Effective ministry for the disability community is one that is built on the belief that your church can and should be pursuing lifelong family ministry for our friends and families impacted by disability. Through his journey as the father of a child with disabilities, Garett Wall has experienced how God does the equipping for ministry and he loves encouraging churches to be more prepared for lifelong family ministry for families like his. In this week’s episode, Garett shares how God’s plan for him and his family came full circle through one of the families at his church.
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Quick Links:
Shine Ministry at Southeast Christian Church
If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like:
036: Acceptable and Accessible Churches with Chris Hulshof and Sandra Peoples
030: Practicing Hospitality to Outside Groups with Beth Golik
Transcript:
Hello everyone! Thank you for joining us for this week’s episode of Key Ministry: The Podcast. I’m your co-host Garett Wall and I’m excited to be the new guy on the Key Ministry Podcast team. This week and in future weeks, I’ll be talking with you about why disabilities ministry is more than just an extension of your church’s children’s ministry or simply an add-on program but instead should be viewed as a lifelong family ministry for your church. Today, you’ll hear about how God has moved in unexpected ways in the life of my family and how he brought things full circle for me over a span of nearly 10 years.
I’ll share a little more about me and my family in a moment but for now, I will tell you that I’m blessed to serve as the connections minister for Shine Disability Ministry at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. I love helping our friends and families in the disability community to learn about Jesus and to find Christ-centered community. I also want to say thank you to Sandra Peoples, Beth Golik, Catherine Boyle, Lamar Hardwick, and everyone at Key Ministry for allowing me to provide another voice in the important conversations that are happening through this podcast.
As we get things started, I’d love to begin by giving you a snapshot of my family and sharing with you how God has guided us to where we are today. I’ve been married to my beautiful wife Becky for 14 years and we have two wonderful kiddos—our daughter Lily and our son Isaac. When Becky and I first met in 2007, I was immersed in my career working in media relations and sports information for the athletic department at the University of Louisville. That was a career path that really began for me in high school and gained momentum while I was in college at Murray State University in western Kentucky. I followed that career path from Murray to Louisville in 2004 and my plan was to stay in the world of athletics until I retired. But as he often does, God had a little different plan in mind.
Becky and I were married in 2008 and two years later, my heart was stolen in a new way as my journey as a Girl Dad began with the arrival of Lily. Two years after that, we were ready to add to our little family with the arrival of Isaac and that’s where God’s plan and my plan really started to collide. In the weeks and months prior to Isaac’s birth, there had been some challenges with the pregnancy and there were concerns for his health but there was nothing clear and obvious. We were given a long list of possible causes for what Becky and Isaac were experiencing during the pregnancy but as we got closer to his due date, many of the causes of those concerns had leveled out and Becky’s doctor was optimistic things would go smoothly. But to be safe, she suggested having a specialist available to examine Isaac in the delivery room, so we followed that advice, and we had the medical plan in place for his arrival.
In the moments immediately after Isaac was born, he was taken over to that specialist, who was positioned just a few steps from us in the delivery room and the doctor began to examine Isaac. After a brief examination, the doctor called me over to him and he began to share what he found, and it was in that moment that I first learned it was highly probable that Isaac had Down syndrome. As you would expect, there was a flood of emotions for me and for Becky as I shared the details with her and as the gravity of that moment hit us, I think we knew that the reality our family and the reality for Isaac was not the reality we really wanted. Since his birth, Isaac has experienced many surgeries. He’s had an autism diagnosis added to his resume and we’re navigating the challenges of school and many of the other realities of life for special needs families that are just not, honestly, what we want.
But we trust in the sovereignty of God, and we hold to scriptures like Jeremiah 29:11 where God says through his prophet, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
During those early days of Isaac’s life, I received a call one afternoon from Garry Gupton, who was a TV reporter in Louisville at the time and someone I had met and worked with on occasion. Garry called to encourage me and to remind me that God had a plan for Isaac and for our family. During that conversation, Garry told me that his adult son Grant was also on the phone with us, and he reminded me that Grant, like my son, was born with Down syndrome. Our phone conversation that day ended with Grant praying with me and praying for me. He prayed for Becky, and he prayed for Lily, and he absolutely prayed Isaac. And as tears rolled down my face, God gave me that hope that I needed, and He showed me in that moment that He knew what he was doing when he created Isaac.
Fast forward a few years to 2018 when God was working on a different career path for me, but I wasn’t sure where that path was leading. I knew he was guiding me out of college athletics, but I didn’t know what He was leading me into. For more than a year, I pursued opportunities, leaned on personal connections, and I experienced multiple job interviews. But in each case, it didn’t work out. Nothing was coming together for me, and it became increasingly clear that God was not just limiting which doors were opening but that He was also closing doors on opportunities. Eventually, I interviewed for a communications job at Southeast Christian Church and though I didn’t get that job, it was through that interview and through that process that God eventually led me into full-time vocational ministry while also guiding our family to a new church home.
After not getting that job, I emailed the pastor for communications at the time, Trey Brunson, to ask him for feedback on what he saw and heard from me during the interview process. He encouraged me in my abilities, but he also shared that he didn’t think I was the right guy for that job, and he also didn’t think it was the right job for me. From there, he asked in his message if I had ever considered pursuing ministry. He followed by sharing what he saw in me was someone God could equip to shepherd and care for people.
