Looking for some recommended reading about those affected with disability? Here are some of our most favorites!
The Tale of the Shrinking Toilets
By Ryan Wolfe
On February 2nd, “Two-Two Day” as it would become known by, something unthinkable happened. All the toilets in public restrooms mysteriously shrank to miniature size! The chaos that ensued was unsettling. Find out what happens next in “The Tale of the Shrinking Toilets!”
Illustrated by Adam Bryant and written by Ryan Wolfe, Tale of the Shrinking Toilets is a book project meant to raise awareness regarding universal-sized changing tables. You can read more about this initiative, the creators, or how to build/buy your own changing table on the official website.
When you hear the word “Teachers” what is the first thing that comes to mind? Maybe it was a favorite teacher that you had while in school. Maybe it was the idea of a person that holds and imparts a specific type of knowledge. Or a person who has been given authority to teach because of the position they are in. Whatever came to mind you probably didn’t think of someone who is affected by disability. That is because this is counter-cultural to most of our worldviews. But the beauty of the Gospel is that God chooses what the world views as weak to do significant things, things like teaching others. My Friends, My Teachers is a truly unique book. It is a six-week small group devotional book that chronicles six unique stories about how encounters with disability changed people’s lives. My Friends, My Teachers is a powerful book that could change your life too, if you are open to allowing God to teach you in ways you may have never considered before.
Not So Different: What You Really Want to Ask About Having a Disability
By Shane Burcaw
Not So Different offers a humorous, relatable, and refreshingly honest glimpse into Shane Burcaw’s life. Shane tackles many of the mundane and quirky questions that he’s often asked about living with a disability, and shows readers that he’s just as approachable, friendly, and funny as anyone else.
The church across North America has struggled to minister effectively with children, teens, and adults with common mental health conditions and their families. One reason for the lack of ministry is the absence of a widely accepted model for mental health outreach and inclusion.
Chronic Sorrow explores natural grief reactions to losses that are not final and continue to be present in the life of the griever. This second edition updates terminology, pertinent research, and the roles the concept of chronic sorrow has come to play in the nursing, medical, social work, pastoral, and community counseling professions, among others. This text also extends the concept’s usefulness to other ongoing losses that are bases for non-ending grief responses, such as serious disabilities. Benefits and social supports are explored in depth, giving readers a practical guide for accessing available resources. Chapters also give guidance for professionals to assist individuals and families who struggle with living with irremovable loss, helping them plan for a future in which customary caregivers can no longer carry the load.
Sexuality: Your Sons and Daughters With Intellectual Disabilities
By Karin Melberg Schwier
Written for anyone caring for children with developmental disabilities, this guide explains how and when to teach sexuality and safe practices and how to broach the subject when the time or opportunity arises.
What if the challenges, struggles, and trials in your life turned out to be God’s stage for the biggest blessing of your life? What if the circumstances that bewildered and frustrated you the most brought you the closest you had ever been to God? When Jeff Davidson became the father of a child with special needs, he thought God had wrecked his life. He would discover though that God had given him an amazing gift. God had, in fact, given him a masterpiece.
Autism has evolved from an unfamiliar term to an everyday reality for millions of people. Bookstore shelves are filled with resources that address how Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects children and adults at school, work, and home. But what about the church? What about your church? How can it become a welcoming place for individuals and families affected by ASD?
Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. Routine, order and predictability shelter him from the messy, wider world. Then, at fifteen, Christopher’s carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbor’s dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing.
Including People with Disabilities in Faith Communities
By Erik W. Carter
A congregational community is an ideal place to share and strengthen faith, form lasting relationships, and develop special gifts and talents. Too often, though, people with developmental and other disabilities lack the opportunities and supports to fully participate in the life of their faith community. That’s why families and service providers need to read this groundbreaking guidebook—and share a copy with congregations that want to become places of welcome and belonging for people with disabilities.
For anyone who’s ever been bullied–or been a bully themselves–it’s time to change your tune. This is not a book for whiners, but a new language that will give you the words you need to take charge and stop the cycle of teasing. Filled with inspiration and celebration, Don’t Laugh at Me is the anthem for a new bully-free world. Read it, sing it, and cheer!
Parenting can be difficult and tiring, especially when you have a special needs child with medical, behavioral, or educational issues. In Different Dream Parenting, author Jolene Philo offers guidance and encouragement through biblical insights and her own personal experiences. Find spiritual wisdom, practical resources, and tools that can help you become an extraordinary advocate for your child. Discover how you can move beyond the challenges and experience the joy of being your child’s biggest and best supporter.
Special Needs Parenting is a must read for family members, pastors, and any person who works with special needs families. Dr. Bradley explores their challenges, grief, and joy with deep sensitivity, theological depth, and practical advice. A blessing to all who read it and allow their lives to be touched by wisdom born of personal experience and biblical scholarship.
What do you need to lead a special needs ministry? If you’re not asking this question as a church leader, you are already behind. Families in your community are asking this question in every area of life–not just church. We need to meet families, families of every kind, and love them right where they are. Leading a Special Needs Ministry is a practical how-to guide for the family ministry team working to welcome one or 100 children with special needs.
This book provides many ideas for creating an environment where you can introduce the good news of Jesus Christ to a family member or church friend with an Intellectual Disability or Autism Spectrum Disorder. The book also uses a concept known as “Vertical Habits” to give a framework for creating inclusive communities of worship where each one can use the gifts God has given to participate in a worship conversation with God. Transform the worship environment for ALL by welcoming each one.
Andrew and Rachel Wilson know what it means to live a life they never expected. As the parents of two children with special needs, their story mingles deep pain with deep joy in unexpected places. With raw honesty, they share about the challenges they face on a daily basis—all the while teaching what it means to weep, worship, wait, and hope in the Lord. Offering encouragement rooted in God’s Word, this book will help you cling to Jesus and fight for joy when faced with a life you never expected.
