Indispensable People
Making the Gospel Accessible to people of ALL abilities so that they may know Christ, grow in Him, and serve Him with the gifts He has given them.
Indispensable People
From Church Doors to Discipleship: The Journey of Inclusive Spiritual Development
Spiritual development is essential for believers with disabilities, requiring intentional discipleship processes that adapt strategies while maintaining the same goal of becoming more Christ-like. Tracy explores how churches can create environments where every person has the opportunity to know Christ, grow in Him, and serve Him with their unique gifts, regardless of ability.
• Over 65 million Americans have a disability (25% of population), yet over 80% are not in churches
• Spiritual development takes place as believers become more like Jesus through intentional discipleship
• Building a disability ministry starts with creating physical accessibility (bathrooms, doors, sensory resources)
• Mentorship and friendship form the foundation of spiritual development through intentional relationships
• Learning opportunities should be adapted with repetitive experiences, audio resources, and sensory engagement
• Every person with a disability should be equipped to serve according to their spiritual gifts
• Serving should not come from pity but from recognizing each person's God-given purpose
For deeper dives into these topics and more, check out indispensablepeople.com and visit Amazon to purchase the books The Indispensable Kid and Gospel Accessibility and the Indispensable People.
Hi, my name is Tracy Correll 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 welcome to this episode of Indispensable People.
Speaker 1:Today we're talking about spiritual development, and it is so important and incredibly necessary to the life of a believer, and today we're going to explain it. We're going to talk about how it applies to people with disabilities and we're going to look at some realistic things that can help us along the way. Spiritual development is summed up in that God's truth informs absolutely everything, and everything we are and have is meant to be stewarded for God. Spiritual development takes place as the believer becomes more like Jesus. We should continually align ourselves with God and his purpose for us in this world. It's not a one day event, it is a process. Let me just ask you does this sound familiar, similar to people or anybody Kids, youth, teens, women, men. It should, because it is the goal of spiritual development does not change for people with disabilities, only the strategies and the methods to get there do.
Speaker 1:You can't grow spiritually without a discipleship process. It needs to be intentional. This is where the believer, the follower of Christ, becomes passionate about knowing Christ and becoming more like him. Knowing him means that knowing the scriptures and spending time with him. God intends for our spiritual development to happen while being a part of a biblical community. Then the discipleship process becomes full circle as the believer shares the gospel message and invites others into the family of God. And now I want to put a warning. Like here's the flashing lights coming at you. And now I want to put a warning like here's the flashing lights coming at you.
Speaker 1:It does not take a credentialed minister, a pastor, a specified leader in the church to share the gospel with others. It does not take someone who has all the training and all the things to come alongside someone in discipleship. There is a process and the process is believing, choosing to follow Jesus, learning about him, sharing him. It's all in together at once and helping, and it's this whole kind of circling process. So I want to be very careful about that because everyone should be discipling someone. Every person is at different stages and the people they're discipling are at different stages, and we get to do that together.
Speaker 1:But I want to share a scripture from Romans 10, 14 through 15, and it says how, then, can they call on the one they have not believed it, and how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news? We have to believe that God can speak to his people. We have to believe that there are no barriers that he can't go through, and we have to believe that every person has a purpose and a place in the family of God. Every person should have the opportunity to know Christ, to grow in him and to serve him with the gifts that he's given.
Speaker 1:I live by this statement. If you listen to this podcast, you hear it every single time you listen to an episode. It is the map of the disability ministry that I built in my home church. It's the map that I use to train and equip churches. I've said you can't do it all simultaneously. You've got to take it into bites, one piece of the elephant at a time, right. Each step of that statement sets the stage for spiritual development, and taking one bite at a time builds the bridge to growing spiritually. When I first started building the ministry at my church, the first bite started with the opportunity to know Christ. From that statement, my goal was to create physical accessibility, programs and structures within the church that would allow people with disabilities to attend the church and if they could be inside the church, they could hear about Jesus and choose for themselves to make him Lord. Bathrooms were updated, mechanical doors were installed, sensory bags were made available and a sensory room was created. The buddy system was launched and an adult special needs class was started. In addition to that, we began to offer parents and caregivers a night of respite each month. Each of these bites was preparation in motion that led us to develop the next stage in ministry grow in him. The building became accessible and the programs were available, and the opportunities to disciple and mature the spiritual milk as scripture talks about were in progress for spiritual development.
