Welcome to Session Two of our first week of this course, I am again, just excited to have you here thinking about creating congregations of belonging with people of all abilities. And today I'm going to introduce you to the church as a casserole. Now I don't know what your favorite foods are, or if you like all of your foods  

separate. So I'm not trying to change your eating habits here. I just want to  introduce you to a thought about the church that, again, Barb introduced me to  many years ago, and I'm going to let you hear from her in a few minutes. But  first, I just want to linger on this idea for a moment that has kind of been  steeping in me for many years about how we can do ministry really well. And so  I think of it as church like a casserole. And so look, you know, you put all of the  ingredients in and you combine it all, and you're going to have to be very patient  as all of the flavors need to combine. You got to put in just the right amount of  things, and then it comes out delicious, and you scoop it out, and it's this hot,  steamy deliciousness that nourishes people. And I think that's what I want our  churches to be. I want them to be these warm, comforting, inviting places that  nourish the people who are there. And also I'm thinking about each one of us  being one of those key ingredients to the casserole. So we come with our  unique flavors, and each one of those is uniquely designed to be a part of the  whole dish, right? You don't just pick out one thing and just eat that part of the  casserole. It's a casserole because it all tastes better together. And so I want  you to hear from Barb for a few minutes about what, what she calls her lunch  bag framework for ministry. And I truly believe in this. But I just want you to think  about this, because no one is excluded, right? We're reading that that book.  There are no asterisks. And so I'm there. There is no asterisk. So thinking about  no asterisks here, it's all of the people that have brought that God has brought  in. It's his recipe for this casserole that is your church. So linger on this thought  as you listen to Barb share about her lunch bag framework for ministry. 

Barb - “I believe that churches are typically masters at building cans of things.  So they have a can and they call it children's ministry. They have a can and they call it, oh, this is our worship ministry. They have a can and they say, this is our  seniors ministry. And then they have another can and they call it, I don't know,  evangelism, youth ministry, whatever it is in your congregation, but it's almost  always true that overseeing these cans, they either have a staff member or a  volunteer. So you're in charge of the seniors, you're in charge of the you know,  you're in charge of the kids, you're in charge of the worship. We have pastors or  volunteers that take charge of this. They're in charge of worship, or you oversee  the children, whatever that can may be. And then churches hear about this thing called disability ministry, and they say, Oh, my goodness, we just need to add  another can. Oh, that is where I think we run into big trouble. Remember from  our last session, if it's true that in this children's ministry can at least 20% of the  children already have some sort of a designated disability. Or maybe you're a 

church that does a lot of multicultural opportunities, and you have people for  whom the language that you speak in your community is not your first language. So, so maybe we already have children who have languages that they are  learning in that is not really the one spoken within your community. I know I was  visiting and working with the Chinese church in Vancouver, Canada, and they  were saying to adults, are worshiping in Mandarin, the children are worshiping in English. Wow. Talk about some variance within a can, right? It's not a disability,  but it certainly is a difference in instruction. When we put the seniors, here's our  seniors, the seniors with the children, wow. We need to think about that. If we're  worshiping together, if we're learning together. What is that like? So already in  these cans, each one has a percentage of people who are already known as  having some kind of a disability, much less using that term varied ability could be in language, could be in preference about how we learn, how we take in  information, whatever that may be, our cans are filled with varied abilities. Cans  of all abilities, and that line just goes higher and higher as we think of all of the  possibilities of the way people may learn or worship or express themselves or  take information in it's a fascinating thing to think about. So I always say, Well,  okay, you're going to start a disability ministry can. Who are you going to put in  there? Are you going to take that two year old with Down Syndrome and put that person in that can along with, you know, maybe that 57 year old who's just been  diagnosed with bipolar disorder, really, you know, we're going to build a room  seven. Who are you going to put in room seven? So I think there's a better  analogy understanding that each one of these cans already has people with  designated disabilities, much less to think about people who have varied abilities of all sorts. I think we're much better off thinking about disability ministry as  shredded cheese. Shredded Cheese is some one of those things that you get a  chance to sprinkle within all of those portions of your church. Perhaps you have  children of all abilities, and you say, look, as the children's ministry director, you  get to own 100% of the children in this can but if we got a deal for you. We have  some people in our church. We have a person who maybe they work in special  education or social work or occupational therapy, they're going to come  alongside you, and we're going to figure out how we can have a children's  ministry of belonging, and find a place of belonging for each child who steps into our children's ministry area. What about that worship pastor, right? Oh, my  goodness. What a job we're worshiping with people of all abilities. But have we  come up with a worship service that only uses words? Because there are so  many people for whom that is not going to work? Well, perhaps worship service  that is thinking about people of all abilities will have a great opportunity to do  some brainstorming, a recognition that we're going to plant some things into our  worship service, so sprinkle that cheese in there, so that people have access  points to worship today, and it's not just going to be spoken words, because we  know that's not going to suit 100% of the worshipers who have gathered 

