Celebrating the Transformative Journey of Worship for Individuals with Disabilities

Imagine the sheer joy of seeing someone, who once hesitated at the church doors, now stepping forward to wholeheartedly engage in worship. That's exactly the kind of transformation we witnessed during a recent respite night at my local church, and it's a story I'm thrilled to share with you on this episode of Indispensable People. Our ministry goes beyond just providing a safe haven for individuals with disabilities; it's about creating an environment where their spiritual growth is nurtured and their unique gifts are celebrated. I invite you to experience the profound impact of these moments and discover how we're making the gospel accessible to every soul.

In our heartfelt discussion, we delve into the essence of patience, persistence, and the importance of living life alongside those with disabilities with the same fervor with which we pursue our own spiritual journeys. Christian hospitality takes center stage as we explore how to include those who are often overlooked, ensuring that they too have the chance to know, grow, and serve Christ using their unique gifts. Join me, Tracie Corll, and be inspired by the stories of individuals finding their place in worship, and learn how we can all contribute to a more inclusive faith community.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

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 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. Hello and welcome to this episode of Indispensable People.

Speaker 1: 0:52

Today I'm excited to tell you a story that just recently happened, that just made my heart smile, not in a pitiful way, but just in watching God move in awe of what he's doing. And it happened recently at one of our respite nights and at my local church we hold what's called a respite night, which is a night where parents and caregivers can drop off their individuals with disabilities of all ages for two and a half hours, and then we provide caregivers or we call them buddies for the evening, to care for their loved one, so that they can have a night. We tell them go home, take a rest or go out to eat, go see a movie, whatever they would like to do. Some of our parents go to the grocery store, some go out to dinner together, some have date night, others just choose to rest and relax, and so, whatever that looks like, we hope that they love and benefit from the time that they get to rest and relax in whatever form that comes. But this past respite night I was so excited because it was a baseball theme. We were going to have a baseball game, do all things baseball, you know, because it's that time of year, baseball's kicking off, and so we do a theme every single respite. It just gets people excited. They can dress up for it if they like anything like that.

Speaker 1: 2:26

And so we are from Ohio and we live close to the Cleveland area and close enough to Pittsburgh also that we had some Cleveland Guardian fans and we also had some Pittsburgh Steelers not Steelers, I am so sorry Pittsburgh Pirate fans, and they were having a whole lot of fun with all their rivalries and that kind of thing. And so we started the night where everyone came in, just like we always do, and we get ready to have a mini service, which is just always a part of our respite nights. No matter what activities we do, we start with a service, and we usually have two or three worship songs and then I'll share a message through a series of different games, skits and fun things like that. And so we were in the middle of worship and I look over and I see one of the individuals who is actually newer to our disability ministry family. He had attended Night to Shine. That we have done for a couple of years. I know he's been at at least two of them and just recently he started coming in the past year to our respite nights and he is a happy-go-lucky kind of guy. He there is definitely some verbal abilities, but they are somewhat limited. He does have some sensory sensitivities and he uses headphones to help with that.

Speaker 1: 4:10

But this particular day he had engaged in worship like never before. You could tell the first time, first couple of times, that he was there. He was kind of watching and looking at our volunteers to see what they were doing. You could tell this wasn't a regular experience for him, it's not something that he was familiar with, and so he saw, you know, some of our guests and our volunteers raising their hand to praise God and he was kind of, you know, just kind of checking around, looking to see what's going on and that's what it had looked like for the first.

