Biblical Care for Families Affected by Disability

By Joni and Friends

Encourage and Instruct with Wisdom and Understanding

Providing biblical care and counsel to families living with physical, intellectual, or emotional disabilities and chronic conditions is an important and valuable role for a healthy church. Far too often, otherwise skilled and caring counselors and spiritual mentors feel inadequate to engage with the varied and sometimes overwhelming emotional, spiritual, and practical needs related to disability. Both a disability primer and a theological resource, Biblical Care for Families Affected by Disability provides solid footing for initiating relevant biblical care for individuals and families living with disability.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joni and Friends
• Release date: Jan 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9781946237361

Joni and Friends

Luke 14 commands Christ followers to “Go quickly. . . find the blind, the lame, and the crippled . . . and compel them to come in!” While this sounds inspiring and daunting, exciting and overwhelming, motivating and frightening, all at the same time, what does it actually mean? How do we live and function within the church in such a way that families affected by disability are compelled to walk through our doors to experience the body of Christ?To be Irresistible is to become an “authentic community built on the hope of Christ that compels people affected by disability to fully belong.”Becoming irresistible is more than programs and activities—it is about a transformational work in our hearts . . . first as individuals and then as the body of Christ. Irresistible allows us to see each individual as he or she truly is: created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27), designed purposely as a masterpiece (Psalm 139:13-14), instilled with purpose, plans and dreams (Jeremiah 29:11), and a truly indispensable member of the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 12:22).The Irresistible Church is designed to help not only shape and transform the heart of the Church, but also to provide the practical steps and activities to put flesh around the heart of the Church. Thank you for responding to the call to become irresistible – it will not happen overnight, but it will happen. As with all good things, it requires patience and perseverance, determination and dedication, and ultimately an underlying trust in the faithfulness of God. May God bless you on this journey and be assured that you are not alone—there are many on the path of irresistible.In 1967 Joni Eareckson Tada was injured in a diving accident at 17 years old, leaving her in a quadriplegic state with minimal use of her hands. After two years of rehabilitation, Joni re-entered the community with new skills and a fresh determination to help others in similar situations.Joni and Friends began in 1979 at Joni’s house as she and her friends responded to the many questions and needs pouring in from families affected by disability who read Joni’s books or had seen the movie of her life. From the beginning, Joni, her staff, and volunteers devoted their energies to developing Christ-centered programs and services which would help meet the spiritual and practical needs of disabled people and their families, including Family Retreats, the distribution of wheelchairs and Bibles worldwide to people affected by disability, and church training at local and national disability ministry conferences. Joni and Friends continues to reach out around the world to people and families affected by disability with the love of Christ and the practical help they need.

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INTRODUCTION

At the age of 8, Jason was diagnosed with a brain tumor. During his treatment, he lost his vision and partial use of his left side. Perhaps you can begin to imagine all the stresses his family faced: adaptations to the family home, therapy appointments, grief over lost dreams. Those would be significant enough, but then Jason’s parents separated. They’ve been in and out of church a lot, more out than in on account of the medical complexities, but when they come to church, Jason usually dominates the conversation, oversharing about new aches and pains he’s feeling and worrying what medical test or procedure he might need next to rule out more cancer.

Kim’s been quadriplegic since a diving accident as a young adult. She had nowhere to go except back to her parents’ house. They are elderly, without a lot of resources. She hardly ever gets beyond the walls of her house and she wonders whether anyone would even notice if she just turned her face to the wall and let herself slip away. Her parents seem perpetually adrift, and you’ve noticed people walk around them rather than engage in any meaningful conversation.

Ted and Bonnie were delighted when they added healthy twin boys to the family. They were the darlings of the church nursery. But then the terrible twos arrived with tantrums and meltdowns and, a year later, things were no different as the family (and church) lived through the terrible threes. It became more and more obvious that the slower language development wasn’t on account of the boys being twins: there were serious developmental issues. Barely anyone was surprised when each twin was diagnosed with autism. Ted and Bonnie do the best they can, but their older children really struggle. What once seemed a happy, connected family has split open with older siblings who have walked away from the faith and hurting people on all sides.

Do you have individuals like this in your church? Maybe their situations don’t seem quite as severe as Ted and Bonnie’s, Kim’s, or Jason’s, but you’ve seen how a new diagnosis, or the aftermath of an accident, has derailed an individual and the entire family. In fact, with statistics showing that approximately one in every seven people lives with a disability, ¹ there are likely many individuals with similar stories in your church and community.

Where do you begin to help?

Perhaps you feel unqualified to step in because you have so little understanding of disability and the new world they live in. You can’t help but think that someone else must surely be more qualified to provide the needed care.

If you recognize yourself right now, let’s take a step back and isolate a goal we hope you have for any relationship where you provide biblical care and/or counseling.

1

THE COUNSELOR’S PURPOSE

Your purpose is to help a person move from where he or she is to where God wants him or her to be. Your goal is to guide individuals in the process of maturing in their relationship with Christ, those in the process of leaving sinful behaviors and attitudes behind and becoming more like Christ, more fully the person God created them