How To Start a Disability Ministry in Your Church

As it is, there are many parts, but one body. [21] The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” [22] On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.

1 Corinthians 12:20-22 NIV

When describing what relationships should look like in the church, the Bible uses the imagery of a body. Each part of the body is important. Each part needs all the others. If one part suffers, the whole body is affected. And it doesn’t matter if one part of the body seems weaker — God sees them as indispensable. 

This should change how we view people with disabilities. More than 70 million Americans have some sort of disability. That’s more than twice the size of California. More than 1 billion people in the world experience significant disability. These people don’t just need us. We need them. That means going beyond simple accommodations.

An inclusive ministry goes beyond accommodation

Accommodation means meeting minimum requirements — physical access, a ramp, a quiet room. Indispensable means the person is treated as necessary to the body, not adjacent to it. BACC Executive Minister Russ Ewell makes this same distinction in an op-ed for ChurchLeaders, drawing on his experience raising two adult sons with disabilities: God doesn’t call churches to merely accommodate people with disabilities — he calls them to love and to radical mutual dependence.

This is why BACC built a Spiritual Resource Ministry (SRM) rather than a set of accessibility accommodations. Accommodation tends to stop at physical accessibility, but it doesn’t extend to encouraging the belief that people with disabilities can actively and uniquely contribute to the church. The SRM exists to close that gap — it serves individuals across a range of needs, from Down syndrome to autism spectrum disorder to anxiety and ADHD, and it runs through our children’s, teen, and middle school ministries, not around them.

For any church asking where to start, this op-ed offers a simple answer: start small, find the most urgent need in your congregation, and meet it first. 

As Russ concludes in his article: “Over time, you will see these component parts come together as part of a profound and humbling spiritual work. Ministry leaders, participants and events themselves will all help build a culture of radical love, radical service and profound humility. And in the end, your church will look more like how God intended it to look.”

Read the full op-ed: How To Start a Disability Ministry in Your Church