Accessible Church E-Book

Sandra Peoples

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 233

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

How Churches of Every Size Can Create Inclusive Ministry Spaces for People with Disabilities An estimated one in 5 households has a child with a disability. Many of these families miss out on church due to a lack of physical or social accommodations. And while ministry leaders want to help, they often don't know how to with limited space, budget, and trained volunteers. Churches must understand the challenges that disability families face so they can remove barriers to biblical fellowship.   Sandra Peoples, a disability ministry consultant and professor, has equipped hundreds of churches, large and small, to reach children and teens who have various cognitive disabilities, learning disabilities, physical disabilities, and behavioral and mental health diagnoses. Caring for disabled family members of her own, she understands what it takes to create a welcoming, inclusive space that supports children with a variety of diagnoses into adulthood. Through expert advice and practical examples, she shows ministry leaders how they can make their spaces—and the gospel—accessible to all. - Practical: Features creative ways that churches can adapt their teaching style, classrooms, safety policies, and more to accommodate special needs families - Written by an Experienced Consultant and Professor: Peoples draws from her years of expertise as well as her personal experience as a caregiver - A Great Resource for Churches and Families: Ideal for pastors and volunteers in children's ministry, family ministry, disability ministry, and more, as well as parents of children with disabilities - Addresses a Variety of Needs: Including Down syndrome, autism, dyslexia, anxiety, ADHD, and trauma-related issues - Includes a Foreword by Joni Eareckson Tada

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“Theologically grounded and deeply practical, Accessible Church will give clear direction to any church that desires to be welcoming and accessible to people with disabilities and their families. I’m grateful for Sandra Peoples’s advocacy on behalf of families like mine and creating ways for all people to experience God’s plans, purposes, and blessings through disability.”

Laura Wifler, mom to a child with a disability; author, Like Me: A Story About Disability and Discovering God’s Image in Every Person

“Sandra Peoples has provided a biblically grounded and clinically aware guide to disability ministry. As the dad of a young adult with autism, I was moved by the compassion and intentionality expressed in Accessible Church. As a church leader, I’m grateful for a resource that’s practical and scalable for congregations of different sizes and budgets. This will be my go-to recommendation for churches looking to start or mature a ministry to special-needs children, students, adults, and their families.”

Jared Kennedy, Managing Editor for Books and Curriculum, The Gospel Coalition; author, The Beginner’s Gospel Story Bible and Keeping Your Children’s Ministry on Mission

“Few churches are equipped to welcome our brothers and sisters with disabilities, not because we don’t want to but because we don’t know how. Sandra Peoples wants to help churches be well prepared for the task. Her pioneering work is a gift to the church. If you are a pastor who desires to serve saints with disabilities, you and your staff need this book.”

Daniel Darling, Director, The Land Center for Cultural Engagement; author, The Dignity Revolution and Agents of Grace

“Sandra Peoples has given us a plethora of practical steps in this important book. Her many years of living with people with disabilities and working ‘in the trenches’ has produced wisdom that she translates effectively into pragmatic, down-to-earth models for ministry in the church. The church needs to read, absorb, and apply this wisdom. I am grateful Sandra has labored long to produce this faithful resource, and I recommend it heartily and with gratitude.”

Michael S. Beates, Chaplain and Bible Teacher, The Geneva School; author, Disability and the Gospel

“As a father of a son with a disability, I’ve seen firsthand the profound beauty and challenges that come with raising a child who doesn’t fit the world’s narrow definition of ‘normal.’ But Sandra Peoples reminds us in Accessible Church that God’s grace shines brightest in our weakness. This book is a powerful call to the church to embrace families like mine—not with pity but with purpose. People with disabilities are not to be looked down on; they are some of the greatest teachers of God’s goodness, joy, and unconditional love. Sandra weaves together theology, personal experience, and practical wisdom to show how every church can be a place where the gospel reaches and transforms everyone. This is more than a book; it’s an invitation to see God’s glory in unexpected places.”

