How would things be different? The church

For the next few blogs, I want to look at how things might be different if the church around the world were more responsive to persons with disability, particularly cognitive disability. We will first look at how the church might be different.

If the church were more accepting of persons with disability, there are several ways in which things would be different. Lets consider these differences according to several general headings.
1-congregational make-up
2-congregational attitudes
3-community perceptions
4-God's blessings

If all congregations were accepting of persons with mental retardation, the make-up of the congregation would be different. Instead of the hundreds of individuals with disability remaining at home on Sunday mornings, they would be at church, in the congregation. It would not be unusual for you to come to church and sit down next to a person who had a cognitive disability. There would also be a greater liklihood that families of these persons would be in attendance which would further increase the percentage of individuals directly affected by the disability. At least initially, untill the practice became more commonplace, there would be those who would come to see whether the church was really open to these individuals. They would hear about the unpredictability of the congregation at times, and might want to come to see if something unusual would happen, and how those in the congregation would react.

By having a steady diet of persons with mental retardation in the congregation, people would either come to accept those members, or seek to find another church where they can worship undistracted (I wonder where the practice of undistracted worship first came into place in the church? We are to at times pray in a private place, however, there is no indication that I can see that worship ALWAYS needs to be so predictable and regular, to the point where a baby crying is cause for my consternation). If all churches were open to persons with cogntive disability then there would be nowhere you could go to get away from them! I like that idea. The presence of these kinds of disabled persons also broadens your definition of normal. You break out of a situation where everyone is just like you who attends your church. I come to learn that there are variations in the manner in which a person can act and still be a Christian. I come to learn that there are variations in abiltiy level in persons who are Christians. I confront my own hard, brittle attitudes towards acceptable differences in persons, and am hopefully softened with the rest of the environment. I am confronted by Christian brothers and sisters who wisely tell me that I am the one who needs to change, not necessarily the persons with disability.

Community perceptions will change as well. Christians are criticized for being intolerant. Trust me I know after 15 years at a state university campus. It is difficult to be accused of intolerance when you are leading the way in including disenfranchised persons in your fellowship, taking them into your home, meeting their needs. Not only do you serve those who come to you, you scour the community to find others whose needs you might meet. The church becomes preoccupied with meeting the needs of hurting, in this case disabled, persons in the community. Quickly the community will know, that if you have a problem, go to the church as they will do whatever they can to help you and include you. I remember hearing speeches by politicians who held diametrically opposed views on issues like abortion or programs to the poor to those of Mother Theresa. However, whenever she was with them, they could not argue with her life as she spent it with the poorest of the poor in India. I remember her even upbraiding a president about his position on abortion, and all he could do is listen. It is that kind of life the the church needs to evidence in the community. A life of caring and service which silences the voices of many deriders, and becomes a place where people are drawn to see what it is that motivates these people to do what they are doing.

Finally, there are the blessings we will receive from God for being obedient in this area. Who knows what God might do in our midst if we were obedient in this area? I personally would like to find out what He might do. I think He would expand the numbers of the church exponentially. I think he would bless us beyond belief for reaching out to the types of people that Jesus himself reached out to.

I once attended a conference on the church and disability where Dr. John Stott was the keynote presenter. After his presentation, I followed him and was able to get off a brief question. "Why is it do you think, Dr. Stott, that the church has been so unresponsive towards persons with disability?" His response was basically, because the church is simply being disobedient. Wow. I have never forgotten that brief interchange. It is true, that the church is disobedient. Yet we mask our disobedience under a variety of excuses.

Imagine meeting the Lord and saying,
"You know, we would have fulfilled the great commission, but it was just too expensive.
Or, we would have fulfilled the great commission, but it just wasn't a priority.
Or, we would have fulfilled the great commission, but if we did, lots of the members of our congregation would have left.
Or, we would have fulfilled the great commission, but we didn't know where the people were.
Or, we would have fulfilled the great commission, but nobody in our church wanted to provide leadership.
Or, we would have fulfilled the great commission, but we didn't have any training.
Or, we would have fulfilled the great commission, but we thought that because we pay taxes that the needs of those people were being taken care of.
Or, we would have fulfilled the great commission, we were worried about our children if we brought those people in.
Or, we would have fulfilled the great commission, but those people disrupt the worship service, by clapping wrong, or not whispering, or having social skill deficits.
Or, we would have fulfilled the great commission, but when we ask for prayer requests, they always air their dirty laundry.
Or, we would have fulfilled the great commission, but if those people come we can't cover the same material in our Bible classes that we typically would.
Or, we would have fulfilled the great commission, but those people are a black hole for service.
Or, we would have fulfilled the great commission, but those people never get better anyway.
Or, we would have fulfilled the great commission, but I could never do that, it takes a lot of patience to work with those kinds of people.

It takes more patience to work with a disobedient worldwide church. Each of the above are real excuses I have heard for why churches/people are not working with persons with cognitive disability. It is easy to see why Dr. Stott portrayed the church as disobedient.

McNair