We are always stronger, better, more focused and more successful when we’re working together than when we are working apart, and that includes when families, our children’s and youth work—indeed our whole church ministry and mission—has a shared passion and vision. This is especially true for our work with children and young people with special needs or disabilities, where working together can have significant lasting benefits for everyone. Here’s a few examples of what this can be like:
Supporting children can mean we’re stronger at supporting everyone
It's really encouraging that more and more churches are thinking about the barriers that can affect a child or young person with special needs, and are putting strategies in place to support them. But these strategies can also be beneficial to the wider congregation, too. Whether it’s leaders learning some sign language to support children, more use of a range of sensory teaching techniques to keep children’s focus and attention, the use of one-to-one ‘buddy’ support for children that need someone to assist them, or even thinking more carefully about the things we say (avoiding “Let’s stand to sing!” for example!*), what we are putting in place to support children can help us to think about how we support everyone.
*If you’re wondering what to say instead, I usually say: “We’re going to sing now; let’s sit, stand or even dance, as you feel comfortable. God really doesn’t mind!”
Better transitions from children’s to youth work comes from collaboration
It can sometimes be hard for a child with special needs—and his or her family!—to move up from one age group to the next. This transition can be especially challenging for them when they move from the children’s to the youth group. Everything is different, everyone is bigger, it can all be quite scary. But again, by working together, we can make these transitions easier. If the programs for the children’s work and youth work are coordinated, then it makes it much easier to gradually transition a child into the youth program, and avoid just parachuting them in one Sunday and hoping for the best.
By aligning the activity schedules and teaching programs over the few weeks on either side of when your church usually transitions children and young people from one group to the next, it will make it easier to bring a child with special needs along for a short visit to the older group. These visits can gradually be increased over the course of several weeks (e.g. 10 minutes the first time, then 20, then 30, etc.) until the child is fully transitioned to the new environment. It’s worth taking time with this, and if the programs are coordinated, it should be possible for these transitions to work with a minimum of stress and anxiety, for the children, their families, and teams.
Photo credit: Urban Saints church. Used with permission.
Older church members make successful ‘buddies’
Many children with special needs or disabilities benefit from having a one-to-one ‘buddy’ that can support them while they are at church, but often, this support is just left to their families. The buddy role requires empathy, love and understanding, as well as some good old-fashioned common sense, which can be a perfect fit for some of the older members of your church family. Older church members might not see themselves as children’s ministry or team leaders, perhaps having a vision of leading lots of games, songs, activities and talks. Older adults may still see that there is a role for them pastorally caring for a child or young person. Many children with special needs or disabilities can respond really well to the ‘grandparent generation,’ forming a really close and meaningful bond that actually benefits them both. Releasing parents from this role means they can be spiritually fed, too.
A church-wide teaching focus means everyone learns together
If the vision, mission and teaching of the church is cascaded across all areas of your church ministry, including children’s and youth work, the themes that will be picked up by the children may also be picked up by the families that bring them. For children and young people with special needs, that church-wide focus can really help, as parents, carers, grandparents etc. can explain and support the teaching from home. A good strategy for this church-wide focus includes providing some brief notes about what the children have been exploring together. This will enable the adults, who have been receiving compatible teaching in adult classes or groups, to work through this further with their children.
Working together makes sense for everyone, but as we’ve seen, it can have really significant benefits for children and young people with disabilities and their families. It kind of asks the question, why wouldn’t we??
Blessings,
Mark
Mark Arnold is the Additional Needs Ministry Director for Urban Saints Church, Luton, Bedfordshire, UK. Follow his writing at https://theadditionalneedsblogfather.com.
