We know there are many barriers to treatment. But I want to focus in this article on practical barriers to mental health treatment, where churches can help immediately to address them.
Four Reasons Why Working Together Wins!
The Ultimate Church Comeback Plan
Many of the concepts that the general population have experienced for the first time in 2020 are all too familiar to some in the disability community. The new reality that many of us are experiencing for the first time is all too familiar for many families living with disabilities who face manifold barriers to leave their home on a typical day. So what if we took this opportunity to re-imagine a church that was accessible to 100% of people—rather than just the 85% who don’t live with disabilities?
Four Insights from Paul's Prayer Requests for Disability Ministry
Any of us involved in disability ministry have a vision to see people with disabilities living out their divine vocation, but that vision often feels fraught with all kinds of barriers. As I have been reading through Paul’s letters, I have been struck by the regularity with which Paul asks for prayer. Here are four things we can glean from Paul’s prayer requests and how these should shape our own prayer requests, particularly as we carry out our disability ministries.
Why Christians Don't Get Mental Health Treatment
Since 2005, I have served on my church staff to provide clinical mental health counseling services to our congregation and others in our area. I have known people who wanted counseling but couldn’t get it, and others who had access to counseling but didn’t get it. I’ve known pastors who burned out without even considering seeking mental health treatment, and I’ve also known pastors who sought periodic counseling just as a personal self-care routine. Why is it that some people with symptoms of a mental illness go to counseling while others don’t?
Building Disability Inclusion into a Church’s Identity
We want to see churches start with disability in their DNA. We want people with disabilities to be targets of the evangelistic efforts new churches make, and participants in the early stages of a church’s life. One of our core convictions is that when a church doesn’t include people with disabilities, the church itself is disabled. People with disabilities remind us that God’s grace is shown most powerfully in weakness. They remind us that we all must remain dependent on God for our daily bread.
