Video Transcript: Introduction

I wanted to also introduce you a little bit to who I am, and my colleague, Tori White; you'll meet her later on in the course. But my journey is this; I'm a special education teacher. I still have a space in a community called Zeeland Christian School here in Michigan, and at Zeeland Christian School since 1989, we have had the joy of including students of all abilities, students with Down syndrome and autism and unique physical or sensory differences; students with unique behavior challenges, and these individuals have just been part of the student body at Zeeland Christian School. 

And it's so happened, as my journey as a special educator, that learned at parent teacher conferences, one year, God lined up three in a row of parents who said, Oh, we have no place to go to church.  Oh, we just got kicked out of our last church. Oh, they told us to try the church down the road. But that wasn't the church we had actually hoped to go to. So again, it's been quite a journey listening to parents that their child was included so well at Zeeland Christian School for seven, eight hours a day, just part of that student body and yet 45 minutes of Sunday school or an hour of youth group was not working for this particular child and they were asked to leave.  It just broke my heart because I was thinking it's not okay with me and it’s certainly is not okay with God.  And that's not how God intended for us to set up those communities. 

And the blueprint in Scripture is clear that each part is important. The eye doesn't say to the hand, I don't need you; but each one needs a spot, and that importance place of belonging within community. 

So I spent some time with parents’ permission making some phone calls to congregations and I said, What's the deal? You know, why can't Alexis be part of this community?  And every person, every pastor  I talked, to each congregation that I talked to, you know what? They really wanted to do this, they really did.  They needed some tools. So I have spent, since the late 1990s, preparing tools for congregations to use, so that they have some opportunity in Zeeland Christian School, where I helped to oversee the inclusion program there, but I also spend a lot of time with congregations in this country of the US and Canada, and through remote opportunities through the internet in other countries as well, trying to just hand off some tools for congregations to use. 

I hope that's what we get a chance to do now.  I'm confident with our time together that you will have those tools that you need to be able to say yes.  In fact, that is something that I have discovered, as part of my time working with congregations, is people's reactions to this have been fascinating. And that's why I want to spend a little time in this introductory week. Just to entice you into the topic; entice you to think a little bit more about what does it look like, what has it looked like in our community? Have we been including people of all abilities?  What is that like? 

So, when I travel, I have often found that I have three reactions to this topic. So I might be at an exhibit table, or I might be in a congregation where even they have invited me, or speaking at a conference. And there are some people that come up to me and their first reaction is, yes, we are so excited.  We can't wait to talk to you. And they are so eager to tell me about the day that Jasmine joined the worship team, or the day that Miguel was baptized, or whatever that event might be. But they are so excited to tell me about that in their church community. And often the story is not about the person who may have some kind of a disability or varied ability of some sort. The story is almost always about what happened with everybody else in the community the day that those individuals were part of that leadership or were part of the community in a special way; how that person's presence impacted the entire congregation. 

And I think there's important information that we're going to have over the next little while about how does that happen? And what does that look like? And why is that so important? This is not about including a person and all about one individual, I will guarantee you.  The things we're going to talk about are going to benefit 100% of your community in some way, shape, or form. So yes is one of those reactions that I love to talk to people because I hear many amazing stories. 

I think another attitude or reaction that people will sometimes have is this. Um, oh, what maybe. I sort of have questions like, Is this a thing? Are congregation supposed to think about this? I don't know that we've really done much of that do? Do we have anybody in our community with a disability? I know we have some seniors like with limited vision and hearing, but does that count? And I don't know how to think about this. 

I love to talk to people who have questions. That is a very common reaction. And you might have been enticed into this course not because you have a yes response. But because you said, Oh, my goodness, I have questions. Is this a thing? So welcome. I'd love to welcome you into this conversation. Just as much as a person with that. Yes. I'm so excited to learn more because we've had a taste of this and it's sweet. But there are many congregations and people in congregations who just have questions. What does that look like? How, how do we do this? Don't you need like an expert to pull this off? Those I think are so many of the confusing questions people may ask.

But I think there's another category, call them what you want. Sometimes I call them the no eye contact individuals. But the people just say no, maybe if I don't look at her, she's just going to go away. Because I don't really want to think about this topic. It's confusing, or it's…we had a bad experience, or in our culture, in our country, that word, disability is viewed with shame. I don't think we're supposed to be thinking about this topic. That is a very common response, too. But again, I have a story that goes along with that particular response. 