Shane Pruitt, National Next Gen Director, North American Mission Board; author, 9 Common Lies Christians Believe

“In my estimation, this is the most complete book on disability ministry that is currently available. Sandra Peoples approaches a bevy of crucial topics with biblical wisdom, ministerial understanding, practical knowledge, and personal experience. This is more than a book; it is a valuable resource, and a necessary tool, for anyone who has come alongside individuals whose lives are impacted by disability.”

Chris Hulshof, Disability Ministry Program Director, John W. Rawlings School of Divinity at Liberty University; author, Jesus and Disability: A Guide to Creating an Inclusive Church

“Every church should be accessible to everyone. In Accessible Church, Sandra Peoples casts a compelling vision of the why and how of becoming more accessible to the disabled community. Read this book, but more importantly, do whatever it takes to implement the wisdom it contains.”

Kyle Idleman, Senior Pastor, Southeast Christian Church, Louisville, Kentucky

“Gospel centered through and through, built on a rock-solid theological foundation, and practical on every level: This wonderful book checks all the boxes! Its theme—‘the goal is the gospel’—rings consistently in every chapter. What a beautiful gift Sandra Peoples has given to the church.”

Stephanie O. Hubach, Research Fellow in Disability Ministries, Covenant Theological Seminary; author, Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability

“The main reason many churches struggle to include people with disabilities is because they don’t know where to start. Sandra fixes that! She leads readers by the hand through the journey, providing a solid theological foundation (and destination), and then gently and practically pointing out the realities and blessings afforded by offering belonging for people with disabilities!”

Dan Vander Plaats, adult with a speech disorder; creator, The Fives Stages: The Journey of Disability Attitudes; Vice President of Development, Acts 29

Accessible Church

Accessible Church

A Gospel-Centered Vision for Including People with Disabilities and Their Families

Sandra Peoples

Foreword by Joni Eareckson Tada

Accessible Church: A Gospel-Centered Vision for Including People with Disabilities and Their Families

© 2025 by Sandra Peoples

Published by Crossway1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: David Fassett

First printing 2025

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-9818-0 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-9820-3 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-9819-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Peoples, Sandra, author.

Title: Accessible church : a gospel-centered vision for including people with disabilities and their families / Sandra Peoples ; foreword by Joni Eareckson Tada. 

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2025. | Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Identifiers: LCCN 2024045077 (print) | LCCN 2024045078 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433598180 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433598197 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433598203 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Church work with people with disabilities. | People with disabilities—Services for. | Disabilities—Religious aspects.

Classification: LCC BV4460 .P46 2025 (print) | LCC BV4460 (ebook) | DDC 259/.4—dc23/eng/20250108

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024045077

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024045078

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2025-04-15 11:34:12 AM

Thank you to the churches who have welcomed my entire family

because they were accessible to my sister Syble and my son James:

First Baptist Church, Duncan, Oklahoma

Stewartstown Baptist Church, Stewartstown, Pennsylvania

Heights Baptist Church, Alvin, Texas

Contents

Foreword

Author’s Note about Terminology

Introduction

1  Laying the Foundation: A Theology of Disability

2  Who Is Missing? Do Our Pews Reflect Our Communities?

3  Preparing for Accessibility: Programs, Places, and Policies

4  Your Ministry Team: Everyone Has a Role in Accessibility

5  Student Support: The Goal Is the Gospel

6  Whole-Family Inclusion: Strengthening Marriages and Supporting Siblings

7  Beyond Children’s Ministry: Inclusion for Every Age and Life Stage

8  Growing Your Ministry: Marketing and Outreach Ideas

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Discussion and Application Questions

General Index

Scripture Index

Foreword

Nearly every cul-de-sac in America includes a family that deals with disability. Life is anything but easy for them. Nonstop disability routines, butting heads with the school system, meltdowns, cleanups, insurance hassles, therapy appointments, lack of respite—all this sets the stage for isolation and depression.

To be fair, there are some disabling conditions that are easy to manage. But there are always bone-weary parents who must lock the doors and windows at night to keep their hyperactive child with autism from escaping.

These homes need the gospel to walk through their front door. They need Jesus in the flesh to enter their world. Yet, God is doing everything from his end. He is fully engaged and at work to give peace and strength to parents and comfort to bewildered kids. He is fighting, his Holy Spirit is warring on the side of his families where a disabling condition has snuffed out hope.