Speaker 1:Another example is the summer getaway program that I'm a part of and I get to coordinate in Ohio is a great example of spiritual development lumped into one week. It comes through relationship building, whether through games, crafts, activities, meals, campfires, laughing or just spending time together. Add to that opportunities to grow in the knowledge of God through Bible walks, prayer times, bible quizzes and services. Then add opportunities to engage the knowledge gained and evangelize through discussions, talent shows, interactions. This is the setup of camp each year. But having the opportunity to know Christ and grow in him is not sufficient.
Speaker 1:So during the week of camp we decided to be intentional with evangelism. The week started off with a staff meeting where we shared a resource used by missionaries to teach students to evangelize. It's a five-step process, taught with a booklet and bracelets given to remind those students of the process. After going through that teaching, each staff member was given a bracelet with those steps on it and the mission for the week was for the staff to evangelize the people. They served people with disabilities and they were reminded that they're not babysitters but missionaries on a mission to help people find and follow Jesus. At the end of the week we commissioned each attendee those with disabilities, the individual to do the same thing. The cycle began and the cycle continues. So we take that camp example and we extend it over a lifetime.
Speaker 1:So here are those pieces. First, we're going to build relationships. The discipleship process is meant to be done with others. So what does that look like in disability ministry? Mentorship and friendship. A mentor comes alongside the mentee to help him or her grow in their knowledge of Christ, mature in their emotions and develop spiritual gifts. An intentional mentor should be trained, provided expectations and assigned. And, goodness gracious, is it wonderful when they find those naturally. And they don't have to be specific or assigned, it just comes through natural relationship. Mentors don't have to know everything. They don't for sure have to know everything about disability ministry, but as they build relationships with the people they serve, they begin to come and advocate. And I can tell you about Carol, who really came alongside that in a natural process.
Speaker 1:She has been a part of the disability ministry since we started 10 years ago. She started as a part of the disability ministry since we started 10 years ago. She started as a buddy. She's worked with kids. She now currently teaches our adult special needs class. But she also brings individuals to church who cannot get transportation there themselves, those with disabilities and she doesn't just bring them to church and bring them to events, but she goes out to dinner with them, she spends holidays with them, she does life with them, she creates, creates opportunities to build relationship intentionally.
Speaker 1:Also, I could tell you about Tanya who attended one of our respites. And well, she didn't. She was one of our volunteers and in that she was paired up with another individual who they begun a relationship, ran into each other at the store and Tanya had no intention to come back to the next respite, mostly because she just didn't realize there was another one scheduled in the next little bit of time. And that person that had the disability said to her hey, are you going to be there? I'd love to be able to spend time with you. And Tanya called me up and she said hey, listen, I want to be at the next respite, I'm looking forward to hanging out with so-and-so. That is intentional relationship building. And those are incredible volunteers who don't just look at their volunteership as a job but as a part of the discipleship process, in building others and coming to know Christ.
Speaker 1:In disability ministry a mentor can build friendships. They can check in regularly through phone calls, texts, emails, maybe go out for coffee, get some ice cream. This is also age dependent, on what makes most sense. Sometimes if it's a child, maybe you're checking in with their caregiver, those kinds of things. As a mentor, you're going to assess physical barriers and help remove them in the church, because if you're building relationships with them, you see and know what the potential barriers could be, so you get to advocate and speak out for them. You could evaluate learning and growth and knowledge.
