“Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:14, NIV).
The Seventh-day Adventist church has an initiative known as Adventist Possibilities Ministries (APM), created to address the needs of church members with disabilities and their families. APM works to make worship and life more comfortable and accessible for members who need a little extra assistance. According to APM,
the mission of Adventist Possibility Ministries is built around the concept that while all are broken in some way, nevertheless, “All are gifted, needed and treasured.” This clearly suggests that the principle of inclusion includes receiving and sharing the benefits of participating in God’s mission. Through various means, this ministry brings to the forefront the recognition of the value and inherent dignity in every person.
To assess the extent to which members identify as disabled in some way and how difficult they find it to participate in worship, relevant questions were added to the Global Church Member Survey. In 2018, the Global Church Member Survey asked members whether they were deaf, and 1.3% answered that they were.
In 2023, the questions were expanded. When asked whether they identified as a person who is deaf, 4.7% answered “yes.” Another question asked whether they had other challenges or impairments (physical, emotional, mental, cognitive, developmental, visual, hearing), and 10.8% answered “yes.”
Finally, the survey asked church members how often they felt that it was more difficult for them to participate in church activities than others due to some disabilities, and 69% said that the question did not apply to them, 16.8% answered that it rarely or never happened, 10.4% said that it sometimes happened to them, and 3.8% said it often happened to them.
We can find stories of people who were either born with or developed a disabling condition throughout the Bible, and God makes it clear that we must treat them with care and grace.
Moses
When God called Moses to be His spokesperson, Moses answered, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue” (Exodus 4:10, NIV). Moses clearly had some kind of disability, whether physical or psychological, that made him believe he was incapable of speaking on behalf of the Lord. God reminded him who created human speech in the first place. “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say” (Exodus 4:11–12, NIV).
Jeremiah
Jeremiah experienced loneliness and sadness, possibly actual clinical depression, as a result of speaking the truth of God to those who would not hear. One of his books is actually called Lamentations, which the dictionary describes as “the passionate expressions of grief or sorrow.” He cried, “I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. So I say, ‘My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.’ I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me” (Lamentations 3:17–20, NIV).
Paul
Paul suffered from an unstated disability—we don’t know whether it was mental or physical. He asked God three times to take it away from him (2 Corinthians 12: 8, NIV), but God answered, “‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (v. 9). Paul used his weakness to glorify God’s strength.
Church members with a disability are beloved brothers and sisters of the church body. The church can no more thrive without them than it can without the more “able-bodied” members. Paul said, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable” (1 Corinthians 12:21–22, NIV).
We need to do whatever we can to accommodate the needs of our members to access the church experience. A few obvious methods are improving physical access to the church building via ramps, wide doorways, and dedicated spaces for wheelchairs in the sanctuary; providing hearing assistance devices during services for people with hearing problems; and making large-print Bibles, hymnals, and study guides available for those with vision impairments. Just a few more ideas might include a dim, quiet area for people (especially children) with sensory issues, subtitles for the sermon up on screen, and someone to translate what is going on up front into sign language, and crucially, not dismissing the needs of members because it’s not in the budget or it takes extra time and energy.
“Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed” (Hebrews 12:13, NIV).
You can access the full report here.
Created in collaboration with the Institute of Church Ministry.
Published by ASTR on 11/19/2024.