North America: Church Leaders Train in Ministry to Disabled
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The Seventh-day Adventist Church's training of church volunteers for people with disabilities continued its 15-year run as the Commission for People with Disabilities met at the church's North American headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, March 12 to 15. |
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Rosa Banks.
Guide dog, Bo, with Mike Harrell, commission leader for the Adventist Church in Southern United States.
Catherine Burks.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church's training of church volunteers for people with disabilities continued its 15-year run as the Commission for People with Disabilities met at the church's North American headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, March 12 to 15.
Leaders estimate about 20 percent of Adventist church membership in North America has a disability of some kind.
"Reaching out to the disabled community is part of evangelism," says Dr. Rosa T. Banks, human relations director for the church in North America.
Nearly 25 percent of Adventist churches in North America have leaders dealing with disabilities. However, many disabled members don't attend church, and the ministry is conducted at home.
The commission has defined seven types of disabilities that must be accommodated at the local church level: cognitive, hearing, hidden (such as Lupus, a chronic inflammatory disease that can affect various parts of the body), mobility, psychiatric, speech, and visual.
In addition to sensitizing members to disabilities, "You're also giving them a voice that gives them ability to affect policy," says Pastor Roscoe J. Howard, secretary for the church in North America.
The group visited the Pennsylvania Avenue Adventist Church in Capitol Heights, Maryland, to see an example of how to run a disabilities awareness program. Awareness was incorporated into the worship programs all day Saturday.
"Accessibility doesn't just mean ramps and physical aids to the disabled," says Catherine Burks, commission leader for the church's Allegheny West region, based in Columbus, Ohio. "Those with disabilities need to be encouraged to use their spiritual gifts. Each time you do that, you lose more and more fear. Some change is not easy, but change can be for the better. Usually the change involves a struggle, but the struggle promotes development."
The church's disabilities commission started in 1989, and six years later the world church voted to establish a coordinator for people with disabilities in churches worldwide.
For more information, visit www.nadadventist.org/humanrelations.
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