Fall is a great time to read a good book! In this episode, Sandra shares 10 books for disability ministry leaders in the areas of family care, theology of disability, and ways to strengthen your inclusion practices!
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Find links to each book on Sandra’s Amazon page
Check out even more books that the Key Ministry team recommends
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Welcome to episode 70 of Key Ministry: The Podcast! I’m one of your cohosts, Sandra Peoples. In today’s episode I’m sharing 10 books for disability ministry leaders.
One of my reasons for sharing the list is the diversity of backgrounds that disability ministry leaders have. Some of us are family members of someone with a disability, some of us have special education or therapy providing backgrounds, and some of us aren’t sure how we ended up in the ministry position God called us to! But we can all learn from each other, and one of the best ways to do that is through books!
Plus, in the field of disability ministry, we have theologians and practitioners—we have those helping us look at Scripture and what it says and those helping us apply what it says through the local church context. There’s lots to learn from the expertise of others and their experiences.
So my list of books is a mix of books by parents and educators and pastors. It was hard to limit it to 10! There are so many great books on these topics! But hopefully you can find one or two that sound interesting and start there! Let’s jump into the list:
Unexpected Blessings: The Joys and Possibilities of Life in a Special-Needs Family by Sandra Peoples. I wasn’t sure whether to put my book first on the list or last, but let’s go with first and get it out of the way. Not because I don’t believe in the helpfulness of my book, it can just be a little weird to talk about! Unexpected Blessings is primarily for parents to help them move from the pain and confusion of getting a diagnosis to living out their purpose on this journey they didn’t expect. It’s helpful for ministry leaders to understand the phases parents go through and be ready to support them through each phase. It’s great to give to parents as a gift or read together in a small group. There are discussion questions at the end of each chapter.
Unbroken Faith: Spiritual Recovery for the Special Needs Parent by Diane Dokko Kim. Diane’s book is also primarily for parents. It has short chapters that are like devotional readings. I grab it off my shelf when I want to feel less alone on this journey. It’s a good mix of Diane’s personal experiences plus truth from Scripture. In the spring, I’m teaching a class in Congregational Care in Disability Ministry, and this book is one that I’m using to help my students understand what parents experience and how the gospel meets their deepest needs. It also has questions at the end of each chapter for reflection or discussion.
Ok, this book is like a bridge from books for parents to books for ministry leaders. It’s more theological than devotional. It’s Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability by Stephanie Hubach. This book is on my list for every ministry leader for sure. I used it in my class on disability ministry to help develop my student’s biblical world view on disabilities. There are chapters on families and chapters on churches and they all work together to cohesively set a solid foundation.
With our next book, we’re getting even more into the theological books. It’s Jesus and Disability: A Guide to Creating an Inclusive Church by Chris Hulshof. Chris writes about Jesus’s interactions with people with disabilities through the Gospels. He helps us see the interactions as more than just miracle stories that don’t have much application today. He also has a chapter on the types of inclusion at churches that is a helpful intro.
Another more theological book for our list is Disability and the Church: A Vision for Diversity and Inclusion by Lamar Hardwick. Lamar is a cohost for this podcast and a board member for Key Ministry. We are blessed by his work here and thankful that through his books, his work is accessible to everyone! Lamar’s book helps churches understand their responsibility in serving and supporting people with disabilities. It’s a great book for any of us to read, but would be a good gift for your pastor to help him understand the need for inclusion!
Disability and the Gospel: How God Uses Our Brokenness to Display His Grace by Michael Beats. This book is more like a systematic look at passages about disability throughout Scripture and church voices on the topic through our history. Michael brings a lot of personal warmth to the topic, as a dad and teacher. It’s another one I use in my classes, and my students enjoy it!
Mental Health and the Church: A Ministry Handbook for Including Children and Adults with ADHD, Anxiety, Mood Disorders, and Other Common Mental Health Conditions by Steve Grcevich, who is the founder and president of Key Ministry, and a child and adolescent psychiatrist. Mental health care is often a missing piece of disability ministry. At our church, we say anyone who needs adjustments to the curriculum or the environment in order to hear, understand, and respond to the gospel can get support from our disability ministry. Right now, most of the kids we serve with support would fall in the category covered with ADHD and anxiety. If that’s true at your church as well, be sure to pick up Steve’s book!
Now I’m going to list three books that help with the nuts and bolts of disability ministry. The first is Every Child Welcome: A Ministry Handbook for Including Kids with Special Needs by Katie Wetherbee and Jolene Philo. This book is especially helpful for those who do inclusion in their churches and have the kids with disabilities in typical classes with support. Katie and Jolene have lots of great ideas for how to adapt lessons and keep the kids interested. Perfect for the invisible support so many of our kids need.
Start with Hello is the first in a series from Joni & Friends that covers lots of topics related to disability ministry. I grabbed all the Kindle versions at a very low price! The Joni and Friends team have been promoting inclusion and teaching us the best practices for decades! It’s helpful to learn from them!
And number 10, Accessible Gospel, Inclusive Worship by Barbara Newman. I didn’t read this one until recently, and I was really missing out! It’s now one of my favorites! I’m so thankful for the work Barb did and how we can continue to learn from her!
Alright, that’s my list of 10 books! I already want to do a follow up with 10 more, but it’s probably best that I stop at 10 today! You can find the links to all of these books in the shownotes for the episode at keyministry.org/podcast. I hope you heard the descriptions of one or two that you want to check out right away. And if you have any favorites to add, let us know on social media! We’d love to hear what you would recommend. Thanks as always for listening, and we’ll meet you back here next week for another new episode!
