Updated May, 2025
Hope Network (www.hopenetwork.org) has a large number of services to enhance the dignity and independence of persons who have a disability and/or are disadvantaged. Cornelison’s work in the West Michigan office is to connect clients to churches where all God’s people can grow in love for and ministry with each other. Over 2,100 people work in one of Hope Network’s more than 190 different locations throughout Michigan.
While attending a talent contest at Hope Network, I marveled yet again at God’s rich creation. Some of the competitors sang, others recited poems or danced, still others played the piano. Each competitor was a person with a visible disability or mental illness but on this night they were free—free to give their very best and to be recognized for what they could do rather than what they could not do. In the arena of their expertise they shone like stars! The whole evening was a testimony to the fact that all people are created in God’s image.
That night underscored for me the biblical framework for human relationships and the role of the church in ministry to people who live with disabilities. All God’s children are gifted and have worth; the role of the church is to help them discover those gifts and to enable them to use their gifts in the body of Christ and the local community.
Getting Started
Several churches already recognize that all people, no matter what their abilities, have a role to play in the church and are implementing strategies for becoming more inclusive. Others are asking, Where do we start? I believe the answer is simply this: start by learning from those who live with disabilities, because they have a lot to teach the church. The church can affect the attitudes of its members without spending a single penny—and when the spirit of the congregation is ripe, money ceases to be an issue, because creative and compassionate hearts take over.
This past year, the pastoral services team at Hope Network received a worship renewal grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship that enabled us to work with an ecumenical cluster of fourteen churches for eighteen months. We explored just what it might mean for congregations to commit to the radical inclusion of persons with disabilities and/or mental illnesses. Here are two examples.
Grace Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, started by forming a disability awareness committee that included a person with a physical disability. After hosting several Disability Awareness Sundays, they decided to become more intentionally involved in this ministry by adopting a Hope Network home and hosting a work group weekday mornings in their church building. Members of the committee were aware that this learning would take time, commitment, and perseverance. The church continues to learn and grow as it seeks to become more inclusive.
St. Luke AME Zion Church, also in Grand Rapids, is building a new structure. An audit from Disability Advocates challenged them to pay closer attention to the physical structure to ensure that people who use wheelchairs would experience a welcoming atmosphere before they even entered the church building. Paying attention to such architectural concerns as handicap accessible parking, automatic door openers, walkways, restrooms, and more says to the person with a disability, You are welcome here; we have made preparations to receive you.
Helping Everyone Participate in Worship
Beyond these basic accessibility factors are the kinds of support churches provide for those with various kinds of disabilities, including those with hearing impairments or visual impairments. Providing large-print bulletins, hearing technology (see "Let Them Hear: Why Not Get Your Church Looped?" in RW 68), pew cuts and ramps to the altar or choir loft, and liturgies that recognize the importance of including all persons in the body are important elements in allowing everyone in the congregation to participate in worship.
Other churches participating in the worship renewal program have invited people with disabilities to sing in the choir, usher, read, pray, help out in Sunday school, and participate in classes and other ministries of the church. All these examples testify to this scriptural truth: "The body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body " (1 Cor. 12:12).
None of us has it all figured out. We make many mistakes in our desire to minister to· others by forgetting that we too are being ministered to. Or we may function out of a warped theological model that negates the extraordinary in all God's creatures. For we are all, without exception, extraordinary beings, graced with extraordinary gifts to be used for the glory of God. When we fail to encourage one another to good works, when we fail to help each other discover our fullest potential, we are in effect cooperating with the enemy in proclaiming that God makes mistakes. However, negating the worth of any human being is one of the most offensive mistakes we can make.
The late Archbishop Oscar Romero once said, It helps now and then, to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts; it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection, no pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the church's mission. No set of goals and objectives accomplishes everything.
In other words, there's always room for revision, for what some have called "process revolution." Each new occasion for learning becomes an opportunity for the church to embrace new ideas and discoveries in its continuing effort to increase awareness and understanding of people with disabilities.