Pastor Lamar Hardwick was thirty-six years old when he found out he was on the autism spectrum. This revelation prompted him to reconsider the church's responsibilities to the disabled community. Insisting that the good news of Jesus affirms God's image in all people, Hardwick offers practical steps and strategies to build stronger, truly inclusive communities of faith.
Including both theoretical discussions and practical information for congregational use or pastoral use, this rich, accessible book explores biblical text, historical and theological issues of disability, and examples of successful ministry by people with disabilities. Disability, Faith, and the Church: Inclusion and Accommodation in Contemporary Congregations draws from a range of Christian theologians, denominational statements, writings of people with disabilities, and experiences of successful ministries for people with disabilities to answer the deep need of many Christian communities: to live out their calling by welcoming all people. By focusing on 20th- and 21st-century thinkers and political and religious practices, the book outlines best practices for congregations and supplies practical information that readers can apply in classroom or church settings. The author draws on thinkers from a variety of Christian traditions—including Roman Catholicism, Episcopalianism, Lutheranism, and the Reform traditions—to provide a theologically robust discussion that remains accessible to churchgoers without formal theological training. Emphasis is placed on connecting formal theological reflection and the experiences of ordinary people with disabilities to existing congregational practices and denominational statements, thereby enabling readers to decide on the best ways to successfully include people with disabilities into their communities within the rich and diverse Christian theological tradition.
Michael Beates's concern with disability issues began nearly 30 years ago when his eldest child was born with multiple profound disabilities. Now, as more families like Michael's are affected by a growing number of difficulties ranging from down syndrome to autism to food allergies, the need for church programs and personal paradigm shifts is greater than ever. Working through key Bible passages on brokenness and disability while answering hard questions, Michael offers here helpful principles for believers and their churches. He shows us how to embrace our own brokenness and then to embrace those who are more physically and visibly broken, bringing hope and vision to those of us who need it most.
Disability is not a boundary to holiness, because God is with us. But it can sometimes be an obstacle to full participation in the life of the Church, simply because many do not understand what is needed to help people with disabilities overcome any physical, mental, or interpersonal challenges they may face in church and in leading an Orthodox Christian life. This book addresses the question from theological, practical, and experiential perspectives, giving individuals and families with disabilities the opportunity to voice their needs and suggest some things the rest of us can do to make them welcome in the household of God.
"While the struggle for disability rights has transformed secular ethics and public policy, traditional Christian teaching has been slow to account for disability in its theological imagination. Amos Yong crafts both a theology of disability and a theology informed by disability. The result is a Christian theology that not only connects with our present social, medical, and scientific understanding of disability but also one that empowers a set of best practices appropriate to our late modern context"--Publisher description.
Reflecting on the confusion, shame and grief brought on by her mother's schizophrenia, Amy Simpson provides a bracing look at the social and physical realities of mental illness. Reminding us that people with mental illness are our neighbors and our brothers and sisters in Christ, she explores new possibilities for the church to minister to this stigmatized group.
What does healing mean for people with disabilities? Bridging biblical studies, ethics, and disability studies with the work of practitioners, Bethany McKinney Fox examines healing narratives in their biblical and cultural contexts. This theologically grounded and winsomely practical resource helps us more fully understand what Jesus does as he heals and how he points the way for relationships with people with disabilities.
The problem of pain is a perennial one; and for those who undergo particular sufferings it can often be the largest obstacle for trusting in a good and loving God. If such a God exists, why is there so much suffering in the world? And how do we deal with it when it comes into our lives? In his most fullest and most passionately argued book since 2008's bestseller THE REASON FOR GOD, New York pastor and church planter Tim Keller brings his authoritative teaching, sensitivity to contemporary culture and pastoral heart to this pressing question, offering no easy answers but giving guidance, encouragement and inspiration.
Disability and spirituality have traditionally been understood as two distinct spheres: disability is physical and thus belongs to health care professionals, while spirituality is religious and belongs to the church, synagogue, or mosque and their theologians, clergy, rabbis, and imams. This division leads to stunted theoretical understanding, limited collaboration, and segregated practices, all of which contribute to a lack of capacity to see people with disabilities as whole human beings and full members of a diverse human family. Contesting the assumptions that separate disability and spirituality, William Gaventa argues for the integration of these two worlds. As Gaventa shows, the quest to understand disability inevitably leads from historical and scientific models into the world of spirituality--to the ways that values, attitudes, and beliefs shape our understanding of the meaning of disability. The reverse is also true. The path to understanding spirituality is a journey that leads to disability--to experiences of limitation and vulnerability, where the core questions of what it means to be human are often starkly and profoundly clear. In Disability and Spirituality Gaventa constructs this whole and human path before turning to examine spirituality in the lives of those individuals with disabilities, their families and those providing care, their friends and extended relationships, and finally the communities to which we all belong. At each point Gaventa shows that disability and spirituality are part of one another from the very beginning of creation. Recovering wholeness encompasses their reunion--a cohesion that changes our vision and enables us to everyone as fully human.
How can the church engage the world, not by judgment nor accommodation but by becoming the good news in our culture? Offering seven distinct spiritual practices, David Fitch helps you re-envision church, what you do in the name of church, and the way you lead a church. Reimagine the church as the living embodiment of Christ, reflecting God's faithful presence to a desperate world.
