#DATC2024 first breakout sessions include full rooms. I am in the session on Reaching and Teaching Our Neurodiverse Kingdom with Aimée Stork, M.Ed. Sr. Manager of Online Education with Joni and Friends. Stork notes right away that many of us are neurodiverse and that the condition need not be considered a “handicap.” Stork also cited the well known phrase that when you meet onr child with autism… you have met one child with autism.
Yet Stork does note “some” common factors. So, kids on the autism spectrum:
• Can have delayed speech or limited language skills • May talk in a flat voice with very little inflection • May have difficulty understanding jokes, sarcasm, or teasing • May have obsessive interests • May flap hands, rock body, or spin in circles • People with ASD often thrive on routine. Disruption in routine can be very unsettling for many people with ASD. • May have unusual eating and sleeping habits. • Can be impulsive or extremely active • People with ASD might have unusual responses to touch, smell, sounds, sights, taste, and feel. For example, they might over- or under- react to pain or to a loud noise.
Still, Stork also notes the gifts of Autism that we often overlook.
*The ability to focus on systems *Strong local analysis (the ability to see details)
*Often exceptional visual-spacial skills
For all the differences, Stork did list some basic resources any church can provide that supports people on the spectrum (see the picture).
Stork included a key statement from Lamar Hardwick (a pastor with autism) early in her presentation that I will use to close this post since it reflects/frames a lot of the sessions:
“The moment we criticize or condemn people for being human is the very moment we send them the message the God is not in control, that God, in fact, did not create them in his image, and that they are incapable of enjoying community with God or the rest of creation.” Lamar Hardwick, Disability and the Church
“The ministry we are called to is often a lonely call because it is not often a recognized call” yet, like Elijah in 1 Kings 18,… we are not alone. #DATC2024
#DATC2024 Disability and Church Conference open with worship. Sandra Peoples offers an opening session on “three reasons to be optimistic about Disability Ministry.”
1) churches, and church leaders are more invested particularly in “invisibility” disabilities like autism,
2) more seminaries/colleges are engaging (in 2014 seminaries/colleges reported 74% graduates were not prepared for these types of ministries),
3) the present ministries represented by the 500 people at this conference, breaking down barriers for the sake of inclusion and care. Glad #NTSwww.nurturingcare.org is joining this initiative.
Opening ministry intensive at the #DATC2024 conference addressing the theme Accessible Gospel, Inclusive Worship: Ministry With Every One, presented by Victoria White of “With” Ministries & Dr. Erik Carter, Baylor Center for Developmental Disabilities, and With Ministries
The team offered ideas for presenting the Gospel message in ways that people of all abilities embrace, and worship practices that invite universal participation. Carter opens addressing the need, noting 70 million Americans, 1 in 5 individuals, experience some form of disability and 1 in 7 children in local schools engaging special education resources, while 50 percent of people over 65 have some profound physical limitations. So 1 in 3 families in any community have some encounter with disabilities. The trip underscores our #NTS Nurturing Care/KC initiative. https://www.nts.edu/nurturing-care/#KC
How important is faith to people with disability? Dr. Eric Carter notes the importance of faith remains pretty similar between people with disability and traditional church participants. Yet the ability to participate (at least once a month in a church) reveals a “gap” for the disabled. In a separate study, youth (as reported by parents) seemed to prioritize their participation in faith. However the parents of the same youth demonstrate just how important faith is in their lives. Yet approximately one third leave churches (usually after a prolonged period of alternating attendance, with one parent often remaining home with the disabled person). One challenge rests with congregations mirroring communities that previously tended more toward exclusion and segregation… rather than inclusion and belonging. Co-presenter Victoria White notes one of the key contributing factor is to include people with disabilities in leadership if a church seeks to change. #DATC2024.