I was riding these escalators in St. Louis, Missouri, speaking at a conference, and they were, this was a long road up. The pastor behind me clipped his phone shut and he said, Oh, I just have to tell you about my phone call. I said what is it? I got a call from one of my friends, and they want me to come out to do the funeral service for their child. They had four children and their youngest child at the age of five passed away, had many areas of disability. And so they had called this family friend and said, would you come and do the funeral service? 

But the pastor had asked his friend on the phone, don't you want your own pastor to lead the funeral service for this child? And they said, I gotta let you know we have spent the last five years in our community searching for a church that would allow all of us to attend. And we could not find one within a one hour driving distance of our home. Can you imagine that? He said, I just finally gave up. And so I was thankful that the pastor of the church down the road so that we could attend there. But we needed somebody or had the funeral service there but we needed somebody else to run the service. So I'm calling you. And I looked at that pastor and I said, you have got to be kidding. The first time that child's body is welcome in a church is in a casket.

Those kinds of stories are abundant, unfortunately. Those kinds of stories of exclusion, instead of inclusion; those kinds of stories that say, oh my goodness, we have been searching for those places of belonging, we have been sent away. And I imagined that funeral; a few people would have gathered. But what would have been like if that church where they were holding that funeral service had said yes, far earlier? They would have known that child who was five. They would have known what made him smile. They would have had relationship with a family, and they could have walked that journey together with one another. 

So I don't know which category you're part of, and you might truly be part of that No. Maybe this course is a requirement so you're taking it and you really have either had a bad experience, or you're not sure at all how this is going to fly in your country or in your setting.  I really, really want to invite you into this topic, not only at a biblical level, but also at a very, very practical level of some tools that you can use.

So again, I guess I would encourage you to think about your own life. Where do you stand in terms of that Yes, Maybe, or No? And imagine what this course is going to do to feed that attitude. And I hope that we leave together at the end of this time with a lot of people going Yes!  In fact, we've tried some things as part of our time together, we put some things in place as part of this homework that we may be able to do together and we're delighted to come with this attitude. And so that's our time together. 

I wanted to just also offer you a chance to take a quick true false quiz. No, this is not the one that's going to be at the end of this week. In fact, it will be informal. I'm doing this specifically though, because this is often how I bring information to a church in a very fast way. So I will often say to people, you know what? I'm going to give you a true false quiz. If you think the answer is true, you could do a thumbs up or you know, raise your hand or whatever would be appropriate.  You might do a thumbs down if it's false. And I often say and I don't want anyone to get anxious so you could talk to somebody before you answer. But a couple of true false things. 

And I will admit my limitation at this point. Please understand, I do most of my work in the United States and in Canada. I don't know the statistics for the community where all of the students who are taking this might live. So I'm eager to learn from you as well as we digest this information together. But one of the things that I would just like to say in the United States, there's a statistic that says how many people have some sort of a designated disability. True or False? What do you think? That number is about 12% in the United States? What do you think true? or false? 

Well, I will tell you that that answer is false. That is a low estimate around here, the number is about 20%. What is that in your community? What statistic would you give?  Twenty per cent. That's a lot of people. And now that they are saying in the adult population, it runs more like 25% have some kind of a designated area of disability. That's a lot of people. We're not talking about two people, we're talking to 20 to 25% in this community. Again, Canada, statistics are a little bit different, and I'm not sure what they are where you live, but let me just tell you here who that includes. 

So if we think about a church and the different age levels in a church, it might be a baby who's born with spina bifida; could be a toddler who happens to have Down syndrome; might be an elementary aged child who has a learning disability or attention deficit disorder; could be a youth group member with autism spectrum disorder; could be an adult with bipolar disorder, some kind of a mental illness designation; could be a senior who may have some sort of difference in hearing and vision and mobility, memory. All of those things can be true for seniors. So again, clearly those could happen at any age level. But we're talking about a whole bunch of people. In fact, sometimes I think the statistics are low when you think of that range of individuals that are known as having some sort of a disability. 

All right, that was question number one. Now let's go to question number two. True or False? There is a family somewhere in Michigan who has spent the last four years going to church as the mom in the morning and the dad in the evening because four years ago their child was kicked out of Sunday school. And the Sunday School teacher said to the family, Don't ever bring your child back here again, we cannot handle him. Do you think that's a true story or a false story? 