And God has called you to fight alongside him. As a volunteer or staff worker in disability ministry, you embody the good news where the bad news feels overwhelming due to disability. You speak words of hope; you become the gospel, wooing special needs families who otherwise would never come to church.

You create welcoming spaces, networks of support and friendship, access to biblical teaching, counseling, and worship. You help shape your church into a home that embraces every family member, regardless of disability. You fight, advocate, love, pray, and rejoice when families affected by disability find their place in the body of Christ.

Sandra Peoples has done all this and more. She is one of the most respected “go-to” guides when it comes to disability ministry. She grew up alongside a sister with Down syndrome and raised a son with level 3 autism. She understands the need, has advocated for change, has loved on hurting families, prayed for the impossible, and watched her congregation joyously become what church should be: a body of weak and needy people all leaning hard on Jesus.

Sandra has now poured all her insights and best practices into the remarkable book you hold in your hands. Accessible Church is not merely an instruction book on how to set up a special-needs department. It’s more personal than that. As my advocate-friend Jackie Mills-Fernald often says, some churches are content to have you serve at a safe, arm’s-length distance, untouched and unscathed within neat and tidy programs. But as a disability ministry worker, you don’t do a program—you do a person.

Finally, Sandra Peoples takes you deep into the theological context for embracing families that live with disability. This is because disability ministry reminds the church of something it has forgotten, and that is that we are all frail, enfeebled, and in need of God’s transforming grace. Ministry to special-needs families forbids the gospel to be conveyed from a position of power; rather, it requires that we all enter Christ’s kingdom from a point of grace. For aren’t we all needy in God’s eyes? Isn’t this why the “weaker [members] are indispensable” (1 Cor. 12:22)?

I applaud Sandra’s work in Accessible Church. Her book will help you win the heart of your church for disability ministry. Not a special-needs department or something segregated and separated off to the side. Rather, you will bring the church back to its roots as it integrates special-needs families into the fold. Your congregation will then not only be giving the gospel but embodying it. Not only declaring the good news but becoming truly great news to families who need Christ desperately.

Great work, Sandra!

Joni Eareckson Tada

Joni and Friends International Disability Center

Author’s Note about Terminology

I am thankful for self-advocates who help family members and ministry leaders understand how the language used to describe them makes them feel. In writing and editing, I have considered current preferences and the most widely used terminology. I understand that in the future use of this book, acceptable language may further evolve, and I ask for your understanding that our intent is to honor and respect, never offend.

Introduction

I was born into a church-going family. Members of my family had attended First Baptist Church in Duncan, Oklahoma, since it was founded. My great grandparents’ house was right behind the church, and they often hosted the pastor and his family for Sunday lunch. My great grandmother played the organ there for years. In the next generation, my grandmother served as the preschool director, and my grandfather was an usher in the balcony. Kids would climb the stairs to see him each Sunday because when they shook his hand, he slipped them a Tootsie Roll.

I was also born into a disability family. I grew up with a sister with Down syndrome. That diagnosis, which came shortly after her birth just days after Christmas in 1977, could have changed our church involvement. It meant her development wouldn’t be the same as her peers’. She would need extra time to do the crafts, extra explanations to understand the lesson, and extra eyes on her because she could be pretty mischievous—like getting into the snacks before snack time or heading down the hall to find Grandpa and his pocket full of candy. Would the church where my family had served for decades be able to serve our family by being accessible to Syble and therefore our entire family?

For many churches, the answer isn’t an automatic yes. The extras that people with disabilities may need at church can feel like too much, and many churches think they have already reached their limits. There are no extras—no extra time to learn, no extra cash in the budget, no extra volunteers to serve, and no extra room to put people with disabilities.

There’s a story in the Gospels of a group of people who have also reached their limits. And like what often happens in churches today when they feel like they’ve reached their limits, a person with disabilities suffers. A paralytic man is cut off from accessing Jesus and from the people who followed Jesus. But in Mark 2, the group finds ways to overcome their limitations! Verses 1–3 say, “And when [Jesus] returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.”

