The Postmaster a.k.a. the church leaders
In Joseph Shapiro's book on the Disability Rights Movement, No Pity, he tells a story that goes something like this:
The postmaster in this story could easily be replaced with the leaders and/or members of many churches in the United States today. I'm going to make a controversial statement here, but I believe that many churches design their buildings and their programs/activities to keep people with disabilities from participating. It's been done for many years and it's still going on today. No one would ever admit they were doing such a thing but if you went to a church building committee meeting, you might very well hear something like, "Well, we've never had anybody in a wheelchair come to our church before so we could save money by not building ramps on the new building either." Or perhaps you might hear a statement like this in response to a request for money for sign language training, "We don't need to spend the money on that. We've never had a deaf person attend our church before so it would be a waste of money to train members to translate the sermons for hearing impaired people." And one of my favorites, "Let's have that fellowship over at JimBob's house, where we always have it. Sure he's got a flight of stairs leading into his house but none of our members who use wheelchairs have ever expressed an interest in attending our fellowship."
Do you see the utter stupidity of these arguments. Yes, saving money is often a necessary thing to do. However, the disability community in the United States is too often ignored and even disgarded by the Christian Church. Oh we see pictures and hear stories of how our missionaries are helping disabled children in Africa and we even hear the occasional story about a church raising funds to help a disabled child in the U.S. Disabled children are "precious angels" or "miracle children" or "inspiring stories of hope and healing." But Disabled adults are no longer "cute" to put on TV or in the magazines. One writer wrote that to many churches we are "conscious reminders of all that is imperfect in the world." It is time to defeat that attitude and to show churches not only how simple it is to accomodate people with disabilities but why they should.
First, it's Scriptural to reach out to people with disabilities. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says "Praise be to the God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we may comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." Jesus said in Matthew 25:36;40 "I was sick and you looked after me. . . . I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Just like many nondisabled people, many disabled people are hurting emotioinally and wounded spiritually. Christians are called to reach out to everyone who needs the Lord and that includes disabled individuals.
Second, reaching out to people with disabilities is a way to grow the church. In 1990 the government estimated there were roughly 49 million people with disabilities in the United States. That was 15 years ago. The population is older now and medical advances have led to people surviving medical conditions and/or traumas that would have been fatal 10 or 15 years ago. Although people are surviving such things, they are becoming disabled from them and so the disabled population is increasing dramatically. Therefore, even if you don't reach out to disabled individuals in your community, inevitably people in your church are going to become disabled and you're still going to have to deal with it. So it just makes sense.
How does a church accomodate a person with a disability? It depends on the individual. There are some staple accomodations you should have in your church though. First, you should have spaces for people who come in wheelchairs so that they are not sitting in the aisle creating a fire hazzard. The last church I attended did this by replacing their pews with chairs and removing a chair or two from an aisle when a person in a wheelchair came in. My current church has certain pews that are shorter so that there is a space for a wheelchair at both ends and room for both individuals to have a companion sit in the pew beside them. The one thing you don't want to do is stick them all the way in the back behind everybody else where they can't see anybody. Next, have large print materials such as pamphlets about your church and your church's activities, song sheets, and weekly bulletins. If you do not have anyone who needs the large print song sheets or bulletins each week, just print one or two of them in case someone shows up and then if you need more go print more. It doesn't cost very much to do this. Next, have at least two members who are trained in sign language so that if a person with hearing impairment comes to worship at your church, they will be able to receive the Word that is preached. I said at least two because the fewer you have the more likely they'll all be gone one week when you need one. Also, if you have steps leading into your building, build ramps. Finally, if you have people with mobility impairments, plan your offsite activities at accessible locations so that they can participate. If you are consistently having them at places that have steps and no ramps and nobody with such a disability is expressing an interest in coming, it's probably because they feel they aren't wanted at the fellowship.
I know this has been a long post but I want to discuss one more thing before I end this one. When I was doing a lot of disability activism, I never liked to tell people what to do without pointing out emphasizing the benefits to them and I am not going to break my policy here either. Of course I've already discussed the possibility of gaining new members. I made a statement about current church members becomming disabled and I must point out that would fall under member retention. If you think about it, if a 40 year old man becomes disabled and can't come to your church anymore, his wife and children will probably leave with him as well as a few of their close friends. In a small church, that could be a major cut in attendance. But there's another benefit that many churches may receive--good publicity. Wouldn't you like to se this headline on the front page of your paper or at least on the front page of the religion section, "BEECHWOOD CHURCH BECOMES DISABLILITY FRIENDLY"? I'll leave you with that thought.
