2:
Now the next statement that I want to share with you. That is definitely not my favorite, but I have come to look at it in a different light recently. Obviously, as I do disability ministry in all different kinds of ways and find different things and different events to outreaches that open the door to inviting people with disabilities in our church, I need volunteers. There's no way that I can do this ministry on my own, and so I rely heavily on the people in my church and those surrounding that love Jesus with all their hearts so that they can share that love with other people, and a lot of any of you.
Speaker 2:
If you are actually in ministry of any sort, whether you're leading or volunteering, and you have wanted to get other people involved, the best way to ask them is face-to-face right. We can stand on our platforms and we can invite them to do ministry with us. But honestly, a lot of what I do is just really seeing who does what and how they do it and trying to get to know them and just kind of finding their sweet spot in ministry. And some people easily recognize that. Some people aren't sure what that looks like or how that can happen, and so finding that person. Sometimes they don't recognize it themselves and so it might come as a little surprise or a shock to them that they would fit within that ministry. And here's the thing Again, we go back to loving people with the love of Christ and that doesn't take any special place thing that actually is required. That's scriptural right. So when I approach people and I say, hey, listen, I've seen how you interact or how you do this or how you do that and I would really love to have you as a part of our ministry, and that can look in several different ways and we've had people on board into disability ministry by running the computer, by serving food. They don't necessarily start and go direct right to being a buddy or serving one-on-one with an individual with disability. But there's all different kinds of ways and, honestly, we start in their comfort zone and then, little by little, we help them to discover their abilities by, you know, pushing them a little bit, taking that next step into that next piece of ministry. But I also respect people and know that everybody has limits and what they prefer and don't prefer.
Speaker 2:
But here is a statement that I came across last week. I was reading a blog post by Ellen Stumbo and she writes all different things about disability and ministry and she has a lot of really great ideas. And so this is what it said. These are her exact words. It says in Christian circles we talk about being called. Now I know being called can be an excuse not to care. I had a wrong way of thinking. Why did I ever believe I was exempt from caring about a certain group of people? Why did I ever believe I was exempt from caring about a certain group of people? Perhaps it was because I once thought that caring was a result of calling, but caring is a result of loving, and we need to learn what it means to love. Let's make one thing clear Jesus called us to love our neighbors as ourselves. I haven't found any place in the Bible where there are stipulations or restrictions as to who we get to care about and love, and that's her quote. I absolutely love that.
Speaker 2:
Now she was writing this in a perspective of becoming a parent of a child with special needs, and it had never been on her, the forefront of her thought process, or reaching out or serving or considering, and she based it on well, that's not my calling. And then was able to realize that, listen, I'm called to love, I'm called to care for people and that is whoever God puts in my path, and I'm not going to use the excuse of I'm not called to that people. Listen, I am a pastor, a missionary, I work in a school. I do lots of different things, but I don't seclude myself to only that. Next week I am going to go and help out at a youth event for the state of Ohio. That isn't because I'm specifically called to youth or not called to youth. I saw a need, I was available and I offered to help. In my family we have used the term before. If you see a need, fill it. That doesn't mean that you should reach out and do everything and burn yourself out and, you know, be irresponsible with the time that God has given you. But that does mean that if God has given you an appointment okay, a divine appointment, he has brought someone in your path. You don't just look at them and think to yourself well, listen, I'm not called to that set of people, so I'm not going to give them my time, I'm not going to invest in figuring this out.
Speaker 2:
We've talked about disability ministry, from the speaking about, from the parking lot to the altar, because disability ministry happens in every aspect of the church. Who volunteers to greet people on Sunday mornings at the church for them to say I don't need to know anything about people with disabilities? That's not my calling, that's not where I'm at. The problem is is that you're called to people and you encounter people in all different places of the church. So is it beneficial for you to make an effort to get to know how to interact, how to feel more comfortable around that group of people, how to be intentional and inclusive, to take things outside of yourself into consideration when you're greeting that person, when you're interacting with that person, all of those kinds of things.
Speaker 2:
So really, what this boils down to is a couple things. One, we're called to all people in the sense that we're going to be at the grocery store, we're going to be out at a restaurant, any kinds of things like that that aren't in the walls of our church where you take a volunteer leadership position that God gives divine appointments for us to interact with others, and being able to do that in an efficient way that makes other people feel comfortable is really, really important. Just like you know, you wouldn't have a superior intellectual conversation with a three-year-old. That's not how you would interact with that. Now it's just more common to know how to interact with a three-year-old because many of us have been parents or siblings or something like that. That makes that a more natural place.
Speaker 2:
So reaching out and being a part of other people and their lives is simply easier when we know about their lives, and so making an effort to get to know about people with disabilities will only help in every other area of your life and help you in those divine appointments that God has given so that people can know Christ, can know his people and know how they love and that God's love is even bigger and better than theirs. So we can't make excuses, we can't say we're not called, we can't say that you know, that takes special people. No, it takes God's people. It takes the love of Christ to love others. So I challenge you and the people that you're around love God's people, no matter their ability or disability.
Speaker 1:
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, grow in Him and serve Him with the gifts that he has given them. Bye.
