Intentional Ministry for a Loving Church Community

How can churches become more inclusive spaces for individuals with disabilities? Join me, Tracie Corlll, on this enlightening episode of Indispensable People as we tackle the often-overlooked issue of ableism within church communities. We'll uncover the subtle ways ableism manifests through lack of awareness and explore easy yet impactful changes like installing Braille signs and improving physical accessibility. These steps can transform your church into a welcoming environment for everyone, ensuring that no one feels excluded from worship and community life.

In the second part of our episode, we shift the discussion to the heart of church debates: worship practices and community inclusion. We'll emphasize the importance of valuing each person as a creation in the image of God and discuss practical ways to disciple and empower individuals with disabilities. Together, we'll explore how a mindset of intentionality and preparedness can create a more inclusive ministry, allowing people of all abilities to know, grow in, and serve Christ. Don't miss this critical conversation aimed at building a more loving and inclusive church 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 today's episode of Indispensable People.

Speaker 1: 0:51

Today, we're going to talk about a buzzword ableism and I'm going to be honest, I think it's probably going to be a bit of a controversial topic and I'm not 100% sure on how I feel about it. I think there are points to both sides of it, but I don't think it's as cut and dry as ableism points it out to be. So, in researching a little bit about ableism, I came to the definition that says ableism is discrimination of and social prejudice against people with disabilities based on the belief that typical abilities are superior. This is from accesslivingorg and it's ableism101 is what it says. And here's the thing subconsciously act as if maybe they might be superior to another individual. Could it happen Absolutely. Does it happen? Absolutely, is it purposeful? That I don't know. I don't believe it is as purposeful as ableism makes it sound as if it is.

Speaker 1: 2:31

Ableism makes it sound as if individuals are purposefully out to get them. It makes it sound as if they are making the choice to make that person feel less than not included. And, um, that they are making the choice to make that person feel less than not included and that they are not a concern or a thought or a consideration. And here's the thing. Let's just say tomorrow I'm going to get married. I've been married for over 20 years, so we're just pretending. So I'm having a wedding at a venue that I picked. Maybe I have a cousin with a disability that uses a wheelchair, which I do. I may have picked a venue that I did not consider their access or ability to get in and out of and that would be considered ableism. Like I am choosing not to include her because I did not pick a venue that she would easily be able to access, move around and participate in the activities. I don't think anyone thinks, oh my goodness, I'm gonna choose this thing and I don't care if they can come in or they can come out.

Speaker 1: 3:50

I think that it is very possible that it was not an intentional choice, and that is just as much the problem in our churches as ableism sort of lays it out to be the intentionality. So again, I've had lots and lots of conversations with pastors, talked to them about including people with disabilities, have had back and forth discussions with them about different people with disabilities and here's what I can tell you the majority of them are not purposefully keeping people with disabilities out of their church. They are not purposefully making sure that their churches are not accessible. They are not creating programs and events that people with disabilities can't be included in. The problem lies where we have just not considered them. That means we're not being intentional in our programs and in our choices and in our events to make sure that people of all abilities can be included. But here's what I'm going to tell you there has to be a logical and reasonable place that we land right. You can't make all the people happy all the time. It's not possible. And the idea and concept of disabilities is so vast that it is just beyond anything that we can be continually prepared for on a regular basis.

Speaker 1: 5:27

So let me give you some more things from this, accesslivingorg, where it talks about what ableism looks like. This article says that ableism can take many forms, such as lack of compliance with disability rights laws like the ADA, which we know that churches are not held to right. So in addition to that we're talking about, ableism looks like separating, segregating groups of people. We're talking about failing to incorporate accessibility, using Braille signs, building inaccessible websites or not providing closed captioning or different ways to access the information that is provided. Again, I really feel like if churches were equipped or had the option to understand or knew how to employ those things, I think they would be more willing. And again, I don't believe that a lot of it is purposeful, but their choices are not always intentional. They're not seeking to find those things, they're not looking to solve those problems, and maybe it's lack of information and knowledge, lack of understanding and then a lack of need. Maybe they don't have someone in their church at this point that needs that kind of stuff, so that all of that information is not readily available to them. Now, again, I truly believe in the if you build it, they will come kind of scenarios where let's prepare all that we can.

Speaker 1: 7:17

Again, we're not going to be able to make all the people happy all the time, which means that there are just so very many things that a church can do that it's not almost impossible. It is impossible to do everything all the time for everyone. It's not almost impossible. It is impossible to do everything all the time for everyone. And so the church needs to decide what are the baseline things that they can do to make an effort to serve people. Creating or ordering Braille signs easy, that's a norm across the board. Making the building physically accessible that is, I mean, baseline minimal requirements for any other building outside of the church. So that isn't even asking all too much. Don't get me wrong. I understand that it's a cost and there are budgets and things that need to fit in, but those are reasonable requests.

