Five ways to make your church more inclusive

I have found Amy Fenton Lee's blog to be incredibly helpful for special needs ministry know-how, and obviously the folks at specialchildren.about.com agreed, because they interviewed her. Several of you have shared with me that you want to start a special needs ministry or get more buy-in for an existing one, and this article that includes that interview - titled Five Ways to Make Your Church More Inclusive - is a fantastic resource for doing just that.

You'll need to follow the link to get the full content, but - in brief - Amy recommends:

1. Sharing statistics. I did this to invest our leaders, and I'll be posting later this week about some useful statistics as well as some flawed one that are used, abused, and oft repeated even though they aren't accurate.
2. Providing role models. It definitely helps to be able to share what other churches are doing.
3. Help church leaders network. The concept of segregated church buildings and denominations that exist in isolation from one another isn't found anywhere in the Bible. Our church hosted Joy Prom, a massive event for adults with special needs, for several years before we began sharing the event with other churches. Now we hold it one year, and then a different church hosts it the next year. I love being involved with it, so a part of me is sad that Joy Prom isn't at our church this year. But I'm so excited for our friends down the road, that their church gets to experience it too and that we can sharpen, refine, and support one another in our efforts!
4. Narrow your focus. This one is the hardest for me, but it is so very true. I want to do everything at once. But I can't. Feel free to keep a parking lot of ideas where you park those longer-term vision and action steps, but decide what one or two things you're doing now. 
5. Suggest helpful resources. This is a big step too, because I've found that some folks are scared to do special needs ministry because they simply don't know what to do or how to do it and they don't want to fail. (And this ties back to number three, because other church leaders are key resources for you!)

For those of you who are just starting out, which step is the hardest for you?

And, whether you're new to special needs ministry or not, what's your narrowed focus right now? In other words, what's - to use Amy's words - the "one change that would make the biggest impact on families with special needs" at your church? (I'll be sharing the answer to that for our church later this week!)