Well, welcome to week two, first session, and as I promised, we're going to talk  about these perspective pieces and this attitude building tools that I'm going to  give you. So I call them perspective changers, and that's where we're going to  spend some time here in this first session of week one. And we're going to look  

from there at strategies and tools and practical applications of ministry best  practices. But let's just talk about this perspective changing bit for a moment,  and then I'm going to introduce you to a friend of mine named Dan Vander Plaat, who is the author of the book that you're reading. There are no asterisks, and he has developed something called the five stages of changing attitudes. And I  want to just go on that attitude journey with you for a moment in these  perspective changers, as I call them. So as we go on a journey, we're going to  start from somewhere, and where we start is this idea of what Dan calls  ignorance. And that's simply this place of knowing that weaknesses and  disabilities may be in some understandings a result of sin or lack of faith. Maybe the place I'm starting from is saying that I'm uncomfortable around people with  disabilities. I'm going to stay away from them, right? And we can see examples  of this in Scripture, but the idea is simply in ignorance, we just don't know people with disabilities, and it's okay to say that that's where you're starting from. You  don't know what you don't know. And if you haven't encountered many people  with disabilities, this could be new and foreign to you, and that's all right, but  think again about those attitudes and those ways that we approach this. Right?  Are you kind of leery and questioning? Just don't stay in this ignorant space.  That's what I want to encourage you, is don't stay there, so come back by  joining in awareness, and that's what's going to help you journey on to the next  phase, is awareness of people with disabilities. So that will lead you to the next  phase, where your understanding might be that I am blessed by God. I can help  others. I'm grateful that maybe my children or my family members aren't  disabled, but I feel sorry for those who are disabled, and I want someone to help them. Now, this is the attitude known as pity, and it's not necessarily wrong. We  even see in Scripture, in Psalm 72 that he will take pity on the weak and the  needy. So it is good to take pity on others sometimes, but I just want to note that people with disabilities don't constantly need pity when I don't feel well, I don't  always want people to pity me. I do have an intermittent disability, and I don't  want people to linger here, and you'll see why as I share a little bit more,  because pity needs to be a place where we gain access, and that's what moves  us to a new place, right? So we've got awareness, so maybe now we're sorry for people, but we need to keep moving forward and continue to bring access to  people, and that's where we talk about accessibility efforts in our churches,  which is important, and it's not necessarily the same thing as being a place of  belonging with people of all abilities, but it's a good step along the journey. So  when you take that step and say, we can go further than just pitying people, we  can help bring access so that people with disabilities have a bigger voice at the 

table. And so that will lead us to this attitude that says, like me, people with  disabilities were created in God's image, and by that virtue alone, they have  worth. I will gladly support ways to care for them. And again, we could get stuck  here, and we could be thinking that we care for people with disabilities and that  that's the job of the church, and in many ways, yes, the church needs to care for people's needs, right? This is a true example from many passages in Scripture.  We care for one another when we have a broken leg, when we have a surgery,  when someone is ill, when someone's family member is not doing well, when  someone passes away, we care for one another Absolutely, but that's not where  we stay. It's not just what we do because people have disabilities, we don't just  care for them. There's more to go. So what we call integration is what brings us  to a new stage when we move from care into participating with people with  disabilities. And that will lead us to an attitude that says I have come to know  and spend time with a friend who has a disability. This person has value in  God's sight, but also value in mine. My life is better for knowing this person. And  we reflect again on Romans 15:13, so this is the stage known as friendship,  true, interlocking relationships that benefit one another, that encouraging one  another and building each other up kind of relationship, right? Is that you  actually know people with disabilities. You are co encouragers in this building up of the Body of Christ. You actually have meaningful relationship. But again, we  can get stuck here. Oh yeah, I have friends with disabilities. That’s not enough.  We have further yet to go. So take one more step with me on this journey from  friendship, we move through engagement into co laborer, and this attitude says,  If God has called each one of us to serve and praise him with every fiber of our  being, then he has done the same for our brothers and sisters in Christ with  disabilities, we can give and we can all receive. And these scriptures again  coming up about being the part of the body of Christ, that we were his  handiwork created in Christ, Jesus to do good works, which he's prepared in  advance for us to do. So the end of this journey, or this fifth stage, is saying we  are building up God's kingdom together. And so any needs for support that need to be put in place, all of those gifts and abilities that each one of us bring, it  comes together because we're both building up the kingdom. We're both  building up the body of Christ, right? So it's about each one of us now is called  to go and make more disciples. Okay, so disability or no disability, each one of  us is called to go and make disciples and teach in the ways that God has gifted  us to do that. So being co laborers in this effort is what it's all about. So the  visual that Dan has created to go along with this is called the five stages of  changing attitudes, and I'm excited for you to hear from him in his own words, a  little bit about the creation of that and the theology and what he calls the  anthropology of this idea of these changing attitudes, to why it makes such a  difference in our faith communities. So enjoy a little bit of learning from Dan  himself and get to know His voice in this.



Last modified: Thursday, April 16, 2026, 9:26 AM