Church leaders

Latest posts

Understanding the Love of God
Carrie Norris reviews Believing and Belonging, a baptism curriculum for adults with intellectual disabilities.
Strides at Salford Mennonite
Jennifer Svetlik recounts Salford Mennonite's initiatives toward greater accessibility and inclusion.
Tiny, Little Awkward Steps
Pastor Nathanael Hofstetter Ressler offers tips for congregations beginning to accommodate for mental illness and support mental health.
Church for Kids with ADHD, Too
Denise Reesor offers ways to accommodate children whose brains work differently than the norm.
New Baptism Curriculum for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities
With captivating illustrations, activity-based learning, and an Anabaptist perspective, this is an important new tool for full inclusion.

All posts for Church Leaders

- A Meaninful Role to Play
  Chou Gabikiny is a counselor, consultant, and mother to children with disabilities. She explains how churches thrive when everyone has a role to play.
- A New Commandment
  Will we let people with cognitive disabilities wash our feet and transform our conceptions of what it means to be a Christian and what it means to be human?
- A Truly Perfect Heaven
  Would heaven would be a boring place if there were no people with Down Syndrome?
- Accessibility Benefits Everybody
- Advent Week Four
  Advent Week Four
- Autism in the Congregation
  Suggestions for including children with autism in church activities
- Blessings of a CARE Network
  Jim Smith's family is blessed by a congregational network of care that helps them cope with their son's schizophrenia and a demanding work and travel schedule.
- Book Review: Margins of Grace
- Caring for Caregivers and Persons with Dementia
  Bahia Vista Mennonite Church's parish nurse program is an expression of their commitment to show care and grace to one another, including persons with dementia.
- Certificate in Disabilities Ministry
  Western Theological Seminary announces a Graduate Certificate in Disabilities Ministry to prepare pastors and others for ministry with the many people who live with disabilities.
- Church for Kids with ADHD, Too
  Denise Reesor offers ways to accommodate children whose brains work differently than the norm.
- Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
  As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ, how do we reach out to those who are lonely?
- Communion and Food Allergies
  Food sensitivities can be a hidden barrier to participation in the life of the church.
- Costly Scripture
  Recovering a biblical history laced with loss helps us bridge the gap between trauma thousands of years ago and trauma today.
- Creating Space for Love
  The fourth week of Advent
- Embodiment in Worship
  Sarah Werner reflects on the church's changing beliefs about physical disabilities and calls us to a more embodied approach to worship.
- Following the Call, Finding a Way
  Bryce Miller shares about his call to ministry in light of living with cerebral palsy.
- Friendship's Worship Team
  A worship team from Friendship Community involves persons with intellectual disabilities in leading worship in Pennsylvania congregations.

- From Cure to Community
  YouTube video presentation by Christine Guth: From Cure to Community: Biblical Interpretation that Challenges the Stigma of Mental Illness.
- He has been raised
  The Risen Christ is visible in all people, even those with the most profound disabilities.
- Hear Then the Parable
  When we enter into authentic friendship with people with disabilities our worldviews and preconceived notions of humanity are confronted and transformed.
- Immanuel's Accessibility Survey Insights
  Immanuel Mennonite Church takes steps towards greater accessibility and inclusion.
- Including Children with Autism
  Assembly Mennonite Church finds ways to include a child with autism and support his parents
- It's all in the face
  While I see a face with Down syndrome and think of home and life, our culture looks at this face and sees only abnormality.
- Loneliness: It Affects us All
  M.Div. student Michelle Robichaud offers a few ways churches can support lonely youth who lack a feeling of connection.
- Making a way where there is no way
  Matt Yeater, a recent graduate of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, has been awarded the 2016 Dr. Jacob Boletin Award by the National Federation of the Blind for his work in making biblical languages accessible to blind people.
- Making Friends with Time
  Learning the Advent grace of waiting for another with openness of heart
- Making Room for Christmas
  How can we make room for the holy by embracing the unexpected and welcoming one another this holiday season?
- Making Spaces Welcoming for All
  Jeanne Davies calls congregations to greater belonging and inclusion.
- MC USA Accessibility Resolution Passes
- Need and Creatureliness
  Many people with developmental disabilities know and befriend their neediness, and thus are able to live in a freedom of the Spirit that can also be transformative for us.
- New Baptism Curriculum for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities
  With captivating illustrations, activity-based learning, and an Anabaptist perspective, this is an important new tool for full inclusion.
- Out Now: "Everybody Belongs, Serving Together"
  A new resource for congregations
- Ready and Able
  Tony Walters, a deacon at Papago Buttes Church of the Brethren who happens to have autism, helps prepare for the congregation's love feasts.
- Redefining Disability
  At First Mennonite Church, ability or disability seem irrelevant, as persons with disabilities contribute through leadership and other gifts.
- SEEDS: Socialize, Encourage, Engage, Disciple, Serve

- Strides at Salford Mennonite
  Jennifer Svetlik recounts Salford Mennonite's initiatives toward greater accessibility and inclusion.
- The "Me" You Don't See
- The Feast of the Incarnation
  Celebrating the Incarnation as a sign that our salvation comes through the earthly and material reality that we are
- The Kingdom of God is like...
  With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it?
- The Lord is My Strength
  Erick Sawatzky brought together Anabaptist beliefs and lived experience with disability to suggest elements of an Anabaptist disability theology
- The Peace of Christ
  Can we open our hearts and lives to the most vulnerable so that they can transform our vision about what it means to be Christian, citizens, and human?
- The Prince of Peace
  Advent Week Two
- The Third Servant
  When we see a sister or brother who reminds us of the third servant—despondent, suspicious, avoiding all risk—our invitation is to bear that beloved child of God up before the throne of mercy.
- The Wisdom of God
  By choosing to become the scapegoat of humanity’s violence, Jesus radically identifies with the suffering “other”
- Tiny, Little Awkward Steps
  Pastor Nathanael Hofstetter Ressler offers tips for congregations beginning to accommodate for mental illness and support mental health.
- To stare or to gaze
  How will we look at people with intellectual disabilities? with a stare or with a gaze?
- Understanding the Love of God
  Carrie Norris reviews Believing and Belonging, a baptism curriculum for adults with intellectual disabilities.
- Walking through Fears into the Wonder of Love
  Epiphany
- Waterford's Accessibility Survey Insights
  Waterford Mennonite Church takes steps towards greater accessibility and inclusion.
- Weathering the Pandemic for Families with Special Needs
  Denise Reesor offers tips for supporting families affected by disabilities during a global pandemic.
- When Someone is Considering Suicide
  Licensed clinical social worker Jon-Erik Misz offers tips for talking with someone who is display signs of suicidality.
- Will you be my friend?
  For the first time I understood that people with developmental disabilities asked the same questions and shared the same hopes that I did.
- Wounded and Whole
  Why does the Resurrected Jesus have wounds? Laura Stone muses in her sermon on disability and wholeness. Plus a sneak peek of Laura and Peggy Gilbert's performance poetry.

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P: 574-343-1362
3145 Benham Avenue
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Elkhart, IN 46517-1970

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