Working through key Bible passages on brokenness and disability while answering hard questions, Michael offers helpful principles for believers and their churches. He shows us how to embrace our own brokenness and then to embrace those who are more physically and visibly broken, bringing hope and vision to those of us who need it most.
Disability and the Church: A Vision for Diversity and Inclusion
By Lamar Hardwick
Lamar Hardwick was thirty-six years old when he found out he was on the autism spectrum. While this revelation helped him understand and process his own experience, it also prompted a difficult re-evaluation of who he was as a person. And as a pastor, it started him on a new path of considering the way disabled people are treated in the church. Disability and the Church is a practical and theological reconsideration of the church's responsibilities to the disabled community. Too often disabled persons are pushed away from the church or made to feel unwelcome in any number of ways. As Hardwick writes, "This should not be." He insists that the good news of Jesus affirms God's image in all people, and he offers practical steps and strategies to build stronger, truly inclusive communities of faith.
Disability and the Way of Jesus: Holistic Healing in the Gospels and the Church
By Bethany McKinney Fox
What does healing mean for people with disabilities? The Gospels are filled with accounts of Jesus offering physical healing. But even as churches today seek to follow the way of Jesus, people with disabilities all too often experience the very opposite of healing and life-giving community: exclusion, judgment, barriers. Misinterpretation and misapplication of biblical healing narratives can do great damage, yet those who take the Bible seriously mustn't avoid these passages either. Bethany McKinney Fox believes that Christian communities are better off when people with disabilities are an integral part of our common life. In Disability and the Way of Jesus, she considers how the stories of Jesus' healings can guide us toward mutual thriving. How did Jesus' original audience understand his works of healing, and how should we relate to these texts today? After examining the healing narratives in their biblical and cultural contexts, Fox considers perspectives from medical doctors, disability scholars, and pastors to more fully understand what Jesus does as he heals and how he points the way for relationships with people with disabilities.
Jesus and Disability: A Guide to Creating an Inclusive Church
By Chris Hulshof
Stemming from personal, pastoral, and academic interests, author Chris Hulshof seeks to fill a gap in the resources available that address practical and theological concerns related to disability, specifically in the church. Through examining primary biblical texts dealing with disability, Hulshof shows how Jesus’s involvement with the disabled can be instrumental in laying the foundation for disability-inclusive church leadership. Jesus and Disability provides a blueprint for how churches and their leaders can become disability friendly, serving those in the church and in the broader community.
Who Do You See When You Look at Me? (Hardcover) – Inspirational Books for Kids, Teaches Lessons of Disability Awareness, Kindness and Acceptance, Perfect Gift for Birthdays, Holiday & More
By Angela Ray Rodgers
Though she lives with the daily challenges of disability, Grace Anna is a typical kid with big dreams. With imaginative text and charming illustrations, this inspirational kid’s book teaches children to let go of first impressions and see themselves and others for who they really are.
Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability
By Stephanie Hubach
In a fallen world, we all experience brokenness. In our humanity, we all experience limited ability. We're in the same lake, sharing a common story—but because our experiences differ from person to person, we're not in the same boat. When it comes to people with disability, however, we often act like we're in different lakes. Disability can seem frightening, abnormal—or even irrelevant to those who do not experience it. But Stephanie Hubach argues that there is a better way to think of disability, a better way to understand the challenges facing those touched by disability, and a better way to understand the role of the church in the lives of people with differing abilities. She pinpoints what is true about disability, in contrast to common secular views, and what we need to rethink and relearn in order to support one another and make God's kingdom truly accessible to all.
The Crippled Lamb follows the story of Joshua, a lamb with a crippled leg who feels left out because he can't run and play like the other lambs. But God has a special plan for Joshua's life, as He does for all who feel alone. Readers will feel a gentle tug on their hearts as the little lamb's prayers are answered in an amazing way on Christmas Day.
My Body Is Not a Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church
By Amy Kenny
Much of the church has forgotten that we worship a disabled God whose wounds survived resurrection, says Amy Kenny. 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 learn from their embodied experiences. Offering a unique blend of personal storytelling, fresh and compelling writing, biblical exegesis, and practical application, this book invite readers to participate in disability justice and create a more inclusive community in church and parachurch spaces. Engaging content such as reflection questions and top-ten lists are included.
Unexpected Blessings: The Joys and Possibilities of Life in a Special-Needs Family
By Sandra Peoples
Unexpected Blessings helps special-needs families move past the pain and confusion of their circumstances and slowly, firmly face the future with hope. Speaking honestly about struggles that accompany a variety of disabilities, Sandra Peoples shows readers how to:
· let go of false beliefs that hold them back
· work through the cycles of grief
· focus on self-care and healthy routines
· understand disability based on what the Bible says
· rebuild a strong faith foundation
· create support systems for themselves and others
Filled with real-life stories and hard-earned wisdom, this book shines a light on the possibilities and blessings that come when parents see their new purpose in life--which was God's purpose for them all along.
On November 16, 2010, Lee and Sandra’s lives changed with just a short sentence from a child psychologist, “We believe your son has autism.” In that moment, so much changed … but what didn’t change was that God still held the Peoples family, they were never out of His grip. In this Bible study written for special-needs parents by special-needs parents, you will learn you are not alone. Even when life feels out of control, it will help you remember He is in control. You will learn there is a future hope we all can cling to. You will learn there are others out there, just like you, who need to be shown they are also in the grip of God.
Because Jesus' table is accessible for everyone...
We desire to see the Church make room for all people affected by disability. To fully participate. To fully partner. To fully lead.
We exist to equip and empower the 25% of the population with a disability, their families, and their churches to become who God has created them to be.
