Running Header: Special Needs 0

Ministries

REVOLUTIONIZING LOCAL
SPECIAL NEEDS MINISTRIES
Kendra M. Tandingan
Pennsylvania State University
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What is affecting your environment?

It can be said for most charitable organizations that knowing the specific needs of the

individuals that you are trying to serve makes that goal easier to achieve. This is exactly the case

for Cove Run Church’s special needs ministry, God’s Choice. God’s choice is a special needs

ministry that serves individuals weekly by providing a meal, a message, and a team of people to

pray over them during the week. Many men and women with special needs have experienced

isolation, judgement, and feeling “less than” many times in their lives. Sadly, a lot of these times

are when they attempt to find a place where they should be most accepted, church. This tends to

happen due to lack of knowledge on the subject. Talking to, listening to, and even eating with

individuals effected my mental and psychical disabilities can be an intimidating task when you

have little to no experience in this field. But perhaps the biggest downfall in a church is not their

lack of experience, but their limited organization for the individuals they’re serving. Being able

to receive feedback, organizing attendance, and keeping current information on the individuals is

critical to a program such as God’s Choice. In my time working with special needs individuals, I

have learned that the more you know the more successful you will be. Hearing the specific

needs and keeping in touch with the men and women attending the program and their families

can connect the volunteers and those attending on a personal level. Without the resources to

organize a special needs ministry you can encounter miscommunication, uncomfortableness for

everyone involved, and eventually individuals not returning to the program. Ultimately what is at

stake here is a safe and comfortable environment, peace or chaos, and a time to enjoy or a time to

dread. Cove Run Church could provide communication cards for their special needs ministry to
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better keep in contact with those attending and have easily accessible documents providing

specific the needs of the individuals.

The Problem Seen Everywhere

In America today, individuals with special needs face a struggle that many of us cannot

begin to relate to. In my research and experience in working with these individuals, I’ve learned

that because of disabilities, isolation, ableism, and societal expectations are just a few of the key

difficulties the minority of disabled men and women face. While my focus for aiding in a portion

of the problem has been in the church, these walls for the disabled can be found in so many areas

of our society. To be disabled is to be looked at as “less than” or weaker than the “average”

American. This problem of a minority being looked down upon and therefore, being handed a

life full of challenges greater than our own is nothing new. But to what severity do we let these

challenges get to before we understand that no one should be handed a life filled with isolation,

which is known to cause higher depression and suicide rates; or ableism, a form of

discrimination where we judge a person based on their title of being disabled before knowing if

this individual is capable of just as much as we are. This can be found in social setting, in the

way we look at others, and even in the work force. In a well-known study done in the 70s by

David Rosenhan, Rosenhan uses pseudo patients to prove many things about psychology at the

time, including that labels are not an easy thing to rid yourself of, especially in the case of mental

disabilities. After sending fake patients into a mental illness facility, telling them to report

hearing voices in their heads, they were diagnosed with Schizophrenia. These “patients”

immediately told the doctors that the voices were gone and showed no symptoms of being a

Schizophrenic, the doctors only after lengthy periods of time, released the patients from the
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hospital labeling them as in remission for Schizophrenia (Rosenhan, 1973). As you could

imagine, that would be a tough label to apply to jobs with, the same way telling your prospective

employers that you are mentally or psychically disabled would make things difficult for special

needs individuals. Having a disability doesn’t often mean that you are incapable of being a fully

functioning member of society, yet we have coupled it with words like “less than” or someone

who cannot be trusted with responsibility. This pairing of two very different concepts leads to the

isolation and ableism that special needs individuals today are still overcoming.

Ministries for Everyone

Surprisingly enough, there are numerous sources from families that tell their stories about

how they were pushed out of churches or neglected because of their family members with special

needs. This is a problem across the nation that many families are taking a stand against. To better

understand the need for special needs ministries, I read articles by churches, parents with special

needs children, and even by families who stopped attending church due to a lack of a special

needs ministry that was properly run. So many clearly pointed out the dire need for these

programs in the church community, that are not only just functioning but with volunteers that

care, and individual’s willing to organize and prioritize certain things. In an article written by

DeAnna Gibson, a mother of a 5-year-old autistic child, she explains how she concluded that

churches needed to go out of their way to better engage families with special needs. She begins

the article as a narrative, telling her readers how she would try to take her son to Sunday school

and enjoy the message with the adults but would wind up leaving her husband to enjoy it alone to

go calm her son down in the hallway because Sunday school was a sensory overload for him.

Their church at the time had nothing to cater to special needs families, preventing her from being

able to attend church regularly. As a ministry, the main goal is to reach all types of people and
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share the gospel with them, to be there for them, and teach them to love others. It is impossible to

do this without catering to all types of families. After that chaotic Sunday morning, Gibson

acknowledged this, and as she became a leader in the church she expressed this to the other

leaders of the church, advocating for change. The problem of not having an organized, well run

special needs program is unmistakably evident in every story like Gibson’s. She so clearly

verifies the consequences of running a church without these ministries with a story that so many

can relate to.

Largely unreached populations

Without these ministries, whole families feel the pressure of being unwelcome, or far too

overwhelmed with trying to maintain a calm church setting. Irresistible Church proposes the idea

that the church should be a safe place for families with special needs children where they are

accepted and loved to the fullest extent, a point that needs emphasizing since so many people

still believe that families with special needs children are not high in number and do not need

whole ministries committed to them (2016). For further elaboration for the necessity of these

ministries, Spectrum Magazine uses the deaf population which is a highly unreached group,

similar the special needs ministries. Spectrum Magazine states that less than two percent of

Christians are deaf individuals, while less populated in the church community. It’s made aware

that this largely unreached group is another ministry that should be built up for the families that

need the support of the church, the same way that special needs families do (Byrd, 2018)

How can this be accomplished?