These four men want to bring their friend to Jesus. They have likely heard of his reputation as a healer. And hearing that Jesus is in a home, they see an opportunity to bring their friend close to him. At this time, people with disabilities were blocked from having access to the temple. According to New Testament scholar Craig Keener, teachings from the Mishnah Hagigah and other Jewish documents would have prevented those who were lame and blind from entering the temple.1

By being cut off from the temple, people with disabilities were also cut off from the community built around the rhythms related to worship, sacrifices, and feasts. No temple and no community. This paralytic man is in a desperate situation—a situation made worse by his inability to save himself. But his friends have hope. They just have to find a way in. Mark continues, “And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay” (2:4).

They have similar challenges to the ones we face today: no time (Jesus may only be passing through and there for a short time), no volunteers (It’s up to just the four friends), and no space (They can’t even open the door). But instead of seeing these as hindrances they can’t overcome, the friends use them as motivation. I can almost hear their optimism: “There’s no time like the present! We can do it together! We can’t get through the door, but we can make a way through the roof!” It makes me smile just to think of it. Maybe these men are young. I can see my teenage son coming up with a plan like this with his friends much more easily than I can picture my husband and his middle-aged friends with their fully formed prefrontal cortexes and bad backs!

The men in this biblical story overcome their challenges and find a way to get their friend to the healer they have heard about, but Jesus’s reaction may have surprised them: “And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’” (2:5). Your sins are forgiven! Is that what they came for? Did they know Jesus believed he could forgive sins? It certainly surprises some in the crowd:

Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” (2:6–11)

Jesus perceives their thoughts and responds to them with a question: “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’?” (2:9).

How would you respond to the question of which is harder, to forgive sins or heal a man who could not walk? Some believe it’s easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” because there’s no observable proof of your success or failure. You can’t see sins being forgiven. You can see whether a man who came in on a mat through a hole in the roof walks home without assistance. But the audience at this time would have known it’s much harder to say you can forgive sins. Being able to forgive sins is something only God himself can do. It’s a serious claim to make, and one that eventually leads to Jesus’s crucifixion. John 5:18 says, “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because . . . he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”

With these words, Jesus is showing his authority over both sin and sickness to this audience in Capernaum. He is making a claim only he can make and prove. “And [the paralytic man] rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We never saw anything like this!’” (Mark 2:12). When we encounter Jesus, we are amazed, and we glorify God. And that experience should motivate us to bring others to him, no matter what obstacles seem to stand in our way.

Just like the paralytic man who could not save himself, not even take a step toward Jesus on his own, we come to Jesus in the same state of desperation. None of the work we do to try to overcome our sin can release the hold it has on us. That is, until it is met with the power of Jesus. Paul tells us in Ephesians how those who are dead in sin become alive again in Christ:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 2:4–7)

Like the paralytic man, we are forgiven and raised up. This is the good news of the gospel, and this message is at the heart of everything else you will read in this book. We modify lessons, provide noise-reducing headphones, and give support to those who are dysregulated so they can hear and have an opportunity to respond to the gospel. The goal is the gospel—you’ll read those words again and again on the pages to come.

We can see from the story of these four friends that we aren’t the first to face the idea of accessibility and be overwhelmed by our own limitations. But we aren’t bound by those limitations because when it comes to reaching people with the gospel, God has shown himself faithful over and over to overcome those limitations and call people to himself.

Our church welcomed Syble and made accommodations for her from birth until our family moved away when she was nineteen. And because they made room for her, my whole family was able to attend together. I heard the gospel in that church. I was baptized there. And while sitting in those pews as a teenager, I prayed that God would use me in ministry. Experiencing what Jesus did in my life drives me to make that relationship possible for every single family, especially families like mine, whose lives have been radically altered by a diagnosis from a doctor or therapist.

In this book, we will walk together through each step. I’ll introduce you to people who’ve been working in this space for decades—people with disabilities, caregiving families, pastors and ministry leaders—who will guide us. We’ll empower you to be like the paralytic man’s four friends: to overcome obstacles and bring more people to Jesus. I can’t imagine a more exciting opportunity. We’ll be amazed by what God will do, and we’ll glorify him together. Are you ready to help your church become an accessible church?

