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A ministry for special-needs kids not only meets the needs of children, it’s an outreach opportunity for the entire family, said Will Hall, a Southern Baptist layman who has a 12-year-old son with Down syndrome. Research shows that about 95 percent of families with special-needs children are unchurched.
Most churches already have the resources needed for such a ministry, Hall said, although they may not realize it. For example, a church member may have a degree in special education and may even be looking for a way to serve the church.
“I think every church may find that they have this kind of talent, people with these kinds of experiences and these kinds of professional qualifications who are looking for the opportunity to apply what they do in their professional life in a ministerial setting,” Hall said.
“I also think that it’s a good opportunity to reach out to communities in terms of seeing who has these abilities at schools?in the public school system or local colleges,” he said. “In seeking their professional insights, we may be able to reach them with the gospel. It’s kind of a double ministry when you’re looking to start this kind of program.”
Hall began a Sunday School class for two autistic siblings at College Heights Baptist Church in Gallatin, Tenn.
“We hope that there will be more than two, but we’ve started out trying to reach out to these two children whose mother has been attending our church,” Hall said. “They have severe learning disabilities. They’re not very communicative in terms of verbalization.”
Hall was inspired to work with the kids when he realized the impact others had on his son, Jacob.
“With Jacob I’ve always anticipated and prepared for the fact that he may one day be able to discern right from wrong and make choices about sin and also be able to accept or reject Christ,” Hall said. “My wife and I do all that we can to teach him at home, but it’s a welcome help to have a church that is trying to assist us in teaching him so that if he is able, he will make the right choice. I thought the same thing for these two children.”
Since August, Hall and a handful of rotating volunteers have been teaching the two Nigerian children a simple yet foundational truth through sign language: “God made me.”
“We worked with them several weeks in a row and then their mother was working with them at home, and one Sunday they both came in excitedly and they couldn’t wait to show us ‘God made me,'” Hall said.
Repetition is vital to teaching special-needs kids, Hall said, and these particular children are sensory-oriented. As they learned about creation and repeated the phrase “God made me,” they used cookie cutters and Play-doh to make representations of God’s creation.
Next the children learned to sign “Jesus loves me,” and Hall arranged for the two kids to sign those words during the chorus of the song as part of the church’s children’s Christmas program.
“It’s a delight to see the progress they’ve made in just a few months from where they were almost totally isolated from us,” Hall said. “When we shared with the mother about our plans to use them in the children’s Christmas program, she was just overwhelmed. She was tearfully happy.”
For churches considering starting a special-needs ministry, LeAnne Williams, ministry assistant in the SBTC Church Ministries department, suggested addressing the unique needs of parenting a special-needs child.
Williams recommended the book, “Special Needs, Special Ministry” by Jim Pierson, Louise Tucker Jones, and Pat Verbal, which addresses some of the most pressing needs and concerns of these special families:
- Grief
- Safety and survival
- Sleep and rest
- Marriage enrichment
- Providing for children even after their own death
And because the needs of these families are varied, Williams suggested incorporating specific attitudes into the ministry such as: unconditional love and grace, acceptance, hospitality, and respect. Likewise, ministry actions should focus on celebration and worship, fellowship, flexibility, and encouragement, she said.
Williams said ministering to special-needs families can be as simple as:
- asking them about their family and then listening
- assisting in connecting families with resources
- providing parents opportunities to do ministry without concern for their children
- being available
- providing financial support
But Williams also suggested ministry participants avoid the following pitfalls when ministering to special-needs families:
- visiting without permission
- telling parents you know how they feel
- offering answers
- putting them on a pedestal
Time invested in a special-needs ministry has eternal implications, Hall said.
“These children have a special relationship with God. I know that may sound like I’m making a theological stretch, but I’ve seen it in my own son and I see it in them,” he said. “They delight in the simple knowledge of ‘God made me.’ It’s a powerful concept that I think sometimes as adults we don’t appreciate. He intentionally made you and me.
“I know that Jacob delights at the knowledge that ‘Jesus loves me.’ In fact, his favorite thing to do around church now?he loves babies. He’ll go up to babies and he likes to do two things. He likes to play peep-eye with them and the other thing is that he’ll look at them and sign ‘Jesus loves babies.’
“I didn’t ever articulate to him that Jesus loves babies. He made the connection. That’s a powerful affirmation to me that God is speaking to him,” Hall said.
For more information about ministering to families and children with special needs, contact LeAnne Williams at lwilliams@sbtexas.com or 877-953-7282 (SBTC).
Recommendations cited in this article are drawn from the aforementioned book by Breeding, Hood and Whitworth, as well as “Special Needs Smart Pages” by Joni & Friends Ministries, and “Special Needs: Special Ministry for Children’s Ministry” from Group Publishing, as well as interviews with parents of special-needs children.
