Assessment of local churches was conducted using the Church Special Needs Family Assessment (CSNFA; see Appendix 2). The first part of the survey was designed to assess the current involvement of the local church in the special needs community.
As Robert Alter says, “The heart is the seat of understanding in biblical physiology, but it is also associated with the feelings.”7 The soul would represent the invisible attribute of a person including the will and the emotions. The Decalogue that precedes chapter 6 creates an outline for God's order in the form of the Ten Commandments.
KNOWING A CHURCH’S OBSTACLES IN SPECIAL NEEDS
DETAILS OF PROJECT
Speak Up” (Prov 31:89)
The first sermon delivered on February 6, 2022, laid the groundwork for the church to know its responsibilities when it comes to speaking for those in need. The purpose was to give examples throughout Scripture of speech expectations and what exactly that means for the church. The focus was Proverbs 31:8-9 speaking of the dumb, the poor and the needy and the needy.
The Church taught that speaking means both an active voice and an active listener. While speaking up is the first step in being an advocate for these individuals and their families, it was also to direct their attention to a. The purpose of this release was to allow listeners to formulate their own thoughts on the topic of special needs and consider what it means to them.
The listeners were provided with an understanding of the visible and invisible disabilities present in people's lives. The conclusion of the sermon charged the listeners to "speak for the voiceless." With three main points: (1) show love and care, (2) listen to them and try to understand them, and (3) take action by speaking up for them or helping them when needed.
For His Glory” (John 9:1-7)
Determining that the cause of the disability was neither the sin of the blind man nor the parents, but the purpose was to show the glory of God through his disability. This is not a distortion of the Bible's teaching on sin and suffering as shown in Leviticus, James, 1 Corinthians, or original sin itself in Genesis 3. But it is to focus on what the whole purpose of suffering is - is to give the person to suffer a trust in God, to give the sufferer a heart for those who suffer and give us a sense of weakness before an almighty God, to show his glory in our lives.
The sermon ends with another command to the church to be hospitable and hospitable to those who enter through the church doors. With the understanding that the ultimate act of hospitality is seen in heaven with Christ. We, the church, are to "do the work of him that sent me [that is, Christ]" (John 9:4; emphasis added) and extend the same hospitality to those seeking a place to worship their Lord and Savior.
The sermon ended with the understanding of why people with disabilities and special needs seek church in the first place. He will give relief to those with special needs, but to those who have easy access to the gospel, yet do not accept it, will become blind and experience eternal blindness.
All Are Welcome” (Luke 14:1-24)
In order to understand what Christ was trying to convey in the parable of the wedding and the great banquet, it was important to see these two categories in the church itself. Learning these critical concepts will help the church better understand what hospitality really means. The first focus of this sermon was on Luke 14:7-11, the parable of the wedding.
To be dishonest about the gospel is not humility; it is the opposite – moving towards the norms of the world instead of towards God. It involves the truth of our own faith and forces us to question whether we are really gravitating toward the Word of God and what it says, or whether we are gravitating toward the world that is more likely to supply the desires of our own heart. These aspects include that we (the church) should not expect anything in return for those who want to worship God.
The final aspect of Christ-centered hospitality is to actively seek everything for the Great Commission. Closing the sermon was a command to be both a good guest and a good host through a Christ-centered hospitality model.
Love God” (Deut 6:5)
Hello Neighbor” (Lev 19:18b)
He said to the innkeeper: "Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will pay it back when I come back" (Luke 10:35). If the church really wants to succeed in this ministry, the church must constantly "return" to these families, with love and care for them.
The Greatest Commandment” (Matt 22:34-40)
At the conclusion of this sermon series, the listeners were challenged not only to seek to love God and to love each other, but to do so through a divine love, which looks different from anything else we could call love . During the process of developing the sermon series, potential participants for the survey were created. As word spread, interest in a special needs program grew; so the number of participants also grew.
The sermon series was scheduled to take place at the morning service on February 6, February 13, February 20, February 27, March 6 and March 13. 3 While 66 percent of women are caregivers at home, this number increased within the special. there is a need for community; Thus, having a larger number of women participate in the survey gives a more accurate understanding of how special needs and the church work together. The process in which the sermon series was implemented was designed to help guide listeners through the process of understanding God's plan for the church and particular needs.
The order in which the series of sermons were to be delivered was crucial in this process, as it was intended to take the listener through the different levels of responsibility the church has to all individuals, including disabilities and special needs. The process and order of the sermon series was approved by the Deacon Board on January 22, 2022.
The result was a plan with five goals to create and implement an "inclusive ministry." These goals include, cultivating the correct culture.
The second stage of readiness results from the willingness of church members to be trained in an Inclusive Ministry with special needs. In this training, volunteers are taught the specific types of special needs, the types of sensory issues, how to deal with these issues and most importantly, how to talk to special needs families and their parents. This includes what the SBC has called "door-to-door care." Door-to-door care is defined as the concept of welcoming people when they enter the doors of the church, making sure they feel cared for during their time inside the doors, and finally, caring for them as they leave the doors.
This includes having good hosts authorized to meet a person or family with special needs or disabilities. Finally, it's about making sure we've met their needs during their experience at our facility. This process ends when they walk out the church doors with a friendly volunteer who follows up later on how their visit experience was and if the church can improve anything on their next visit.
This sheet provides information about their family member and how they prefer to interact with them while they are housed with us (Appendix 9). What are common obstacles churches face in ministering to these families, and how the church plans to remove or mitigate those obstacles. Volunteers will be trained to recognize special needs, identify obstacles to those disabilities (see Chapter 3), and remove or mitigate those obstacles.
PROJECT EVALUATION
Assess SNF in Our Community and Their Needs
The survey was mailed to three special needs advocacy organizations/associations and their families. Two of these organizations were local to the state of Colorado, and one study was awarded to a national organization. Also, the surveys had a complete completion rate of 92.1 percent, meaning that each question was answered in fifty-nine surveys.
Assess How Local Churches Are Interacting with SNF
Develop a Sermon Series
Part of this goal was successfully viewed through a t-test for dependent samples that demonstrated a positive, statistically significant difference between pre-preaching and post-preaching series survey results: t = -2.5, p<.01. The body of deacons who helped shape the sermon series marked the sermon rubric. The second need for success was based on a preaching rubric score of 90 percent or better, which after grading was 100 percent (appendix 5), so this goal was successfully met.
Develop a Ministry Plan
Additionally, to create a reproducible format for this ministry so that other local churches can begin to reach out to their special needs community. In other words, the spirit of purpose is to serve this particular community, which required some difficult but honest responses from both the special needs community and the church. Therefore, everyone agrees that the mindset for each other was clear and if there is a way to repair and implement a stronger relationship between the church and the community with special needs, the commitment would be there.
Again, the spirit of the purpose is to create a reproducible format and gain more traction as the project moves forward. During this process of this project, families with special needs began to inquire into the ministry, churches asked for updates, and signs of a renewed relationship between the special needs community and the church became clear and tangible. The response from the special needs community was overwhelming at times, filled with both excitement and fear.
With the need established based on the first two goals, the remaining goals of a sermon series and developing a ministry format became more of a desire for all involved. The sermon series also built on each other, with the hope that each week a new biblical foundation would be revealed, and the conclusion of the sermon series would bring everything together.
Would Do Differently
Top four increases in the post-survey results
Three increases in the post-survey results
Two decreases in the post-survey results
Goals successfully met
Surveys sent and returned rate
