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
FQA: We serve best when we plan with people, not for them
We explore how churches move from welcome to belonging by planning for physical, social, and spiritual accessibility. Stories, checklists, and simple tools show how intentional hospitality helps people with disabilities and their families feel wanted and ready to grow and serve.
• the inclusion gap and why readiness matters
• a hospitality mindset that signals “you are wanted”
• two smart check‑in questions that open trust
• supporting without pushing for diagnoses
• simple tools: sensory bags, earplugs, ASL
• volunteer practices for calm, choice, and dignity
• building spiritual access through discipleship and roles
• culture shifts with trainings and awareness days
• next steps for congregations of any size
For deeper dives into these topics and more, check out indispensable-people.com and visit Amazon to purchase the books The Indispensable Kid and Gospel Accessibility and the Indispensable People
Hi, my name is Tracy Coral 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 is 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. Hey, hey, and welcome to this episode of Indispensable People. Today we're continuing the facts, questions, and answers. And we are taking questions from our training registrations that we've asked people to say if you had one question that we could answer within a training day, what would that be? And so every year we have a training in Youngstown, Ohio, and we offer it for free for any churches, any volunteers, leaders of any kind to join us and engage about learning about people with disabilities from kids to teens to adults. And we've actually even added a kids training so that we can really train up our whole congregation to love people with disabilities and engage with them, welcome them, and make sure that they're offering an accessible gospel. And we know that accessibility isn't just physical. Yes, we need them to get into our buildings, but we need to make sure that it is social. Do we engage and build relationships and friendships? And also do we believe that they can grow spiritually? So are we spiritually accessible? Do we take time to disciple and help people to learn and teach them that they are co-laborers with us in Christ? And so here is the next set of information that or question that was asked on the information on the registration that came through. And it is how do you interact in serving people with disabilities? How do you do that best? Okay, so that's a that's a really broad question, right? And we know that people with disabilities are are so very different. You're gonna meet one person who has autism, and then you're gonna meet another person with autism, and they're not going to be alike at all. And so that will that will impact right your thought process and how that you do this. And so let me use this example. I have said this on this podcast before, and I am chuckling now because it's quite funny. But when people come over to my house, I love to do extra cleaning. I like to finish off projects that maybe I've been working on. Not that my house has to be perfect, but and not that I'm like a clean freak or worrying about what they the what they're going to think of me. I want them to know that I have done all that I can to make them feel welcome in my home. We've hosted Bible studies, holidays with friends, family, all kinds of things at our house. Birthday parties for the kids, birthday parties for friends, all different kinds of stuff. We love having people over at our house. And again, I love the preparations of it. But my children call me like the crazy cleaning lady. So if you've ever seen any of those videos with the person running around and they're like, I've cleaned that, don't sit on there. We can't, we have to look like it doesn't, we don't live here. You know, all those crazy things. I promise I'm not that crazy. But I do love a clean house and I do love people to know that that we've prepared for them, that we want them there. And I think that is the mentality that we have to adopt as we begin to serve any person in our churches, right? We need them to know that they're wanted, that they're welcomed, that they're valued. And then the next step is to introduce them to a God who cares, who loves, who created them, who's designed them, who made a plan for them, who died for them, and what that looks like in their life. And so we can do that in a couple of different ways across the board. Here's the thing the word that I'm gonna use is intentional, but we have to plan. We have to be purposeful, we have to think through some general things that we can do to help make people with disabilities feel comfortable in our churches. So that can be as simple as having some stops, protections, open doors. Let me give you a couple examples. So for kids at my home church, we at the check-in desk will say a couple of things when we have a new family that comes. And that's going to be, you know, obviously we're going to welcome them, we're going to greet the children and tell them how excited we are that they're there with us because we truly are. And then we're going to ask two questions. And the two questions are first, are there any allergies that we should be aware of? And are there any special needs we should know about? And that's the first stop. Now, is that the stop because they can't go forward if they answer yes to either of