Well here we are welcome to week four. Super excited to continue in this course with you. I hope that you are starting to get some great ideas for how your  community can be a place of belonging for people of all abilities. And so as  we're talking about this, this creation of congregations, we're going to talk more  thoroughly now about universal design. So I introduced this topic to you back a  couple of weeks ago, and we spent some time thinking about this, but now I  want you to hear again from the master from Barb Newman, my mentor, who  taught me so much of this, but she's going to really dive into, what are we talking about? What is universal design all about in our ministry context? And then I'm  going to continue that learning in the next segment. So enjoy the video of her  from the previous version of this course, and then you'll hear some more from  me after that. 

Barb - “Really want to anchor our time now on universal design. Remember that  feature that says, Look, we may have planted in some options and ideas for  individuals, but this will benefit 100% of the community. So we're going to look at what that might entail. And I think it's important, as we think about this, my best  suggestion to you is that this is about options, and they're built in so that people  anybody could access them. This is not about providing an option for Stephanie  and John that would be personalized or responsive design. This is just creating  options. It would be like that summer camp putting in a dock, and on that dock  they would have a place for a person who's a wheelchair user to launch into the  water, along with having everybody else use that same dock, it's just available,  but there are options built into the dock so it can be used in a variety of ways.  Well, we're going to see how some churches have owned that and built in some  options that I think you will find delightful. So again, examples of making our  congregations accessible by building in those options for anyone to use as they  may have need. All right, here we go Fairway church. They are part of the  Michigan Community here, and I absolutely appreciated so many things about  fairway. Their website is one of those places that you go to, and it says very  clearly, we are an accessible congregation. You know, this is what we have to  offer. And so, you know, contact, so and so, if you would desire certain  accommodations, and very clear the first thing on the first first page of their  website, you'll see statements about accessibility, and I think that's really  important for people who are searching for such a community. The other thing  that I thought was beautiful is they offer valet parking. And so they found some  eager teenagers who were delighting in, you know, parking other people's cars.  This was a fun thing for them, but how excellent, especially for people who may  just not want to walk on the ice during the winter. Also, it was used by several  people who are single parents and to carry all that they needed across the  parking lot and keep their children safe. Was a lot. So to be able to just pull up to the door, get out and have somebody else park their car was wonderful. So 

again, they just offered valet parking for anybody who might like to choose that  the other thing that they offered was multiple worship spaces, and we'll talk a  little bit more about sensory differences that people may have. But one of those  things as you think about multiple worship spaces is you can have some people  in their congregation three different spots. You're welcome to worship with us in  one of three areas. Again, they're not assigning them. They're just offering three  worship areas. You can worship in our sanctuary, or you could worship around  round tables in our fellowship room and a live stream. So the service was  brought to this room via live stream. Or you can worship in a sensory friendly  room where the sound can be down, the lights can be up, and movement is  welcome. So they literally have marked three areas that people could choose to  worship in, really helping those people who might be sensitive to sounds, really  welcoming those people who cannot sit for X amount of time or who need more  structured chairs than what the pews can offer. It was just marvelous how they  had that set up lots of choices they offered, also something called Sound  blockers. Let me find those just a minute. The sound blockers are a way to offer  people a chance to stay in a worshiping area, but to literally block the sounds.  And instead of, you know, assigning these to people, what they did was they  had them in a checkout area, and it said very clearly in the bulletin, if you or a  family member would appreciate having sound blockers during the worship  service, you can check them out at the visitors station, return them after use. So  again, this was one way to help people who were pretty sound sensitive in that  environment, they just offered them to people. So those are some of the pieces  from Fairway. Union Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina. I had a delightful time in that setting. A couple of things that I just want to point out here, it's so  unique to this primarily African American church. They offered a website. One of  the first pictures that I saw was a person who had limited mobility, but he was  very much a part of the worshiping whole. So it clearly showed, by one picture,  that we have welcomed people of all abilities, and really encourage  congregations to think about what pictures do you have on your website, and  how can you communicate visually that you are a congregation that welcomes  people of all abilities. The other thing that I found absolutely amazing, and I've  never heard of this before, they offered a time when the staff went out into the  parking lot. I don't know if they did it once a month, or how often this was, and  they offered drive through prayer where people could literally drive into the  parking lot, not have to cross the barrier of those doors, not have to, mobility  wise, get out of their car if they didn't want to. They could just stay in their car.  And the staff came to them and and prayed with them. And I thought I'd never  heard of that before. It was this wonderful offering. So they have done a great  job with live streaming at Union Baptist, they're very much welcomed into the  community by words. So one of the first words I heard from the microphone  were we welcome people who are worshiping with us here in the sanctuary and 