Speaker 1: 4:49

You know probably five or six respites that he had been a part of and you could he, you always see him turning around looking and trying to figure out what in the world's going on, and so we actually were singing a song and he starts to raise his hand and he is praising God with all that he has and you can see the countenance change in him as he was worshiping, and that is that is one of the most exciting things that I get to experience in the disability ministry world. Is that, that light bulb, that change of heart, that move towards God, that indicator that we're looking for to see? You know, are we communicating the gospel? Are we delivering the information? A lot of the respites I include a salvation message and obviously that's a humongous part of what we do and why we do it to someone, because our respites happen once a month, about six times a year, from the fall through the spring, and then, you know, we don't necessarily see our people through the summer unless they attend our summer camp, and we don't necessarily get to know about their you know their participation in church, outside of us. I know that some of our individuals do attend churches. They attend different types of churches, all that kind of stuff. But a lot of times our family members don't share all of that with us and we always invite them to our church, but if they have a home church, we're not pushing on that. But it was so exciting to see that click, that change, that light up in him as he began to worship God in his own way, in just a natural experience, not a forced, not a pushed.

Speaker 1: 7:13

I will tell you, we did have an experience at one of our summer getaways that we did. It was probably might've been our first summer camp and I had some volunteers that had participated in the program in other states and they tried to usher our volunteers up to the front, to the altar. And I wanted to be very, very cautious about that because if we're not careful, worship can turn into a concert, and at that point they were not knowing nor understanding why they were approaching the altar or that it even was called the altar to engage in worship, and so to me that is pushing, something that ends up being like a concert as opposed to worship. So I bank on just allowing God to move and for questions and conversations to be had over why we do what we do. Actually, right after this respite, when worship was over, I asked our individuals why do we sing those songs? Why do we raise our hands? What is all that?

Speaker 1: 8:33

And we had a great conversation about honoring God and showing our love to Him and appreciation and thankfulness through our worship, and we had all kinds of additives that not only that that our guests the individuals with disabilities were able to impart on us, but also our volunteers, and so I think those kinds of things are much better as a use to help people to understand God, as opposed to almost kind of like a do this, do that kind of thing right, and so, yeah, it was exciting because we get to be the model, we get to be Jesus with skin on and we get to show them the love of God and we get to show them what a believer's walk might look like be, but reaching out and sharing the love of Jesus with others, expressing our praise to him, all that kind of stuff. That is a natural progression that comes by walking alongside of someone and living life out together and having those conversations and building upon relationships, and that was exactly what had happened. This individual had attended for several months for our respite. They had watched, they had listened, they had learned about God, and now he was then able to participate in that experience in his own natural way, and that I love that. I love that.

Speaker 1: 10:21

I'm not about forcing my beliefs and my understandings on other people. I am not about. You know, god doesn't do that to us. God doesn't force us to act or interact. In a certain way. He gives us that free choice and I believe, as a certain way, he gives us that free choice and I believe, as a pastor and as a missionary, that I should be doing the same. And then it becomes their own real experience.

Speaker 1: 10:50

So if you are in disability ministry and you look at the people that you serve and you have no idea what they're understanding, what they're learning, where they're coming from, how long will it take for that light bulb moment, for that connection to happen?

Speaker 1: 11:07

Just keep living life with them.

Speaker 1: 11:10

Just keep the conversation going. Keep opening doors to making the gospel accessible so that God has opportunities to work in their life, because he's pursuing them more than we're pursuing them. He won't force them, but he is going to create divine appointments so that they have opportunities to come to know him and we get to be a part of creating and being a part of those divine appointments so that they can make that choice. And here's the deal. We could tell them hey, raise your hands and we could and they might. However, when we get to make that decision for ourselves, the relationship we have with God is different than when somebody tells us that we should do it and so, just opening that opportunity, giving that chance, I want to read a quote to you from Disability in the Gospel, and it says God's guest list includes a disconcerting number of poor and broken people, those who appear to bring little to any gathering except their need.

Speaker 1: 12:24

The distinctive quality of Christian hospitality is that it offers a generous welcome to the least, without concern for advantage or benefit to the host. Such hospitality reflects God's greater hospitality that welcomes the undeserving, provides the lonely with a home and sets a banquet table for the hungry. Set the table, invite the people and give them opportunities to see and know what living a life for God looks like. 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. So you