Since childhood, Sandra Peoples has been familiar with the hurdles those with disabilities and their families must overcome to find their place in a church community: She grew up with an older sister who had Down syndrome, and her son, James, was diagnosed with Level 3 autism.
As a child, Peoples worshipped in a small-town Oklahoma church that welcomed her family and several other families with kids who had different disabilities. As an adult, Peoples married a pastor, and together they had to figure out how to create a welcoming, accessible church of their own. Today the Peoples’ church, Heights Baptist Church in Alvin, Texas, is an exemplar of disability inclusivity.
Peoples is a speaker; an advocate for special needs families, particularly in the context of church ministry; and the author of Accessible Church: A Gospel-Centered Vision for Including People With Disabilities and Their Families (Crossway). Here, she shares what church leaders should know about serving families like hers in their own communities.
You started a disability ministry in your church to meet the needs you already had; namely, your son’s. Talk about how that ministry has expanded over the years.
We’ve been here for eight years, and the church has grown in accessibility each year. As my son James and the ministry have grown, we keep adding classes and opportunities. Now we have a class ahead for him. He is in a teenage and young adult class, and then there’s a fully adult class that’s older.
We run 450–500 people, so we’re not a megachurch. Our church in Pennsylvania was 125–150 people. Churches of every size can take some steps of accessibility. In our church, that did take time. You start by meeting the needs of the people already at your church, and then you grow to meet the needs of the people who come in. I really think God grows your ministry and your volunteer base at the rate he’s bringing families in.
Talk a little bit about the theology behind serving, reaching and loving people with disabilities and their families.
If you don’t really have experience with disability, you may not realize how often the Bible talks about it and how many people in Scripture have what we could consider a disability. In Exodus 4, when God calls Moses to go speak before Pharaoh, Moses says he can’t do it because he is slow of speech. And so we think, OK, that could be a speech impediment. And then God responds, I made you this way. I make man blind or mute or deaf or seeing, and you still have this calling on your life. In that passage, God takes responsibility for the way he created Moses.
We see [it] in the story of David and Mephibosheth [through] David showing grace to a person with a physical disability who wouldn’t have had access to the king’s table in that way. In John 9, when Jesus and the disciples are walking and they see a man who’s born blind, the disciples say, “Did he sin? Or did his parents sin? What is the cause of this disability?” Jesus says, “No, this happened so that the works of God would be displayed in him.”
At the end of Jesus’ life, he [overturns] the tables at the temple so people with disabilities [and other limitations] could access that area. He reprioritized what that space was for. I love the care that we see throughout Scripture for people with disabilities, and how Jesus’ heart is for their inclusion in his church family.
Is there a disconnect between how much churches think they’re doing for disability ministry and how much they are actually doing?
Yes. There was a Lifeway Research study that came out in March 2020, and they asked pastors if a person with disabilities would feel welcome at their church. Ninety-nine percent of pastors said yes. Families like mine saw that and were like, They don’t really think that, right? There’s no way that my family can go to 99% of churches and feel welcome.
I think the disconnect is that they don’t fully understand. “Disability” is such a broad term. You could say, “Well, a person in a wheelchair has access to this worship space, right?” And that’s a different kind of disability than a teenager with autism. Would they be able to access this worship space with the noise and people and things that can make them uncomfortable? So, I think part of it is just understanding the diversity of disability and the different needs somebody would have, and then realizing all the ways you could make accommodations so those people and their families would be comfortable attending.
How should we think about inclusion of people with visible disabilities versus inclusion of people with disabilities that aren’t readily apparent?
It starts with asking questions in a respectful way. Sometimes we assume certain accommodations may be necessary when that isn’t what a family needs. We can have conversations with the family to say, “How can we set up this environment in a way that your child is more comfortable?” And then, even if we don’t know a diagnosis, we’re watching for behaviors that communicate there’s a need here that’s not getting met, whether that is a sensory need or a learning disability.
If a church doesn’t currently have a disability ministry in place, what are some easy but meaningful ways for them to start?
I think one thing a lot of churches do that is really a blessing to their community is to start respite nights. They can have an evening at their church where they invite kids with disabilities and their siblings, and they fully staff it so everybody’s going to be safe. It is hard to get a babysitter and to have time together as a couple. I think it’s a gift to kids with disabilities. It’s a gift to their siblings, because they get to spend time with other siblings who get the life that they’re living. And it’s a gift to the parents, because they have time to go Christmas shopping, or to go on a date, for example.
Sometimes it can start with special events. You can make an Easter egg hunt more accessible. Lots of churches have kids at VBS with invisible disabilities, so they figure out how to meet their needs and then invite those families.
If pastors are trying to encourage their people to be more inclusive on an individual level, how can they create a more welcoming atmosphere for people with disabilities?
Part of it is not looking at people with disabilities with fear or pity. If a family living with disability comes in on a Sunday morning, there may be some curiosity, but you want to move from that pretty quickly into forming real friendships with them. Sometimes we have to remind our church families of proper disability etiquette. It can be the words we use or even how we pray for each other. How do we pray for families when healing is not their biggest request or even really on their minds?
I think one thing pastors need to understand is that their people follow their example and learn from the words they use. If there’s a disability family present, we just have to be sensitive to how that makes them feel. The way a pastor treats families that have a member with a disability, the way he preaches, the way he talks about suffering—even ongoing suffering—all of that matters. All of that is shaping the culture of the church.