1  Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Eerdmans, 2009), 502. For a discussion on the topic, see also Chris H. Hulshof, Jesus and Disability: A Guide to Creating an Inclusive Church (B&H, 2022), 46.

1

Laying the Foundation

A Theology of Disability

If you read only one book about disability ministry, I don’t want it to be this one. If you’re going to read just one book about God’s design and purpose for people with disabilities, how he expects his followers to treat people with disabilities, and the lengths he will take to ensure they are welcome in his family and his church, it shouldn’t be this one. Because all that and more is in Scripture. If you’re going to read just one book about inclusion and accessibility, it should be the Bible.

The theme of disability crops up all through the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. The commentary The Bible and Disability lists almost two thousand verses and passages on disability.1 In Disability and the Gospel, Michael Beates focuses on thirty-nine. If you read through the Bible in a year like I did this year, you’ll see the passages pop up in the narrative.2Jacob limps and leans on his staff. Moses tells God he can’t speak before Pharaoh because he is slow of speech. Mephibosheth, the lame son of Jonathan, is invited to King David’s table. Paul writes of a thorn he asked God to remove, which may have been a chronic condition that affected his eyesight.

Throughout this book, we’ll see how passages on disability set the framework for why and how we do disability ministry. The Bible isn’t a disability ministry handbook, but it’s a head and heart book—it teaches us how to think about disabilities and how to treat those with disabilities (including how to view ourselves if we are ever diagnosed with a disability).

To begin, let’s focus on passages that illustrate the overarching view of disabilities in Scripture. We will build our theology of disability on these passages. Jen Wilkin and J. T. English write in their book, You Are a Theologian, that theology is a means of organizing the ideas given to us in God’s word. So when I talk about building a theology of disability, what I mean is organizing and understanding passages in Scripture about disability. Having a theology of disability matters because, as they write, “we think differently, feel differently, and act differently as a result of developing better categories for understanding God.”3

In our disability ministry world, we sometimes put theologians and practitioners in different categories: Theologians think about disability and the Bible, and practitioners do disability ministry. But we are all theologians, and developing our theology of disability makes us better practitioners. You are a theologian, and you have a theology of disability. Let’s make sure that theology has a firm foundation that will hold up when we are ministering to people with disabilities and their families. To do that, we’re going to look at God’s plan, God’s purpose, God’s provision, and God’s promise in disability.

God’s Plan

We will start at the beginning of the world as we build our theology of disability. It starts with our theology of man, which of course begins at creation:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them. (Gen. 1:26–27)

Man was created by God and in the image of God. Being created in the image of God sets humans apart from everything else God created. However, the fall and sin distort our ability to reflect God perfectly, but the image of God remains in each person.

What it means to be created in the image of God has been discussed for centuries and has not always been agreed on. Theologians Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley remind us, “As fallen human beings, we are not in a position to understand the image of God completely. We do not fully know what it means to be human.”4 Even though we can’t fully know, what we do understand about the image of God has implications for how we view and treat others, especially those with disabilities.

Beeke and Smalley underscore that “the image consists centrally of inward righteousness and a right relationship to God, but more broadly encompasses man’s whole nature along with his divinely ordained function.”5 What’s helpful about this view is that it doesn’t reduce God’s image to only the roles we play or the capacities we have.

Although the image of God can include functions and characteristics, it is more than that. If the image of God were only about our dominion over the earth, those who have opportunities to have more dominion might be seen as reflecting more of God’s image. Or if it were primarily about intelligence and understanding, those with the highest IQs would resemble God most. Instead, 1 Corinthians says, “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong . . . so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1:27, 29). If it were only about doing, would we still image God if we failed to function? Instead of only imaging God (a verb), we are the image of God (a noun). The image is about who man is and not just what he does.

Beyond being simply functional, the image of God is also relational. Being able to have a relationship with God and having the potential for salvation and sanctification (the ability to reflect Jesus, who is