Genuine Bona Fide Undrafted Volunteers

2-11-09

Last month at a national conference on disability ministry the key note speaker, the pastor of a large church, cried out to the crowd to not give up on their pastors who do not "get it". Ironically, he himself did not "get it" until his own son was touched by a disability. I'm not pointing fingers mind you. I was drafted too. My husband and I would not be giving our lives to curriculum development and church inclusion if our own son was not coping with autism. It just makes me more amazed when I run into someone who "gets it" and freely gives his or her life to special needs ministry as a genuine bona fide undrafted volunteer.

At the conference my husband and I had the privilege of going to dinner with Jeff and Kathi McNair. On the way into the restaurant we asked how Jeff "got into the business", expecting an answer about a brother or sister or nephew struggling with a disability - but there was NO family connection whatsoever. What further impressed us is that Jeff and Kathi don't reek of paternalism. They truly love folks with differences as equal members of the Body of Christ. (I suspect Jeff sometimes prefers their company). When the McNairs invited our family to visit their home (hope to take ya'll up on that soon) we knew they meant it and that if our son licked their salt and pepper shakers until they clogged, that it was not a big deal. I do not do my new found friends justice so I will let Jeff's own words do my work for me. The following paragraph is from Jeff's article The Indispensable Nature of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities to the Church (Journal of Religion, Disability & Health, Vol. 12(4), 2008 C 2008 by The Haworth Press. All rights reserved).

Why does the church need intellectually disabled brothers and sisters in Christ? Why does the church need members affected by mental illness? Why does it need paraplegic brothers? . . . Personally, I, as a member of the Christian church, do not need another sermon on 1 Corinthians 13. What I really need are people who challenge me to live and love in the manner described in that passage. .... Challenge me to love a mentally ill woman. Have her in the church in my midst. Have the church leadership clamor to figure out what to do with her. Hopefully she will have poor social skills so that the comfortable worshippers are made uncomfortable. Perhaps people would even threaten to leave the church if something is not done about the woman. Then we would all be forced to learn what love is or leave the church, rather than the person with disabilities being forced to change (when they are potentially unable to change) or be excluded. There is a big difference between expecting someone to learn love and expecting someone to recover from a disability.

Jeff's words breath life to me as a mother who used to hope her son would not upset Sunday school too much for the other children. I have grown to be a better advocate since my first poor attempts but when someone who does not live and breath autism (or any other all-consuming disability) gives me permission to hope and expect more from the Body of Christ, it moves me out from a place of frustrated advocacy. It moves me to a place of security that God intends to fully integrate his Church, for His Church's sake. Thanks Jeff and Kathi. May the number of genuine bona fide, undrafted volunteers quickly multiply.