Erik Carter continues the seminar on Believing and Belonging in Disability Ministry at the #DATC2024 Pre-conference. Carter unveils research that unpacks the dimensions of what true belonging reflects when disable feel they belong. The ten elements work collectively to move from inclusion to a full expression of belonging. Carter’s presentation was supported by Victoria White, director of With Ministries who incorporated biblical imagery to undergird all ten perspectives. Participants were invited to assess their congregational contexts to both celebrate what is working but also discover where to begin next.
The Nurturing Care two day engagement with Northern California pastors reminds us that creativity requires hard work at times. The gathering of 20 ministers across seven churches resulted included people with definite passion and a deep awareness of their context and expressed passion for children.
Opening night included a brief orientation to our work together (using a variation of design thinking/learning as the backdrop), a time of choosing “words” that describe children and naming challenges the congregations face. Throughout the exercise the invitation was to find a problem worth exploring through new ministry strategies, rather than new solutions to apply. While focusing on elementary children’s experience of God remained center to the conversations, the group was also invited to consider how gratitude, giving thanks, could be woven into the projects.
The next morning afforded time to cluster congregations according to similar challenges and then invite those congregations to try to look for the underly theme or flow across those challenges that might provide a way forward. Never an easy task, the three groups began to coalesce around three themes:
The focus on children’s experience during congregational worship,
A concern of the distractions outside the church that often influence children’s Christlike identity and how prayer might respond,
And the simple practice of helping children “be seen” in congregations where children often are not a fully appreciated.
The next phase of the “work” of creativity entailed bringing churches “together” in setting up a working strategy/prototype that might address the varying needs. Much like the our California weather if intermittent sun and rain, there were bright spots and “cloudy moments” as people wrestled to bring general challenges, and myriad activities, into a semblance of a shared strategy or prototype.
Some groups struggled around the process and focus (how to balance distractions by adults with experiences of God and the question of infusing thanksgiving), others worked across language barriers and context (English/Spanish collaborations that entailed different congregational practice and use of space), and still others wrestled with integration of a new concept, prayer partners, alongside well established plans and protocols already in place. Design thinking allows for creativity across partnerships but can be daunting integrating various congregational practices. Often churches had to find the connectors (much like legos) but retain elements true to their worship flow or physical setting. Two examples emerged.
One of the most intriguing concepts was the creation of a children’s “Garden” where children’s could be seen through their expressions of creativity in one setting where the congregation has “space” to engage, while a different worshiping community “rents” from an existing congregation. The partners worked toward a conversation around bridging the gardening experience with worship so that both congregations might find points of intersection.
A second challenge emerged with two congregations seeking to empower children in worship yet one church already includes children in worship throughout the service and the other congregation seeks to introduce children during the entire worship session. Balancing the need to prepare adults alongside empowering children brought different questions, as did wrestling with making gratitude a central focus or merely as secondary theme.
As the Nurturing Care team introduced the guidelines for preparing for the mini-grants, fresh questions arose whether some ideas really require funding or actually might prayer partners be introduced without additional funding? Investment and stewardship raised fresh questions alongside the difficult of partnering across long distances between churches.
Which funded projects will finally emerge will not be known for several weeks. Churches need time to take their final strategy/prototype and determine which activities deserve the greatest attention and which “steps” within those activities require specific funding. During this phase there may be opportunities to coach and even find additional ideas that remained unspoken or unforeseen at first (as happened in Kansas City). I suspect this next phase will include additional “cloudy” moments of parsing through the strategy… but hopefully with some sunshine and even a rainbow of hope at the end.
Overall we hope that grants will empower at least four of the seven churches to find a way forward working together, perhaps more. Time will tell. Still, the retreat itself yielded insights, ideas, and activities that may well be used time and again within each congregation. Hopefully the hard work of these caring pastors will bear fruit for the future.
A beautiful morning at Christ Community Church in San Ramon after a rainy night. A LOT of group work trying to find a challenge neither too big, nor too simple, to explore…not solve… today. Thankful for the creativity and leadership in the room as we explore prayer and worship opportunities, and interweave how we might incorporate Thanksgiving/gratitude in our efforts. Ready for a lunch break!
Discipleship Commons 