Foundational Books: People with Special Needs

Amazing Gifts: Stories of Faith, Disability, and Inclusion
Mark I. Pinsky (Herndon: Alban Institute, 2012)

Amazing Gifts is a remarkable collection of 64 stories about the way faith communities welcome and affirm people with disabilities in worship, ministry, fellowship, and leadership. Churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, and other congregations do this not only because it is the right thing to do, but because they are made better by the gifts of all people. Mark Pinsky has taken special care to include the widest range of disabilities, including non-apparent disabilities like lupus, chronic pain, traumatic brain injury, depression, and mental illness. This book is for congregational leaders and others who may have no expertise or personal experience with disability, but who make the congregational decisions about accessibility and inclusion.    

Amplifying Our Witness: Giving Voice to Adolescents with Disabilities 
Benjamin T. Conner (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012)

Nearly twenty percent of adolescents have developmental disabilities, yet far too often they are marginalized within churches. Amplifying Our Witness challenges congregations to adopt a new, practice-centered approach to congregational ministry—one that includes and amplifies the witness of adolescents with developmental disabilities. Replete with stories taken from Benjamin Conner's own extensive experience with befriending and discipling adolescents with developmental disabilities, Amplifying Our Witness, shows how churches exclude the mentally disabled in various structural and even theological ways; stresses the intrinsic value of kids with developmental disabilities; and re-conceptualizes evangelism to adolescents with developmental disabilities, emphasizing hospitality and friendship. 

Beyond Accessibility: Toward Full Inclusion of People with Disabilities in Faith Communities
Brett Webb-Mitchell (New York: Church Publishing, 2010)

A church has built an accessibility ramp and perhaps refitted its restrooms to accommodate a wheelchair. Now what? Beyond mere physical access, how can a church become a genuinely inclusive faith community? What would it mean, and how would it change the church itself, if people with disabilities participated in all aspects of congregational life, including contributing to and leading a church’s governance and programs? This new resource offers a theological and practical approach for congregations, with clear, targeted strategies for full inclusion of all members, recognizing and using the gifts that each member brings to the congregation’s life together.    

Child by Child: Supporting Children with Learning Differences and Their Families
Susan Richardson (New York: Morehouse, 2011)

Integrating children and teens with learning differences into church programs is a growing priority for nearly all congregations, large and small, yet many feel ill-equipped to “manage” those with special needs in their classrooms, programs and worship. This new guidebook for churches is designed to help integrate children and teens with learning differences—and their families—into the fabric of everyday church life, including worship. A useable on-the-ground resource for church leaders with specific suggestions, samples, and processes for adapting curricula, training volunteers, and supporting parents and caregivers, this guide is grounded in theological principles for the inclusion of people with disabilities in the life of a congregation.

Faith, Family, and Children with Special Needs
David Rizzo (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2012)

In Faith, Family, and Children with Special Needs, David Rizzo—whose 12-year-old daughter has autism—offers great hope for parents who want to grow in their own spirituality while helping their children with disabilities experience God in a deeper way. Throughout the book, Rizzo's abiding though sometimes tested Catholic faith is made clear as he thoughtfully explains everything from the practical, such as how parents can maintain sanity during Mass when the child with special needs becomes disruptive, to the profound, such as how parents can understand God in a way that is relevant to their predicament. By looking at the big-picture issues of faith while also providing specific tips to nurture spiritual growth in parents and in their children with disabilities, Faith, Family, and Children with Special Needs will serve as a highly useful and inspiring resource for anyone in the community of faith who interacts with children with disabilities.

Handbook of Adaptive Catechesis: Serving Those With Special Needs
Michele Chronister (Liguori: Liguori Publishing, 2012)

This handbook reflects on the needs of individuals with a wide range of disabilities and calls on teachers and religious education programs to consider special needs students for their mainstream and specialized programs. The book covers a variety of the most-encountered special needs, along with approaches for meeting those needs. The author discusses strategies for having fruitful dialogues with parents, identifying students for your special needs program, recruiting effective teachers, and developing lesson plans. Throughout, the text and examples are straight-forward, practical, and easily understood.