When it comes to the topic of special needs ministries, most of us will readily agree that

they’re essential to the church community. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on
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the question of how we go about starting and maintaining one. Whereas some are convinced that

all you need is volunteers and special needs individuals to create this healthy environment, others

maintain that organization, feedback, and outreach are critical. To clarify, there are starting

ministries that may have yet to master the art of online organization and outreach that are

successful. However, a ministry is much more likely to be successful longer, more enjoyed and

expanded quickly with these tools that will make running such a program much easier. To

reaffirm this point, I wholeheartedly endorse what Believers Church’s approach to a special

needs program displays. The leaders of our special needs’ ministry ‘Champions Club’ go out of

their way to stay in communication with the families of the children we minister to. For example,

a family of one of our kids in Champions Club has recently gone through the loss of a child.

Shari, one of our team leads, explained that she makes it a point to “Come along side of our

families if they’re going through something.” (S. Solis, personal communication, October 27,

2018). She truly reaffirms this with her actions in being there for this family that has lost a child

by buying the other children in the family and their father clothes for the upcoming funeral. In

hard times families can stop going to church out of grief. But this family has received support

from their special needs ministry that they may not be receiving anywhere else. This makes for a

stronger ministry that keeps its families feeling loved and accepted. The importance of this

outreach to families is so significant in the connection between volunteers and those attending

special needs ministries. Key Ministries’ theory of communication with the families in all areas

is extremely useful because it sheds light on the difficult problem of how we go about achieving

this open communication. Key Ministries uses a website as an example of an effective way to

stay in contact with the members of the special needs program. I know many small churches with

low funding capability may object to this option, but there are many free online services to
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utilize for outreach and communication, like Facebook or a weekly email that simply

communicates that you have been thinking about the members and ask for feedback. The

communication cards for Cove Run could install this communication that is imperative to

running such a ministry. On these cards the church would be able to collect the individuals’

name, email, address, birthday, dietary needs, and prayer request. With this small amount

information on a card passed out weekly, Cove Run can stay updated on the needs of their people

and even new comers so that they may best meet their needs. To implement the use of these

cards, they will be handed out at the door when individuals check into God’s Choice and the

individuals will be asked to fill them out and returned on their way out when the service has

ended. The Church will benefit from hearing specific request made by the attending individuals,

any needed dietary changes to the food being made, and weekly prayer request.

Achievable for all ministry budgets

While I can understand that starting a special needs ministry from scratch can appear to

be a daunting task, especially for small town churches, an article by Disability Concerns, a host

on Network CRCNA gives a brief overview of some practical steps for success in this task.

Disability Concerns reviews a book written by Joni and Friends called Start With Hello, which

outlines small steps to set churches with minimal funding to turn to when thinking about starting

a special needs ministry in their church. While reading the review I found steps that are perfectly

applicable to my reoccurring theme of organization and communication. Some of these small

steps include “Listening to the conversations going on in your church about the needed

ministries,” making plans based on the conversations, as well as “training and communicating to
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your volunteers what your vision is for this specialized ministry in your church community”

(Brueck, 2015).

Conclusion

To concede with each of these sources I have found, communication and organization on

a special needs’ ministry continues to be absolutely critical to the success of a ministry. This

success can be defined by how comfortable your individuals attending are, how your volunteers

feel about your program, and most importantly if your able to teach these individuals the gospel

on their level. With consistent feedback from the men and women attending Cove Run’s special

needs program, God’s Choice, the leaders of the program will be able to better understand how

to shape their ministry. God’s choice will see results of a less chaotic environment after utilizing

a communication card to better hear the needs and stay in communication with those they are

ministering to. Ultimately this will provide a comfortable place to accept all of these families as

they are, reaching them on personal levels that they may have never experienced.
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References

Brueck, K. (2015). Starting with Hello: Introducing Your Church to Special Needs Ministry.

Agoura Hills, CA. The Denzel Agency.

Byrd, A. (2018, January 30). GC’s Special Needs Ministries Focuses on Possibilities.

Spectrum Magazine, volume 46. Retrieved from

https://spectrummagazine.org/article/2018/01/30/gcs-special-needs-ministries-focuses-

possibilities

Disability Concerns. (2016, February 1). Start With Hello: Introducing Your Church to Special

Needs Ministry [Review of the book Start With Hello]. Network. Retrieved from

https://network.crcna.org/disability-concerns/start-hello-introducing-your-church-special-

needs-ministry

Gibson, D. (2018). Facts & Trends: Is Your Church Engaging Families with Special

Needs? Retrieved from https://factsandtrends.net/2018/08/02/is-your-church-engaging-

families-with-special-needs/

Irresistible Church, M. (2016, January 29). Why families need special needs ministry.
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Retrieved from: https://irresistiblechurch.org/families-need-special-needs-ministry-doc-

hunsley/

Peoples, S. (2016, October 16). Five Qualities The Best Special-Needs Ministries Have In

Common. Retrieved from

https://www.keyministry.org/church4everychild/2016/10/5/five-qualities-the-best-

special-needs-ministries-have-in-common

Rosenhan, D. L. (1973). On Being Sane in Insane Places (Vol 179).