Speaker 1: 8:16

Now you can go further into this, where it goes in the article talking about, you know, choosing an inaccessible venue, which I had already meant that no one is doing that on purpose to exclude someone, that no one is doing that on purpose to exclude someone. However, going back to being intentional, let's think about it. What works, what can? How do we fit people, how do we make everyone feel comfortable to the best of our abilities? Now, this is outside of the church scheme or scene, I guess.

Speaker 1: 8:55

But one of the things that it said was that casting a non-disabled actor to play a disabled character in a play, movie, tv, whatever and here's the deal. I'm gonna look at the history of motion pictures and actors and commercials and all that other kind of stuff and I'm going to say have people been cast in acting positions where they have had to be or do something that they weren't in their actual life? Well, yeah, so is it reasonable that every person that they're going to film with a disability actually has a disability? It may not work that way and I don't know that that's such a terrible thing. I get the realist of it, I get reasoning behind it, but I'm going to look across the thing and go am I asking for a reasonable thing that actually applies across all things? Let's talk about how women weren't actors previously and men had to dress up and be the woman in the thing it's.

Speaker 1: 10:12

We're going to um come to a point at which we are so much about me, me, me that we lack understanding or lack um a compassion for people who are providing us a way to participate and a way to be included because we expect them to know everything all the time. It's just not reasonable and I can tell you, I have had. I have a son with a disability. I have had medical issues which have placed me in a part where I've had to be dependent on others for care at certain times in my life. And, yes, there are expectations of like. Treat me like a human. Speak to me like a human, just like you would anyone else. Don't talk to me as if I am a child. Please interact with respect and provide proper care. Those are reasonable things. But I also can't expect people places, churches, whatever to just know everything. I need them to know about me to make my experience perfect. Because, first of all, we need to remember that the church just isn't all about me. It's about God. Now we're going to go back to.

Speaker 1: 11:56

Can we do reasonable things? Can we make sure that people feel welcomed and valued and loved? Absolutely, I don't think it's unreasonable for a church to welcome people in. I think it is absolutely reasonable to have braille signs and to create physically accessible pathways through the church. I think that it's absolutely acceptable to have headphones, noise-canceling headphones or earplugs available for people to utilize during services. I think that it could be very possible to have a quiet space or a sensory space for individuals who need that outlet. I think that it is absolutely acceptable to have a system of volunteers who can step in when someone else may have more needs. I think it is acceptable to train and teach your church about having compassion and not pitying or treating people as less than when they come into your church with a disability, come into your church with a disability. So there are reasonable things to do.

Speaker 1: 13:10

But again, we want to go back to we can. Sometimes that is coming alongside of a family and going, hey, here's what we do have to offer and then if you could kind of let us know, or we could get together and build a friendship and build an understanding so that we could, as a church, serve you better. That's reasonable, that's absolutely reasonable. But we live in such a society that it is all about me, right, and everybody needs to be for me. They need to be about me and they need to understand that I'm going to do me and I want this, that and the other, and that's not reasonable life and that is not the direction that God would want us for. We're not supposed to just be an inward. All about me. People, if we love Jesus, right, it's about others, it's about serving others, it's about bringing others to know God. So we have to be careful to have a balance of both of, yes, we can be the church to you, but also you're going to be the church to others. So let's do some taking care of the inward so that you can be an outward thinking person as well. And that is no different than what I would expect of anybody else in the church.

Speaker 1: 15:11

Right, we go through the battles of the discussions about the sound level in the church, or lights on, lights off during worship, what the stage looks like, how the? Is he a passionate screamer or yeller, or is it a calm, relaxed? Do we do this or that when we come to the altar? All of that kind of stuff. And what we have to do is go when we boil it down. When we boil it down, we need to go.

Speaker 1: 15:44

Okay, what matters? What matters and here's what matters that every person knows that they were created in the image of God, that they have value and worth, not because of who they are and what they can do, but because of who we serve as our Lord and Savior. And then we need to look at as a part of this church, how can you be included and discipled so that you can be a creator of disciples? So we are going to look at that circle of bringing in, helping people feel welcomed, becoming discipled and then turning around and being discipled how can their life be a light to other people? And when we become so inwardly focused then we lose some of our light because we're not shining it for others to see. We're shining it so that we feel good and great.

Speaker 1: 16:42

Again, I'm going to go back to the ableist thinking and say are some of the requests and thinking reasonable? Absolutely, can the church be more intentional? Absolutely, can we create a balance of both so that God can be seen and he can be glorified and others come to know Him? Absolutely? 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. Outro Music.