Our Ministry

Our goal is to assist churches in helping to serve individuals or families of special needs persons. We will accomplish this by helping them minister to the individuals with special needs and their families. We will work with you to establish a plan, so that when an individual with special needs and their family comes to the door, the church can be equipped to serve them. This will enable them to effectively participate in worship. These families would be able to be a part of a church which understands and accommodates their needs.

Our goal is to train and help prepare churches. We will assist with the adaptation and location of appropriate materials, assisting with physical accommodations as well as setting up classes, clubs, and social activities for persons with special needs. The integration of individuals will be stressed wherever possible in programs and classes. In some cases segregated classes and programs can work well for a church and the group they are trying to serve. Churches will have the option of requesting assistance depending on the needs of the church. We desire to work with the churches to determine their needs according to their goals in their special needs ministry.

We suggest that all churches have a special needs committee made up of three or four people who meet periodically to develop a plan of action for the special needs people/families. This committee will help minister to special needs persons and their families and will develop a plan of action to assist them to meet their needs upon their arrival.

Another important matter we help assist churches in addressing is the laying out of their Child Protection Policy. Most churches now have one for liability/insurance reasons, but most do not include a section on assisting persons with special needs in order to allow a volunteer/worker to with an individual a professional manner. By having this section in place, it would allow for these persons to do self-care (toileting) on a disabled person or to deal with behavioral issues with an individual in a professional way, i.e., remove the person if he/she looks like he or she may harm himself or herself or others. There must be protection for the worker or volunteer when he or she handles a child in a professional way to meet the person’s needs without fear of consequences.

A church’s Child Protection Act should have a section to help protect the worker or volunteer in this area. Our job is to guide churches to look at their Child Protection Act and to include this subject within their act. If a Child Protection Act is not part of a church’s children’s ministry, we would recommend they adopt one and include this area. One area which would help protect children and adults.