Helping Kids Include Kids with Disabilities (Revised Edition)
Barbara Newman  (Grand Rapids: Faith Alive, 2012) 

Children with disabilities are part of God's family, but people don't always treat them that way. In this book you'll discover how to help kids and their leaders welcome and include kids with disabilities at church or school. This revised edition contains a wealth of helpful information for understanding disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder; AD/HD; behavioral challenges; hearing, visual, and speech/language impairments; intellectual disabilities; physical disabilities; learning disabilities; and severe or multiple disabilities. This book also includes guidelines and forms to help churches identify and meet needs, lesson plans for presenting information on each area of disability, fact sheets about specific disabilities to share with adult leaders, and much more.    

Including People with Disabilities in Faith Communities: A Guide for Service Providers, Families, and Congregations
Erik W. Carter (Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 2007)

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. Erik Carter helps readers 1) reflect on how welcoming their congregation is—and could be—for people with disabilities and their families; 2) articulate a vision of inclusion throughout their congregation, community, city, or state; 3) take steps to break down attitudinal, architectural, programmatic, and other barriers to inclusion; 4) design appropriate, inclusive religious education programs for children, youth, and adults; and 5) learn how service providers can actively support the spiritual preferences, strengths, and needs of people with disabilities. 

A Place for All: Ministry with Youth with Special Needs
John E. Barone and The Monarch School (Winona: St. Mary's Press, 2008)

Every community has a growing population of young people with neurological differences. Too often, youth with conditions such as autism, Tourette's syndrome, and bipolar disorder find themselves left out of parish religious education and youth ministry programs. In this book you will find: 1) information about many of the neurological differences that affect young people; 2) tips for educating the entire community about these differences; 3) advice on how to reach out to youth with special needs; 4) practical steps to modify your facilities to meet the needs of youth with neurological differences; and 5) training tools for empowering volunteers to work with special-needs youth.

Rhythms of Grace: Worship and Faith Formation for Children and Families with Special Needs
Linda Snyder and Audrey Scanlan (Church Publishing, 2010)

Rhythms of Grace is a unique and innovative program resource designed to meet the spiritual needs of children and families living with autismspectrum disorders. Participant families gather monthly with program leaders and volunteers for sessions that are a hybrid of worship and faith formation. Rhythms of Grace helps children and their families feel at the center of a worship/formation experience that is specific to their needs and circumstances, rather than merely at the margins of a more conventionally “inclusive” program of worship or faith formation.

Special Needs Ministry for Children
Pat Verbal, general editor (Loveland: Group Publishing, 2012)

Odds are, you have children with special needs in your community. How do you know if there needs are being met? Do you know what it takes to make these kids—and their families—feel welcome in your church? And most importantly, do you know how to help them grow in their relationship with Jesus? This practical, insightful book is your guide to answering all those questions and more. Packed with case studies and personal stories from experts in this ministry field, you’ll learn about: 1) the best ways to reach the most overlooked group of people in your community; 2) how to launch a special needs ministry in your church; 3) how to promote your ministry and recruit the right volunteers; and 4) what families with children who have special needs really need from your church. 

Vulnerable Communion: A Theology of Disability and Hospitality
Thomas E. Reynolds (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2008) 

As parents of a son with disabilities, Thomas Reynolds and his wife know what it's like to be misunderstood by a church community. In Vulnerable Communion, Reynolds draws upon that personal experience and a diverse body of literature to empower churches and individuals to foster deeper hospitality toward persons with disabilities. Reynolds shows that the Christian story is one of strength coming from weakness, of wholeness emerging from brokenness, and of power in vulnerability. Wholeness, he argues, comes not from self-sufficiency, but from the “genuinely inclusive communion” that results from sharing our humanity—including our lack of ability—with one another. Then, and only then, will we truly live in hospitality with one another and with people with disabilities. Reynolds offers valuable biblical, theological, and pastoral tools to understand and welcome those with disabilities.