The reason why I made the five stages, why it came to me, why it's so important to me, and why I came down here. That's why it is that important that I came  down to share this with you because I believe that you are all theologians. And a theologian is usually thought of as somebody who talks about what we believe  about God, who studies what we believe about God. But everybody believes  something about God. So at your core, all of you are theologians. And not just if  you believe in God, even if you don't believe in God, you have a theology. And  that theology impacts things because you are also an anthropologist. And at this point, you're probably wondering, what is this all about? Where is this going?  What does this have to do with disability? Well, the way that we think about God, what we believe about God, whether or not we believe in God, impacts how we  think, how we perceive the world around us, how we think about other people.  So you are a theologian. You are also an anthropologist. And that's why the five  stages exist, because you are both of those things. You can have good  theology, and you can have bad theology. And you can have good anthropology  and bad anthropology. So I'm going to say something, I'm going to propose  something that might be a little controversial. If you have bad theology, you can  never have good anthropology. And if you have good theology, you don't  automatically have good anthropology. So think about that as I walk us through  what I believe is some good theology. Going straight to Scripture, hopefully we'll  get some good theology from Scripture. Psalm 139, David tells us, after he's  talking to God, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. That indicates  something about who we are at our core. Our anthropology should be formed  based on that. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul is talking about the parts of the body  and how we all look at the parts that seem to be weaker and think, why do we  need them? No, he says the opposite. They are, in fact, indispensable. And then we often think about, what does it mean to be created in God's image? What  does it mean if you are disabled, that you are created in God's image? And we  somehow attach that to appearance, capacity, intellect, the ability just to do  something. But that's not what Ephesians 4 tells us. Paul says, we are in the  likeness of God in righteousness and holiness. That's where our capacity lies. And there's nothing that divides us from people who have more or less cognitive ability, more or less diversity in our neural processing processes. So all of these  things tell us what good theology should be. Now, I knew all these things  growing up as a person with a disability, but I didn't just have good anthropology  as a result. And I realized this about 15 years ago when I was sitting in a  restaurant with two adults with disabilities and two of my coworkers. And the  waitress comes over and she introduces herself. And she says, she asks us to  introduce ourselves. And I noticed that when she turned to the adults with  disabilities, that her tone went up just a couple notes in pitch and her head  cocked to the side a little bit. And I thought, that's so nice of her to engage our  adults in such a sweet manner. And then she turned to me and she did the same

thing to me. And I thought, well, that's not very nice. That's not very sweet or  engaging. That's really condescending, actually. And I felt like I deserved  different treatment. And that's what I realized later that evening as I was talking it through with my wife. I remember being really angry that this young woman was  treating me like I had significant disabilities and I was the one who was going to  pay the check. And then I realized that how she treated me and how she  treated the adults that I was with was a problem, yes. But there was an even  bigger problem. The bigger problem was that I thought I deserved better  treatment than our adults with disabilities did. And I also know that other people  thought that they deserved better treatment than I did or that other adults with  disabilities needed. So that night I wrote out something, a first draft of something that maybe you've heard of. It's called the five stages. And the five stages just  walks us through some very basic self-analysis to see what our attitudes are  when it comes to disability. And maybe these will be helpful for you. First,  ignorance. And we're not talking about good anthropology here. We're talking  about really bad anthropology. That we don't see any purpose for the life of  someone with disabilities. So why are they even here? What purpose could God have for them? Probably none. Maybe we might move on to the second stage,  pity. When we ask or we just observe, that's just too bad. I mean, I feel sorry for  them. It's too bad that they have to live life that way. But if God is gracious to us, maybe he'll cause us to ask a question, what can I do? And if we ask what can I  do, then we can move on to stage three, care. And stage three is in many  Christian church contexts the ultimate stage that we want to get to with our  disability ministry. But we're only halfway there. And we're still not in the territory  of good anthropology. We're in pretty okay anthropology right about now. But  there's more to come. Stage four, friendship. We have actual relationships with  people with disabilities. We walk, we journey with them. Not only in their  disability, but just in relationship. Just an everyday relationship, reciprocal. Now,  one thing I want to point out here is that even bad theology can get us to this  pretty good anthropology. But this is as far as bad theology can take us. Good theology brings us to one more step in our anthropology. And that is to be  co-laborers. And co-laboring, yes, it's mutual. Yes, it's reciprocal. But it's also  accountable. It's holding each other accountable for what God has created and  gifted each other to do. And to be obedient to the call that God has placed on  your life. To be obedient to his word and his scripture. I hope that's helpful in  explaining what a good anthropology might be if we start with good theology. Now, I'm really excited that we, you know, after that I was able to work with a  ton of people, wonderful Christian disability thinkers across the country in putting together this very handy dandy diagram. But what I'm even more excited about  15 years later is that it's not just in English. It's also in Turkish and Spanish and  Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese, Japanese, Hindu, Dutch, of course, Malaysian,  and I said German and French as well. 22 languages in all now. In fact, just over

the last couple weeks, we were able to release translations in  Nepalese, Mongolian, and Arabic. And it's just so exciting to see those become  available. I do need to ask for your help, though, because I need a Portuguese  translation. I don't have one of those yet. So, if you know of someone who would help, I would appreciate it. If you would be willing to help me, you can just  Google the five stages or use the QR code on the screen. But I also wanted  to invite you to offer any feedback that you might have through that website as  well. Wheaton College Center for Faith and Disability has graciously become the host of all five stages resources, and I hope that that gives you the resources  that you can use wherever you might be called to minister, whether it's in an  English-speaking context or another language as well. But I also want to do a  recap on good anthropology, and I want to do that using Ephesians 2:10, where  Paul writes, for we are God's masterpieces created in Christ Jesus to works  which were prepared in advance for us to do. Now, I see four things in that  verse, three that are in there, and one that isn't, and I want to point those out to  you right now, briefly, because I'm actually over the 10-minute time frame, so I  apologize. First, you are a masterpiece. You were made on purpose. Second,  you were created to do good works. You were created for a purpose. Let's say  this to our friends with disabilities, to people who are different in our churches  and in our communities. Third, those works were prepared in advance for you to do. I would make chore lists for my kids when they were little, and I never once  made those chore lists optional, so if you have good works prepared In  advance, your purpose is not optional. And finally, the thing that's not  there, there is no asterisk on that verse or any other verse that equips us to  follow Christ and his call in our lives. This does not send your eye to the bottom  of the page like an asterisk would, where it would say, unless you have  disabilities. Everyone is called, everyone is gifted, and we have the opportunity  to employ good anthropology based on good theology to equip our friends and  co-laborers to serve Christ. 



Last modified: Thursday, April 16, 2026, 9:24 AM