those questions? Absolutely not. It just opens the door for me to say if they say yes and they explain a little bit, and I would say something like, We just want to know how to best serve your child. We want to make sure that they have a great experience with us. So for example, I think it was a couple of weeks ago, we had a new family come to the church and I asked those very questions. And there were two brothers, or there were two brothers and a sister, I believe. And the mom I had to, you know, I asked asked those questions for each child, and the mom said yes to one of them for special needs. And I said, Can you give me a little bit more information? And I won't press, I won't push, I won't if a parent doesn't want to divulge information, some of those things we are we work out and we kind of figure out as we go. And like I said, I don't highly pressure the parent. And the mom said he should be fine as long as he's with his brother. Okay. I and I've heard that before, and sometimes that's absolutely true. But there's a twofold thing with that. One, that's a lot of pressure to put on the brother that would carry the responsibility of caring for that individual. And then second, what if it's not okay? Right? And here's the thing: it's not because I need to know everything and because I'm, you know, need all the information privacy-wise, like all of that kind of stuff. That's not it. I don't even need to know a diagnosis. Sometimes I just need to know things like is there something that upsets them? What helps them when they feel sad or upset? What kind of things do they enjoy? Do they have a hard time sitting still or listening? And are there any things that would help them through that? Those are some really basic things that doesn't require me to have a diagnosis or any extra information, just some personality things and some maybe struggles and some successes so that I can serve them best. And that particular child, partway through the service, one of the volunteers came and said, so-and-so is feeling kind of sad and I think he needs his mom. And so the last thing that I want to do on the first time a child is with us is to go get their parent. First of all, I don't know if that parent has ever had an opportunity to hear the gospel, if they have had an opportunity to respond to a salvation call. And so I don't want to take that opportunity from that parent. That doesn't mean I won't ever go get a parent. But if I can do anything to help that child through those moments, I will. And so he was missing his mom and he just really wanted to be with her and he was struggling emotionally. And so I asked him to come sit at the check-in desk with me and hang out. And I had some busy bags there and some other things that that he could engage with. The security guy was also, our security guy was also in that area. And so he kind of chatted, chatted up with him and that kind of thing. So there are lots of, there are lots and lots of things that we can do to engage and help prepare. When it comes to teens, a very similar check-in happens at youth group. And so some of those questions can be had: introductions with parents, conversations, getting to know them, checking in with students, some simple, something simple that you can have across the board for any age. You can have sensory bags available around the building at your welcome desk, in the spaces that they will be engaging with others. So there are lots of opportunities and things that you can do, but we have to be intentional about it. Will we have the answers to all things? No. But some other examples of things that we have at my church is we have some earplugs, just disposable earplugs all around the building at each of the entrances to the sanctuary. So if someone has some sensory sensitivities to sound, they can do that. We also have an ASL interpreter, so sign language interpreter, so that if someone were to come and would need that, they they it is already done. It is already, they don't have to wait for that. So there are just lots of things that we can do to be intentional on a broad scale. And then as those individuals come to us and come to our churches and engage with us and just choose to stay with us, then we can get to know them and then they can help guide us for the things that they might need or might benefit from. So this question how do you best serve people with disabilities with special needs? Be intentional, right? Be intentional. If you build it, they will come. For those of you who are my age, know that reference. Understanding accessibility is more than physical, it is also social and spiritual. So we want to make sure that we have opportunities for accessibility and all those things. And we want to not only have things set up for those with disabilities, but we also want to engage and build awareness in our entire congregation. You can do that with disability awareness days. You can do trainings in your own building. I can come and do a training in your building, which would be so much fun. But there are lots of opportunities and lots of ways that you can make sure that people with disabilities can be served in your church so that they have the opportunity to know Christ's girl and him and serve him with the gifts that he has given them. 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 indispensablepeople.com and visit Amazon to purchase the books The Indispensable Kid and Gospel Accessibility and the Indispensable People.
