BIBLE STUDY
Belonging
Accessibility, Inclusion, and Christian Community
By Deborah Meyer Abbs (InterVarsity Press, 2021)
God created all of us for relationship with God and each other. Yet most people have felt left out at some point. For those with visible or invisible disabilities, attitudes and systems of ableism can particularly lead to deep hurt and barriers to fully participating in God's kingdom work. We all miss out when any members of the body of Christ are not included. This nine-session LifeGuide® Bible study explores Old and New Testament teachings on Christian community, showing how God responds in love to those who are often marginalized and excluded so that we too can welcome people of all different abilities.
BOOKS
By Dr. Amy Kelly (Brazos Press, 2022)
Much of the church has forgotten that we worship a disabled God whose wounds survived resurrection, says Amy Kenny. In My Body Is Not a Prayer Request, she exposes unintentional ableism in the church and casts a new imagination for Christian communities to engage disability justice. Kenny shows that it is time for the church to start treating disabled people as full members of the body of Christ who have much more to offer than a miraculous cure narrative and to begin learning from their embodied experiences.
Changing Attitudes About Disability
How to See People with Disabilities as Our Co-laborers in God's Redemption Plan
By Daniel Kyle Vander Plaats (Dordt College Press, 2020)
“Vander Plaats discusses different attitudes about disability and provides multiple resources on how to move along the pendulum from ignorance, to pity, to caring, to friendship, and ultimately, to co-laboring, where we find ourselves in rich reciprocal relationships with disabled people that enables both of us to fulfill our God-given callings. Each step is inherent in our journey and his booklet provides all the support we need to take the first step." Sarah Ternes
By Bethany McKinney Fox (InterVarsity Press, 2019)
What does healing mean for people with disabilities? Bridging biblical studies, ethics, and disability studies with the work of practitioners, Bethany McKinney Fox examines healing narratives in their biblical and cultural contexts. This theologically grounded and winsomely practical resource helps us more fully understand what Jesus does as he heals and how he points the way for relationships.
by Benjamin T. Conner (InterVarsity Press, 2018)
How would it look if we "disabled" Christian theology, discipleship, and theological education? Benjamin Conner initiates a new conversation between disability studies and Christian theology and missiology, imagining a church that fully incorporates persons with disabilities into its mission. In this vision, the people with disabilities are part of the church's pluriform witness, and the congregation embodies a robust hermeneutic of the gospel.
By Kevin Timpe (Calvin College Press, 2019)
Disability and Inclusive Communities intends to help readers learn how to build communities that fully include people with disabilities. Often our social practices unintentionally exclude those with disabilities by making it difficult for them to fully participate in the community. These practices hurt those whom we exclude. But they are also bad for our communities as a whole. Our communities--from our churches to our schools to our workplaces--are worse off when we exclude those with disabilities. We miss out on the opportunity to learn from complex, complete human beings who experience life in different ways. We miss out on becoming the Body of Christ in all its fullness. But our communities become better places for everyone when we pursue policies and practices of inclusion. Good intentions aren't enough. We need good social practices to make our communities more inclusive. For when we do that, all of us are better off.
By Deborah Abbs, Kelli Ra Anderson, and Kevin R. O’Brien, (Foxburrow Media and Treading the Dawn, 2018)
No matter who we are or where we come from, autism has taken us on a common journey. Our faith has given us a common hope. We are different - black, white, male, female - but we all have children with autism. These are our stories: our struggles, our failures and triumphs, our parenting, our faith and a bit of everything in between. Along the way we realized we are not alone. Our lives, though not the ones we imagined, have given us new purpose and meaning. Our children have something unique and beautiful to offer the world. And to us. From creating a new normal for the holidays to re-thinking sibling relationships, from asking "why?!" to how to cope moving forward, Life on the Spectrum faces the reality of living with and loving our autistic children from a perspective of faith.
Stanley Hauerwas and Jean Vanier, (InterVarsity Press, 2018)
The church has much to learn from an often-overlooked group—those with disabilities. Including a study guide in this expanded edition, Stanley Hauerwas and Jean Vanier shed light on what it means to be human and how we are to live, carefully exploring the contours of a countercultural community marked by radical forms of gentleness, peacemaking, and faithfulness.
Still Life
A Memoir of Living Fully with Depression
By Gillian Marchenko (InterVarsity Press, 2016)
For Gillian Marchenko, dealing with depression means learning to accept and treat it as a physical illness, while continuing as a wife and mother of four, two with special needs. How can she care for her family when she can't even get out of bed? Her story is real and raw, not one of quick fixes. But hope remains as she discovers that living with depression is still life.
WEBSITES
Think College is a national organization dedicated to developing, expanding, and improving inclusive higher education options for people with intellectual disability.
Beyond Limits is a Christian College for Students with developmental disabilities
Statistics at cdc.gov
Disability Network Lakeshore (DNL) knows the devastating impact of “othering,” a term that encompasses the many expressions of prejudice because of an individual’s group identity. We denounce the prejudice of othering as it relates to ableism—of them versus us, and of patronization, pity, marginalization, and stereotyping.
Christian College for Students with Developmental Disabilities
ARTICLES
by Heather Kirn Lanier, America: The Jesuit Review, March 7, 2017
by Christianity Today, May 7, 2019
The late founder of L’Arche showed the church how disability, vulnerability, and weakness bring us closer to one another and closer to Jesus.
