Goal 4 was to develop a ministry plan to address the spiritual and physical needs of SNF was evaluated by the expert panel of four individuals on April 8, 2022.
These four participants consisted of individuals with family members with special needs and they are devoted Christians, who have a wealth of knowledge and experience to identify the issues between the church and the special needs community. Based on the research methodology this goal needed to score 90 percent on the Ministry Plan Rubric to be considered a success (appendix 8). After review and some adjustments made the expert panel determined that the Ministry Plan Rubric score was 100 percent. Therefore, this goal was met. In addition, to verify that this Ministry Plan can be reproducible in other churches. A group of five pastors received, reviewed, and provided feedback regarding the ministries ability to be implemented within their church setting. The details of these five pastors’ responses are under the developing a reproducible plan. Although, there seems to be a strong interest in the plan, the truth is that until this plan is
implemented and examined, true success cannot be measured until a follow up is reviewed a year or more after the initiation of the plan.
Strengths of the Project
Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of this project is the next question that must be answered. There are four main strengths to this project. The first strength was the spirit of the purpose. The purpose of this project is to establish biblical
foundations for special needs individuals and families in the church. Additionally, to create a reproducible format for this ministry so other local churches can begin to reach their special needs community. In other words, the spirit of the purpose is to minister to this particular community, which required some difficult, but honest feedback from both the special needs community and the church. Honest feedback was received from both sides, this feedback was valuable, yet it was hard to hear as both a pastor and a special needs parent myself. Therefore, everyone acknowledges that the mindset for each other was clear and if there are avenues in repairing and implementing a stronger relationship between the church and the special needs community the dedication would be there.
Focusing on God’s Word is the beginning of this commitment and establishing biblical foundations. Again, the spirit of the purpose is to create a reproducible format and gain more traction as the project moved forward. During this process of this project special needs families began inquiring about the ministry, churches asked for updates, and signs of a renewed relationship between the special needs community and the church became evident and palpable. Therefore, the strength started with the spirit of the purpose and continued to expand and grow at each level, with everyone understanding the need for such a ministry.
The second strength of this project was the goals, which reinforced the purpose. The goals were designed to build upon one another; the first two goals became vital to the remaining two. The first two goals simply investigated the needs and
commitment on both sides of this conversation. The response from the special needs community was overwhelming at times, both filled with excitement and fear. The church response was not as extensive, but the ones that did responded continually sought updates
and looked for ideas regarding a special needs ministry. With the establishment of the need based on the first two goals, the remaining goals of a sermon series and developing a ministry format became more of a desire for everyone involved. Therefore, the goals which were intentionally built upon one another, became some of the most important steps toward this ministry.
The third strength of this project was the development of a sermon series. The sermon series was also built upon one another, with the hopes that each week a new biblical foundation would be revealed, and the conclusion of the sermon series would bring everything together. The first sermon was designed to remind Christians to speak up for those in need and not to be complacent with our own lives. The second and third sermons, outlined Christ’s ministry of healing the disabled and special needs. It also remained Christians that God’s grace includes everyone that will call upon the name of the Lord. The fourth, fifth and sixth sermons, described what it means to love God and love each other. Walking through each aspect individually and finally as a whole to demonstrate Christ’s understanding of both loving God and loving your neighbor. The fluid nature of the sermons going from responsibilities of a Christian—to what Christ has done for those dealing with disabilities to how we are to love God and others was a critical piece of displaying the need for this ministry. This ministry is not one built on hope, it is built on action and love. Knowing the biblical foundations for this type of ministry became a vital, yet crucial step in building a ministry format. The sermon series did just that.
The fourth strength of this project was the interest that it generated within the church and the community. The interest was built on two levels. One the members of SBC and those that participated in the surveys. Two, those that are special needs families that found themselves answering a survey that had them reevaluate their spiritual walk.
As mentioned previously, the mindset of everyone involved was genuine and became more unveiled as the project moved forward. As one individual stated in a post-survey
comment, “Even if this ministry doesn’t start right away, I am so happy that the
conversation has started.” It is through this interest that this project was strengthened at each step.
Weaknesses of the Project
This project certainly had strengths, but it additionally had some weaknesses.
The first weakness was the length of the sermon series was too short. Unknown factors such as: congregational interest in the subject, those not participating in the survey attention and the ability to keep everyone engaged with special needs as the subject matter was the reason a six-week sermon format. Once the series was designed and in process, it became clear that the series was going to be successfully attended and the interest level grew. However, at this point to add additional sermons would have upset the balance that was designed from the beginning. Therefore, the determination was made to continue with the original design of a six-week sermon series. The effects of not
having a longer sermon series was a missed opportunity to add more biblical evidence and biblical foundations to support the formation of this ministry.
The second weakness was a lack of interaction with those taking the individual Church Assessment Survey. Initially, the intention was to keep everyone anonymous, so everyone would feel comfortable with full transparency and honesty. Although,
transparency and honesty were accomplished, it came at the detriment of discussion among one another. Many responses from the survey, would have been beneficial topic within a small group. When weighing the benefit of discussion versus transparency and honesty it was determined to not be a priority. In hindsight, this was a missed opportunity that could have increased many factors for the participants. The opportunity for
informative and productive discussions to facilitating tough questions in a group have the potential to provide dynamic interaction. Future groups and conversations will be
organized to foster those types of topics and conversations.