Yeah, well, if you heard the introduction, it's definitely true. In fact, those stories happen all over this country. I am guessing they happen in yours as well. You may know of some of those stories. I would suggest that we can all benefit from listening to the stories of families who might have a child with a disability, or an adult with a disability who has just been trying to get in the door of a certain place. Again, it's a difficult story to hear. But that is definitely, those are, those are true stories. 

So here's another one. I'm going to do a statistic about autism spectrum disorder. I happen to have written a book called Autism and Your Church. And I am so glad, I made a monumental error in the first edition, because I actually put numbers in that book. When I graduated from a place called Calvin College here in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area, the number of persons with autism at that time, were one in 10,000. Wow. In fact, my professor said to me, we're not going to study autism because you really, we won't ever meet anybody with autism spectrum disorder. And I really don't care what your country is. This is a hot topic in many of our countries, because autism, the diagnosis of autism is just skyrocketed. 

When I wrote my first edition of Autism and Your Church, I believe the number at that point was one in 166 and I was foolish enough to write that in the book. Thankfully, they gave me a second chance. I wrote a second edition of Autism and Your Church, added some pieces to that. But again, that statistic has changed. 

By the next year already after the book was published and I believe it was 2006. 2007 that number was changed and now it's one in 150. Do you happen to know what it is today? So let's try this true or false? The numbers in autism right now, and again, US based statistic, although I know that this is a worldwide opportunity to think about this area, numbers and autism, let's just say one in 100. True or False? What do you think? 

Pretty staggering to know that that number has changed so many times that that is definitely a false statistic around here. The numbers are now one in 59. And I'm going to say that I am recording this in November of 20… December of 2019 because that statistic could change. I don't want to make the same mistake as in my book. But again, it's just this number that has changed. And I graduated with my sheet to prove it.  One in ten thousand in 1984 from Calvin College and now today, we are talking one in 59. Lots of reasons for that. 

But think about your congregation, how many people do you have in your congregation to divide that number by about 59? Statistically, do you have, how many people who may have some kind of an autism spectrum disorder? Go back to that statistic about one 20% or 25%, or look that up in your state or in your community? If we're thinking about total of persons who have some kind of a disability? What number would you come up with? One in 20%? How many people are we talking about in your congregation or even the area that you oversee or hope to oversee? 

Oh, this number is big. We need to learn about this in order to be communities of belonging for people of all abilities. So again, that number has changed so much. Wow. I often say when I give those statistics, I should just not make you do the math. I'm 57. There we go. So graduated in 84. Here I am today at the age of 57. In any event, lots of changes over that time and I think we need to dig in.  We are in this course; we're going to learn about autism spectrum disorder. What are those differences? And what does that look like to include a person in worship or in Sunday school or as an adult small group? What

would that be like? And how can we create that and allow for places of belonging for each person who attends?

All right, let's do this one. In Barbara Newman's opinion, so good luck on this one. The reason churches most often give for excluding an individual with a disability is they really don't see a clear scriptural reason to include that person. Hmm, What do you think? I'll say it again.  In Barbara Newman's opinion, the reason churches most often give for excluding an individual is that they really don't see a clear scriptural reason for including that person. True or False? 

Well, I don't know how you're doing on the points on this impromptu true false quiz, but that is definitely false. In my opinion, most pastors, most congregations, they see why. It's pretty clear in Scripture about the way God wants us to set up our communities, inclusive of people of all abilities. But I think it's not the why. It's often that how. How do we do this? And that's what this course is all about. I want to hand you those how to tools. 

So last question, and here we go. True or false? I want to make heaven a noisier place? Well, guess what? A little bit later, within these next few sessions, I'm going to give you what I consider to be the answer to that. So hang in there. If you answered true, I think it will align well with what I'm going to present later on, but hang in there for the answer. 

So again, just a quick introduction to some statistics in the United States and recognizing that these trends are true in different communities. I've looked up a few different countries. Statistics vary from place to place. And that would be something I hope to get some feedback from each of you on. What are those statistics in your country, and in your state in your community? And what does that mean for your congregation? 

So once again, we'll take a break. And then the next one I want to talk to you about is lunchbag framework for disability ministry. Again, it's sort of an introductory concept I want everybody to be able to think about, and I, indeed, brought along a lunch bag in order to make some of these points.