Now, at this point in the story, I’d be remiss and in trouble at home if I didn’t tell all of you that earlier that same day, my wife Becky also suggested ministry as a pathway for me and I laughed at her—like, really laughed at her as if she were telling me some kind of joke. Obviously, the joke was me as just a few hours after Becky suggested ministry, a guy who had met me one time during a job interview also suggested that I should be open to considering ministry as God’s plan for me. And after several months of prayer, studying God’s Word, and listening for God’s whisper, it became clear that He was not only guiding me into ministry but that he also wanted to lead me into the world of disabilities ministry. At the time, I had no idea what to do with any of those details other than to trust God’s plan and stay faithfully connected to Him for the clarity I did not have.
As we wrestled with trying to discern God’s plan for my career path, Becky and I were also navigating church life and the challenges that come with families like ours. Soon after I interviewed for the communications job, our family visited Southeast for a weekend worship service and what we found was a church that had intentional programming and a plan to integrate our son and our family into the life of the church.
Intentional programming and a plan for my family—remember those because we’ll come back to that in a little bit.
Even though I didn’t get the communications job, the more we learned about the ministry and the church, the more it became clear God wanted us to take a step of faith towards Southeast. So, after much prayer and several conversations, we followed the prompting of the Holy Spirit and began attending Southeast Christian Church.
A few weeks later, God began to reveal his career path for me when a position with the disabilities ministry at Southeast opened. I applied, was invited in for an interview and I eventually accepted the position. As I wrestled for several weeks prior to that moment with how someone in my position—coming from another career with no seminary and no Bible college training—how someone like me could possibly be equipped for ministry, but God reminded me that He does the equipping and that he was using my experience as dad of a child with special needs to live out that calling to ministry.
After nearly 20 years in a career working in college athletics, I made the move into full-time disabilities ministry and that can only be attributed to the goodness of God.
Now in my fifth year on staff with Shine Ministry, I’m overwhelmed by the ways God has worked through our church to minister and shepherd our friends and families in the disability community.
One of the coolest ways God has brought this journey full circle for me came last fall as our ministry went on the road for our first ever mission trip. We took a team of more than 20 people, including nine of our Shine adults, to Riverwood Christian Community, a residential community in east Tennessee for adults with disabilities that is operated by our friends at Ability Ministry. And for three days, our team of Shine friends and volunteers served others, they enjoyed loving fellowship, and the experienced Christ-centered worship. It was a beautiful example of how God equips everyone for the Great Commission, including our friends with disabilities.
After returning from the trip, our staff team received cards from one of our Shine friends on that trip and my card had this written in it: “Thank you for believing that me and my friends are capable of serving Christ by serving others. The mission trip was so much fun! I love you.”
Note from Grant.
That card not only perfectly explains why our church and our ministry cares so much about discipling our friends and families impacted by disability, but it’s truly a full circle moment for me because the message on that card was written by my buddy Grant Gupton, who had called and prayed with me nearly 10 years prior to that moment when I was trying to understand God’s plan for my son and for our family. God was working far ahead of me when he shared Isaac with our family. I can tell you from my own life of the amazing peace that comes when you experience God’s love in ways that surpass understanding.
So, what can we learn from Grant’s mission trip experience?
What can we as minsters and church leaders and pastors learn from the ways God has used me and Grant to encourage one another? How do we in the church faithfully pursue our calling to love and disciple all people and do that in a way that includes our friends and families in the disability community?
When we think about how to approach ministering to the disability community, I believe Hebrews 10:24-25 is a great place to start. It says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
As the church, we should be compelled to inspire one another towards love and action for others and one of the most important ways we do that is by consistently meeting together for worship, Bible study, prayer, and fellowship.
And that Biblical charge to meet together is for everyone—including kids, teens and adults with disabilities and their families.
For my buddy Grant, he serves as a barista in our ministry’s Shine Café, and he also serves as a door greeter on Sunday mornings while his family hosts a weekly Bible study in their home. Those are just some of the ways Grant and his family are meeting together with others and spurring one another toward love and good deeds.
Our friends and families in the special needs community have the same spiritual and social needs as anyone else but they often face unique challenges that will block their paths toward Christ-centered community.
Rather than ignoring or even adding to those roadblocks, churches should be removing those barriers and making a way for individuals of all ages with disabilities and their families to meet Jesus and build community.
One of the most effective ways to do that is through intentional and purposeful programming. Having experienced the positive impact of intentional programming for my own family, I’m a big believer that programming should lead to pastoring. The classes, Bible studies, small groups and any other types of intentional programming created around a church’s worship service, or a congregational gathering should lead to opportunities for shepherding and discipleship. As the church, we already do this for many other specialized groups whether it’s children’s ministry, student ministry, men’s ministry, women’s ministry, senior adults, widows, young couples, singles, college age and so many others.
So, if we can do that for those groups, why shouldn’t we be open to creating adapted pathways for our friends and families in the disability community to experience the hope of Jesus and the love of his church?
We’ll plan to unpack a lot more of that while also looking at some of the specific ways churches can be effective in lifelong ministry for the disability community in future episodes, but for now, I want to leave you with the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:14-16, which read “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
Like my friend Grant and his family, our friends and families in the disability community can and should be a pivotal part of the life of your church. They have a light that needs to be shining in our churches and our faith communities so that God is glorified even brighter for everyone to see.
I invite you to join me and everyone at Key Ministry in removing the roadblocks that prevent our friends and families in the disability community from being a vital part of the life and community of your church.
Thank you for joining me this week for Key Ministry: The Podcast. You can find a transcript of the episode at keyministry.org/podcast. I hope you have a blessed week and I look forward to talking with you again soon.