those joining us via live stream, and went right on so recognizing from the  beginning that it was a viable part of the congregation, some very creative ways  to use streaming options, and they did it well. Union Baptist, I could have moved at any point in that worship service, partly just because of the nature of what that service was, but there were movement options all the way through, and it was  welcomed. They had a variety of transportation options. You could park there.  They also had some vans that would drive up. It was just well thought of and  that people might need to access transportation wise a variety of ways. The  other thing that was very clear is who's in charge. Clearly dressed that way, but  also with name tags, easy to pick out somebody that I could ask a question of.  And it worked very, very well. So again, there were other features there too, but  so impressed with Union Baptist and what they had to offer. Trinity Presbyterian  Church is in Virginia. And again, I think this church has just exceeded  expectations in terms of Universal Design for worship, but they really have done  a marvelous job. They have, again, different seating options, so you can sit in  sort of this main area, and then there's off to the side, a smaller alcove that's  attached, but it has a live stream screen there, so that people are a little off the  side. I noticed a lot more movement in that area, people walking around,  whereas the main sanctuary, there wasn't as much of that. And then they also  had, they had turned there what was used to be called a cry room, right for  infants who were crying a place for those, I think they called it their wiggle room  for for people who just needed to worship in that space that had a lot of freedom of movement. The other thing that they had for one of their services was a  American Sign Language interpreter. It's just part of what you could access at  one of their services. They always had in their order of worship, their bulletin,  there was always a large print option. And as I mentioned before, part of the  seating was this wiggle room, which was used by several during the worship  service. St Andrew's church, this is one that I visited in Iowa. They really did a  great job of remembering an accessible sanctuary is good, but we should really  have an accessible stage area. Again, that makes a statement. We're expecting  people of all abilities to also lead in worship, and so they had done a wonderful  job of making the stage accessible. They had an area with a hearing loop so  that those with hearing aids knew where they could sit. It was well marked, and  that, again, facilitated those with some hearing differences, multiple coffee  stops. There was some main ones. There was also some that were very remote, so that perhaps a person who needed a less congested area for a cup of coffee  could find one there as well. They also wanted to train the congregation as a  whole. So I spent a whole weekend there. Did some things during worship  service, did some things as part of conference, but they really wanted to share  that perspective with everybody, and they made that a priority for a weekend,  and it was a really neat opportunity to visit there. This also Fourth Reformed is a  church in Michigan, and they have a variety of options available as well. Yes, 

they were the ones that masterminded that beautiful thing called pew pouches.  And again, on every pew they have these worship bags. I think they may still call them pew pouches or worship bags, I'm not sure, but they just have a simple  sign on the front. Feel free to use a fidget item if it makes it easier to listen.  Please return to baggies after use. So again, they stock these with a variety of  items, but it's just put on every pew. People can access as needed. They too  were offered that both the icons or the pictures and the words in the order of  worship, as well as that checklist that I referenced a couple weeks ago. And also one of the people that you see is on the worship team. They really, again, pulled  the gifts of people in the sanctuary, in the in the congregation, and tried to allow  people to use their gifts in service. And so this particular gentleman had a  degenerative vision situation, but he was a great worship leader. And so they  they again, figured out a way for him to be part of the worship team, changing  magnification and input so that he could play as part of that setting as well. So  again, very much serving based on gifts. Memorial Road is a church in  Oklahoma, and they, too had done just this marvelous job of equipping the  people, and they used a lot of people. So in their youth, children and youth  programs, they just recruited additional people, knowing that it was better to  have three people in a room than two. So their volunteers were rich in that great  story of the elevator, also wonderful universal design and they had to retrofit it.  But they didn't yet have any children who needed the use of an elevator. But  there were several floors in the children's area. So someone in their  congregation, a universal design thinker, I would imagine, said, You know what?  I can know that there's a day coming when we will need this. So they donated  this elevator? Had it put in for the time when, you know, people would have the  need of an elevator in order to either work or volunteer within the children's  ministry or participate there needs. They had a really amazing thing called the  sensory room, and we'll talk a little bit more about that. But they spent a lot of  time figuring out what do we want in this space, and it was a sort of a break  area, either that parents could use with their children during worship, or it could  be that there might be a volunteer that would take an individual from a learning  setting, an educational setting, to benefit from this room for a space of time. But  again, the sensory room was wonderful. I don't know if your community is into  this word, trauma informed, but they were putting a lot of effort into training all of  their staff, those that worked with children through adults, on being a trauma  informed congregation, on developing techniques and responses as when  interacting with persons who had experienced trauma and again, universal  design, they weren't waiting until that happened. These things were just in place. And I thought it was a terrific set of offerings in Oklahoma as well. So those are  just I wanted to give you a taste sample from both children and adult settings or  worship settings of what some actual churches are doing. And I know you're all  going to figure out how to do drive through prayer, because isn't that fun? But 

they had, again, just these great array of options. That's what they are. They're  options built in, or it's training built in, or it's opportunities built in that people can  access as needed, multiple spaces to worship, multiple people staffing a room.  They just built it in from the beginning without waiting for that one person to walk in that would need X, Y or Z. And I hope you're getting excited, because I've  often said congregations that can really sink some time and energy into this  thing called universal design will be far down the path in terms of setting up  places where people of all abilities can worship, can learn, can serve together,  can fellowship together as part of a congregation or community.”



Last modified: Monday, April 20, 2026, 9:08 AM