Every participant in a church has unique needs. Pastors, councils, and care teams tailor their caring ministry to the needs of each individual. Below are a variety of resources to help understand and minister to people with disabilities.

Ideas for Church Education

Rev. Ron Noorman and his wife Sandra have several children with disabilities. In this article, Are You Keeping Tony Out?, he challenges readers to find ways to include children with special needs and gives practical suggestions how to do that.

Friendship Ministries helps churches and organizations around the world share God’s love with people who have cognitive impairments. Their mission is "to share God’s love with people who have cognitive impairments and to enable them to become an active part of God’s family."

For a complete listing of all disability ministry resources available from Faith Alive Resouces, click here.

Disability Etiquette

Caring begins with something as simple as a friendly greeting. Here are some tips for proper etiquette with a person with a disability. (Please note that this list of tips is a page on the site of the National Organization on Disability.)

Starting a Disability Ministry

About 80 percent of people with disabilities do not attend church regularly. That means that the percentage of people with disabilities in churches is less than the percentage of people with disabilities in the population at large. In various ways, churches are sending the message that people with disabilities are not welcome. Yet, if churches were fully exhibiting the love of Jesus, all members disabled or nondisabled, will know the full hospitality and love of God. To begin ministry with people with disabilities, a congregation needs to know where to begin. Though people with disabilities have a variety of needs, caring congregations will work to understand common concerns of people with disabilities and ways to address them. Disability Concerns encourages churches each to have a church advocate to work within their own churches toward greater inclusion of people with disabilities. The church advocates are in turn encouraged and supported by regional advocates who support the church advocates in their work.

Care for Individuals and Families Living with Disability

Stress on families who live with disability is much higher than for the population at large. Churches can help in a variety ways.

• Discerning needs. To care, one must know the needs. Healthy churches will work to determine the unique needs of each person and family in their congregation. Here are two questionnaires which care teams can use: questionnaire for parents of children with a disability and questionnaire for people with disabilities and caregivers.
• Care Teams and Respite Care. The divorce rate of couples who have a child with disabilities is reported to be 80%. Single parents raising a child with a disability have all the challenges that single-parenting involves in addition to the challenge of caring for and raising a child with a disability. Caregivers to a person with a disability, whether that caregiver is parent, spouse, or child of the person with a disability, deal with enormous stress. Churches can help relieve this stress by organizing care teams and by organizing respite care for each family/individual dealing with disability. Training individuals responsible for congregational care can be of great help as well. The following resources will be useful in helping others care for people living with disabilities: Workshop on the Church and Disabilities, Ways to Help People Living with Disabilities, and Suggestions for Visiting.
• Support Groups. Many individuals and families living with disability taste loneliness on a daily basis. Support groups can provide helpful companionship and networking for resources. Starting a successful support group takes time and knowledge. These resources can help: getting started, housekeeping items, mental illness support group.

Learning about Specific Disabilities

These one-page descriptions of specific disabilities include discussions questions. They will work well for council educational times, church school, small groups, and other settings. 

• Cerebral Palsy
• Developmental Disability
• Deafness
• Depression
• Epilepsy
• Extensive Disabilities
• Illnesses Resulting in Disabilities
• "Hidden" disabilities
• Mobility Impairment
• Speech Impairment
• Spina Bifida

Contact Us

We would love to hear from you! Please feel free to call Mark Stephenson at 616.224.0801, toll free at 888.463.0272, or e-mail disabilityconcerns@crcna.org.