Oftentimes, when we talk to pastors about helping them to include people with disabilities, we’re told, “We don’t have any people with disabilities here.” In most cases, this is unlikely, given that 15% of the world has a disability – 1 billion people – but if a church doesn’t have any members or regular attendees with disabilities, this is all the more reason to “go to the highways and byways” to find and invite them in.
We can take our cue from Jesus, who, in John 5, turned aside from His route to go to the Pool of Bethesda, where “a great number of disabled people used to lie” (John 5:3). Just as Jesus sought out people with disabilities and met them where they already were, rather than avoiding them or the places they congregated, we too have the opportunity to go out of our way to meet people with disabilities and share God’s love.
Today, we can still find places where people with disabilities congregate – modern pools of Bethesda. Perhaps these are hospitals, since many people with disabilities have poorer health than people without disabilities; perhaps they are veteran’s associations, since 20% of veterans have a service-connected disability. Organizations that serve people with disabilities, people who are elderly, or people who are living below the poverty line are also places we can connect with people with disabilities for outreach.
When we work with churches who want to do outreach with the disability community, we take them through a simple exercise to think about the opportunities that God may have for them:
Open a map (you can use maps.google.com) of the area around your church.
Draw a circle around your neighborhood – usually about a 3-5 mile radius.
Look for the following in that circle:
a - Hospitals or rehabilitation centers – Up to 42% of people with disabilities report poor health, compared to just 6% of people without disabilities in some countries
b - Nursing homes or senior centers – 40% of people over the age of 65 have a disability
c - Schools – with special education programs or specialized schools (schools for the blind, schools for the deaf, etc.)
d - Prisons – It’s estimated that 30-40% of this population have a disability
e - Veteran’s centers: 20% of veterans have a service-connected disability
f - Homeless shelters: More than 40% of those who are homeless have disabilities
g - Disability centers/organizations
h - Other social services
Pick a few of these and call to see if there are any ways your congregation can serve them or invite them to be a part of your events.
Pray for opportunities to connect with people who need to encounter Jesus.
If you’re looking for ways to reach out to the disability community in your area, we hope this simple exercise will help you and your church think about how you can go to “the highways and byways” (Luke 14:23) to invite people with disabilities in.
Hunter and Amberle Brown help lead an organization called The Banquet Network that is based in Baltimore, MD. The Banquet Network primarily works with church plants to inspire, equip, and resource them to reach people with disabilities who are on the margins of their communities. Hunter works full time at Goucher College and is a part-time Masters of Theology student at St. Mary’s Ecumenical Institute in Baltimore. Amberle works full-time for World Relief, an international health and development NGO, and is passionate about helping churches include and reach people with disabilities based on her own experience of becoming visually impaired and her encounters with people with disabilities in her work in developing countries.