together on that day, seniors ministry, maybe we have a person that goes and  visits an individual from our community who has been diagnosed with dementia  and needs some tips and tools for going to do that visit. I don't know what that  looks like. Each can is going to require some expertise, some tools, some  shredded cheese, either in people or equipment or whatever that might be like,  so that we can truly have cans where each one can can say, Yes, we are a  community. Everyone welcome, and we mean it.” 

What Barb talked about as the shredded cheese of the casserole is how I have  learned ministry works best. So if you are vegan, or if your culture doesn't enjoy  cheese as a part of the foods, I apologize, and this is just intended to be an  illustration, so feel free to substitute it with something that makes more sense in  your context. But the point is to show that people all together, each bringing their flavor and unique addition to the community are what make this thing tasty, and  the shredded cheese that is binding it all together. Is how Barb talked about  someone being the lead person, or maybe a group of people, a team of leaders, a lead team in the community, who would champion meeting the needs for  support that they might be coordinating a plan. These might be the ones  organizing teams as people, drawing out the gifts of persons with disabilities. In  fact, when a casserole was all melted together, our ministries are better. We're  not competing for resources. We're complementary to one another. We're  united. We're connected. And so I just really love this idea of the church as a  casserole and just working together. So as we're working together, we're  ministering together. And it takes intentionality to make this casserole tasty, to  make this church work right when we do have people with such varied abilities,  participating altogether. It takes work. We need to get to know individuals who  make up our community to discover where their support is needed, whether  that's their support needs, right. So what you see in the picture here is  communication happening between two men who are academics, who are  actually at a meeting of academics and others to talk about disability needs in  the church. And one man is communicating with his big toe, using his iPad to  communicate with the man who uses words. So we need to know what it takes  to communicate with one another, both of those men are brilliant. They both  contribute hugely to this topic, and both were needed at this event in order to  have the right amount of expertise and do this ministry well. So we each served  together. So I just want to encourage you to think about what are those support  needs that might need. Be in place for the young children who take years to  potty train instead of a few months. For the youth group member who is blind  and so experiences the gains and the Scripture and the prayer engagement  differently for adults with ADHD, for aging members with hearing and mobility  differences for our worship services, when we say, please stand and let's  worship together, what can we be doing intentionally differently, so that we're 

more casserole like we're more engaging of all of the ingredients, and that  shredded cheese is coming around each one and offering the right amount of  support and a little different vocabulary to support everyone participating. Well, I  have a friend who is participating in her prayer ministry. She's actually kind of  heading up an intercessory prayer group to say, we need to pray for our church.  And this friend of mine happens to have ADHD, So paying attention comes in  short spurts, and she's working with a group of people who also have different  needs and needs for support. And one woman has very limited understanding  and will often simply mimic what other people pray, or simply pray about the  thing that popped into her head. And so when they are praying for the church,  my friend is passionate about praying for the pastors and her friends who are  the ministry leaders, and then this other individual prays for the puppy that she  saw on the street, or simply repeats what the person before her said, and there  was some frustration between these two, and that is a part of what this looks  like. It gets messy sometimes. So we talked together, and we said, well, let's  encourage a topic, right? Let's write down what the topics are to help everybody  stay focused, and to say, right now we're praying for this person or this need,  and to remind the other individuals. Yep, we love puppies, but right now we're  praying for Pastor Steve, right? And so those kinds of things have helped to  shape that space and those interactions so that all are participating more fully.  That's what it takes to be this. You need that person who's going to say, how can we build in the supports and the structure so that this works for everybody? And  that's what I mean when I say the shredded cheese at the casserole. So we  might need to use some visuals or provide schedules, or use some more  appropriate language, like join us in worship, in the way that your body moves  best. I don't know, right? I'm making that up right now, but we could use some  different language. We can give more structure, more guidance, offer previews  about what's going to happen. Those are all some strategies and tools that we're going to get to talk about more throughout this course. But we don't need to  separate or segregate or stigmatize or exclude people, we can get more  creative than that, so that we are, are we all are a functioning part of this  delicious casserole. So have a little look at some of the resources and the  readings in this segment, and then I'll see you next time, as we talk more about  attitude and where it all starts.



Последнее изменение: среда, 15 апреля 2026, 13:10