Speaker 1:And I can tell you about George, who takes very, very specific intention in growing a relationship with another individual who attends just our respite. He doesn't come to our church and they talk scripture on a regular basis. They're texting back and forth and they're growing in that and one of the great things that he got to share with me is like listen, our conversations are getting deeper. He's understanding scripture and we're really diving into this together. That's absolutely incredible. They can ask hard questions that maybe, if you don't have a relationship with that person, they would be awkward or maybe not taken in the same way, like hey, do you feel included when you attend here? Do you feel loved, do you feel valued, and how can we help to improve that? A mentor can also identify spiritual gifts and develop them through service opportunities. Seeing that and saying to them hey, I see this in you, we have this event coming up. Do you think that you would like to be a part of this team? Whatever, that might be.
Speaker 1:Another, a second step to this, and it's really, really important have fun. The common misconception is that following Jesus is dull or full of rules, and God gave us emotions and the ability to laugh, and I suggest that we use them. Let's find ways to connect and experience life together. Yes, the church can be intentional in creating those women's events, men's events, all of that kind of stuff that might be happening naturally through the church, through different events. It doesn't have to be a disability ministry event just for you to connect, but also you don't need the church just to connect. Another step in this spiritual development process is an intentional learning opportunities, services, bible studies, worship nights, prayer nights, small groups they're all really great ways to grow in the knowledge of God and we need to be intentional not to only include people with disabilities in the disability ministry events, but also in the events outside of that. Just because the individual has a disability doesn't mean they can't attend a small group or prayer nights or worship nights, and we could go on and on. Now can we provide things that they might need Noise-canceling headphones or earplugs, maybe provide a calmer space, take breaks if necessary if they're overstimulated, maybe provide opportunities for movement or fidgets, some hands-on activities to go with the things that are going on.
Speaker 1:Those with intellectual disabilities may need repetitive opportunities to hear and experience the scriptures. Intellectual disabilities may need repetitive opportunities to hear and experience the scriptures, and I'll give you the example of going back to the summer getaway program, the camp that I get to coordinate. We do what we call Bible quiz, but we also do Bible walk and then we have services and they all coordinate together. The Bible quiz is about the scriptures that they're going to be hearing about. Services. The Bible walk is the Bible stories that they're going to be hearing about in service. All of those parts and pieces go together so that they can have repetitive levels of the same thing. So learning becomes easier, understanding becomes more natural and, honestly, that is a super beneficial way for every person to learn, because the brain learns based on the more you experience something.
Speaker 1:Those with visual impairments might require ways that they can learn that are outside of seeing. So we need to use the other senses. We need to use Bibles that might be audio. We need to use music, scriptures, screen readers, brails, hands-on sensory experiences. We can't forget communication devices, visual schedules, concrete delivery, all kinds of sensory opportunities. Those are all great ways to listen and engage and help someone to learn about the Bible.
Speaker 1:But here's the last and very important step that often is missed in churches we need to equip and deploy. Every person was created with a purpose and God has a plan for their life. Being a part of the body of Christ is very important, and being a part of the body of Christ means serving, becoming a co-laborer in Christ, where in 1 Corinthians 3, 9, paul said for we are laborers together with God, and that includes every Christian, meaning they are co-laborers with God, building lives and saving souls. And it might be tricky for individuals with disabilities. It is common for people with disabilities to look down on and to be thought of as less than because that they are often not given the opportunities to serve. So it's not tricky because of them, it's tricky because of how we perceive them. So because of that they miss opportunities. But serving should not be a place of pity but a place of purpose. We are not suggesting that an individual who likes to sing and they sound terrible should join the worship team. We want people to serve in their sweet spots.
Speaker 1:Use a spiritual gifts inventory or something like that. I actually have one available and it's really simple. I have it with pictures or simple words and I'd love to share that as a resource. But we provided a visual of spiritual development through this camp experience, but that's just one week. We need to make this happen in and through the churches building relationships, engaging friends through experiences of fun, intentional learning opportunities and equipping to deploy or strategic steps in spiritual development.
Speaker 1:As long as there's breath in your lungs or their lungs, there is an opportunity for growth and during that growth there will be milestones and those milestones build memorial stones that enhance faith. Be intentional and set those goals to meet those milestones. 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. For deeper dives into these topics and more, check out indispensablepeoplecom and visit Amazon to purchase the books the Indispensable Kid and Gospel. Accessibility and the Indispensable People.