God Bless you,
James
A postmaster in a small town was told he would have to make his U.S. Postal Service building accessible to people who were disabled. The only entrance to his post office was a revolving door too small for even the smallest of wheelchairs and it was at the top of a very high, very steep flight of stairs. The postmaster protested the mandate stating very simply, "I have worked at this post office for 30 years and I have yet to see a person in a wheelchair enter this building.
The postmaster in this story could easily be replaced with the leaders and/or members of many churches in the United States today. I'm going to make a controversial statement here, but I believe that many churches design their buildings and their programs/activities to keep people with disabilities from participating. It's been done for many years and it's still going on today. No one would ever admit they were doing such a thing but if you went to a church building committee meeting, you might very well hear something like, "Well, we've never had anybody in a wheelchair come to our church before so we could save money by not building ramps on the new building either." Or perhaps you might hear a statement like this in response to a request for money for sign language training, "We don't need to spend the money on that. We've never had a deaf person attend our church before so it would be a waste of money to train members to translate the sermons for hearing impaired people." And one of my favorites, "Let's have that fellowship over at JimBob's house, where we always have it. Sure he's got a flight of stairs leading into his house but none of our members who use wheelchairs have ever expressed an interest in attending our fellowship."
Do you see the utter stupidity of these arguments. Yes, saving money is often a necessary thing to do. However, the disability community in the United States is too often ignored and even disgarded by the Christian Church. Oh we see pictures and hear stories of how our missionaries are helping disabled children in Africa and we even hear the occasional story about a church raising funds to help a disabled child in the U.S. Disabled children are "precious angels" or "miracle children" or "inspiring stories of hope and healing." But Disabled adults are no longer "cute" to put on TV or in the magazines. One writer wrote that to many churches we are "conscious reminders of all that is imperfect in the world." It is time to defeat that attitude and to show churches not only how simple it is to accomodate people with disabilities but why they should.
First, it's Scriptural to reach out to people with disabilities. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says "Praise be to the God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we may comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." Jesus said in Matthew 25:36;40 "I was sick and you looked after me. . . . I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Just like many nondisabled people, many disabled people are hurting emotioinally and wounded spiritually. Christians are called to reach out to everyone who needs the Lord and that includes disabled individuals.
Second, reaching out to people with disabilities is a way to grow the church. In 1990 the government estimated there were roughly 49 million people with disabilities in the United States. That was 15 years ago. The population is older now and medical advances have led to people surviving medical conditions and/or traumas that would have been fatal 10 or 15 years ago. Although people are surviving such things, they are becoming disabled from them and so the disabled population is increasing dramatically. Therefore, even if you don't reach out to disabled individuals in your community, inevitably people in your church are going to become disabled and you're still going to have to deal with it. So it just makes sense.
How does a church accomodate a person with a disability? It depends on the individual. There are some staple accomodations you should have in your church though. First, you should have spaces for people who come in wheelchairs so that they are not sitting in the aisle creating a fire hazzard. The last church I attended did this by replacing their pews with chairs and removing a chair or two from an aisle when a person in a wheelchair came in. My current church has certain pews that are shorter so that there is a space for a wheelchair at both ends and room for both individuals to have a companion sit in the pew beside them. The one thing you don't want to do is stick them all the way in the back behind everybody else where they can't see anybody. Next, have large print materials such as pamphlets about your church and your church's activities, song sheets, and weekly bulletins. If you do not have anyone who needs the large print song sheets or bulletins each week, just print one or two of them in case someone shows up and then if you need more go print more. It doesn't cost very much to do this. Next, have at least two members who are trained in sign language so that if a person with hearing impairment comes to worship at your church, they will be able to receive the Word that is preached. I said at least two because the fewer you have the more likely they'll all be gone one week when you need one. Also, if you have steps leading into your building, build ramps. Finally, if you have people with mobility impairments, plan your offsite activities at accessible locations so that they can participate. If you are consistently having them at places that have steps and no ramps and nobody with such a disability is expressing an interest in coming, it's probably because they feel they aren't wanted at the fellowship.
I know this has been a long post but I want to discuss one more thing before I end this one. When I was doing a lot of disability activism, I never liked to tell people what to do without pointing out emphasizing the benefits to them and I am not going to break my policy here either. Of course I've already discussed the possibility of gaining new members. I made a statement about current church members becomming disabled and I must point out that would fall under member retention. If you think about it, if a 40 year old man becomes disabled and can't come to your church anymore, his wife and children will probably leave with him as well as a few of their close friends. In a small church, that could be a major cut in attendance. But there's another benefit that many churches may receive--good publicity. Wouldn't you like to se this headline on the front page of your paper or at least on the front page of the religion section, "BEECHWOOD CHURCH BECOMES DISABLILITY FRIENDLY"? I'll leave you with that thought.
God Bless you,
James
posted by Amanda Brady | 4:30 AM
