I was in a meeting the other day where the topic of ministry maturity came up. One comment was made that each church is so different there could not be criteria across all churches. I was just listening into the meeting so didn't comment, but nothing could be further from the truth. Just to prove that point, here are a list of some criteria I came up with, just off the top of my head, that would be applicable to any church, that they could use to measure their own ministry's growth toward maturity. These could also apply to one's church generally.
Maturity criteria:
- Friendships developed with persons with disabilities
- Persons with disabilities present in all church social activities
- Persons with disabilities present in the regular worship service
- Persons with disabilities present in men’s groups, women’s groups, senior’s groups, etc.
- Pastor addressed issues related to disability from the pulpit
- Persons with disabilities integrated into regular Sunday School classes – children and adult
- Persons with disabilities sought out and invited to church – children and adults
- Church membership offered to persons with disabilities
- Integrated ministry which includes persons with disabilities
- Persons with disabilities provided opportunities for service (greeters, children’s ministry, security, etc.)
- Persons with disabilities are in leadership
- Homes where persons with disabilities live are visited
- Church network supports persons with disabilities with employment opportunities
- Church network supports persons with disabilities with living opportunities
- Persons with disabilities invited to recreational opportunities (ball games, concerts, etc.)
- Church culture changes such that persons with disabilities experience integration
- Church reflects on traditions to determine whether they are discriminatory towards persons with disabilities
- Helps ministries developed for persons with disabilities living in poverty
- Parents of persons with disabilities are offered respite on a personal level
- Persons with disabilities are invited to family activities like Thanksgiving dinner or children’s Halloween activities as adult observer
- How a persons with disabilities is doing in her personal life (friendships, finances, other needs) is known and addressed.
Jeff McNair
---
"We are not teaching our pastors/leaders what to do" by Jeff McNair for Wednesday, 1 November 2017
I have visited and read about many different ministries for persons with various disabilities. Often these ministries are not integrated. That is, they are separate from the larger congregation. They do their own thing almost entirely separate from the rest of the church. Occasionally representatives from the ministry will perform a song or intersect with the congregation in ways that are comfortable for the congregation. I could write another whole post about these opportunities which have a large downside. The ministries themselves do good work in attempting to help those with various disabilities come to understand the things of the Lord related to the plan of salvation, Bible memorization and Christian behavior. All of these are good things. But as I look on these kinds of ministries it is clear to me that they are not fully addressing what disability is. Disability is not just something housed in individuals who have some type of impairment. It is also a characteristic of the environment. It is also a form of discrimination. But I don't think that leaders of ministries or church leaders/pastors understand this.
I had an interesting conversation with a church leader recently. In that conversation it became clear that aspects of disability ministry aimed at changing the culture of the church in terms of its acceptance of persons with disabilities down to simple things like trying to facilitate their being chosen as friends was not something that she had thought about. She was about sharing the Gospel, and helping those with disabilities to come to faith in Jesus; both really good things. However, the response of the congregation to those with disabilities in terms of loving and accepting them wasn't something she had really thought about. When I shared about the social isolation often experienced because people are not chosen as friends, it caused her to pause as if this was a revelation. Almost as if this was not something that should or could be expected of people. Do you get that? The expectation from the leader was that there would not be social interaction between those with and without impairments. Perhaps we in ministry have taught congregations and leaders that fact by the way we have designed ministries, or perhaps our ministries reflect the fact that we have bought that lie. Either way, we cannot continue to do ministry in that way. We need to choose a different path that will no doubt lead to confrontation if only in a confrontation of perspectives.
We might hear things like, "I thought you wanted it this way!" reflecting the way in which we have segregated those we claim to serve.
We might hear things like, "We can't do that because that is not the way things are done!" reflecting our discriminatory traditions which we have chosen not to confront and are therefore complicit in.
We might also hear something like, "You are absolutely right. I feel like I need to come to repentance (see previous post). Can you help us to move in that direction.
Our leaders, I believe, really don't know what they should be doing in large part because we have not had the confrontive, in a positive way, conversation about the cultural change that needs to happen. Our being complicit in segregation does not facilitate the change in church culture that is desperately needed.
Jeff McNair
-------
No comments:
Post a Comment