disability ministry weekly round-up {11-14-11}

Good intentions gone awry: Mark Stephenson writes about where Max Lucado missed the mark in the devotion about disease and disability in his latest book. Mark does a great job of avoiding both major traps for this sort of thing: (1) avoiding it altogether in our Christian celebrity culture in which most believers know the names of big-time Christian authors/speakers but couldn't tell you the name of an orphan and (2) taking pride in criticizing another Christian. Instead, Mark is humble, honest, and helpful.

Good finds! This post on The Inclusive Church provides some basic suggestions for children's ministry toys from the Toy R Us special needs catalog.

Special Needs, Special Words This post about how we talk about people with disabilities is important. My favorite lines were:

Tim Shriver, Chairman of the Special Olympics, coined the phrases "diffabilities" and "giftedness."  I like these words.  But when talking about children, I prefer that we call them "children." The word "children" implies a million different things. “Children” means hope.  “Children” means dreams and imagination.  Unless someone tells a child they can’t do something, they believe they can do anything.   On any given day, a child may be happy, a runner, a learner, joyful, weepy, ornery, a baseball player, or Spiderman.

Churchcasting: Is it okay to just tune into church via the web or TV instead of actually going? This article wasn't written with families with disabilities in mind, but I have often heard stories in the disability community from those who are forgoing traditional church (often due to lack of acceptance there) and instead tuning in from home. I think having the option is great - for example, for seasons of life in which special needs (like health-related ones) make traditional church attendance out of the question - but community is absent or severely lacking if we disengage from church altogether.

Who Is Worth It? Stark life decisions in Uganda. Not sure how much it is related to this blog's content, but I feel like it is. Thanks, Challies, for linking to this a couple days ago.

A Father's Journey with his Daughter with Down Syndrome: I haven't listened to this yet, because I spent the weekend in bed with a head cold, but it's been recommended by enough folks I trust to pass it on.

Welcoming Words: Minding the Gap We sometimes use language and cling to traditions without offering explanations for them. This can make church confusing and challenging for some of those with disabilities ... and some of those without disabilities too.

Policies, Predators, and Penn State Football Jared provides good commentary, solid suggestions, and exceptional policies in the wake of the news out of Penn State. Maybe someday I'll be ready to write a post about this, but our church went through a predator situation five years ago and my heart still aches thinking about all the brokenness. It happens. Don't lure yourself into the false belief that your church is immune or that you are a good judge of character. It happens.

This song isn't specific to disability ministry, but it eloquently captures why I do what I do with this blog and in my church each week.