Indispensable People
Making the Gospel Accessible to people of ALL abilities so that they may know Christ, grow in Him, and serve Him with the gifts He has given them.
Indispensable People
Gospel Accessiblity and Indispensable People
Could our churches be missing out on the indispensable gifts of over 65 million Americans living with disabilities? Join Tracie Corll as she unpacks her heartfelt journey through disability ministry, sharing her experiences as both a missionary and a pastor facing personal health challenges. Tracie passionately argues for a gospel that is accessible to everyone, emphasizing the biblical truth that every person has a purpose. Her new book, "Gospel Accessibility and the Indispensable People," serves as a roadmap for churches ready to embrace inclusion and compassion, ensuring that all members of the body of Christ are recognized for their unique contributions.
In a world where many with disabilities feel unwelcome in religious spaces, Tracie offers practical strategies for building relationships and fostering genuine connections within and beyond church walls. Through insights gained from statewide trainings and addressing common questions, she provides a toolkit for churches to become truly inclusive communities. This episode is a call to re-imagine our places of worship as welcoming environments where each person, regardless of ability, can know, grow, and serve, reflecting the true spirit of the gospel.
Hi, my name is Tracie Corll, and welcome to Indispensable People. I'm a wife, mom, teacher, pastor and missionary, and I believe that every person should have the opportunity to know Christ, grow in Him and serve Him with the gifts that he has given, no matter their ability. Over 65 million Americans have a disability. That's 25% of the population. However, over 80% of them are not inside the walls of our church.
Tracie Corll:Let's dive into those hard topics biblical foundations, perceptions and welcome to this episode of Indispensable People.
Tracie Corll:Thank you for joining me today, and I am beyond excited to share a piece that has been in the dreams and the works for years, a piece that has been in the dreams and the works for years, something that I have really desired to put out, and not because I have it all together, not because I know all the things, but because this world of disability, especially disability ministry, is growing, it's changing, it is developing day by day, and, just like the education world, we have pendulum shifts and we have name changes and we have all kinds of different things that really impact the way we do what we do. And so, years ago, I dreamed about putting together all of the information that I had come across and learned through the years to be able to give access to churches so that they could dive into the vision of disability ministry, so they could see the need, the existence that is out there. I mean, come on, 65 million Americans, one in every five people, they're impacted by disability, and then the statistic that almost 85% of them aren't inside the walls of our church. Those are incredible statistics. And, as a missionary for the Assembly of God, we have what is called people groups, and that's how we identify reached and unreached people across the world. And although people with disabilities because they fit into so many other categories are not considered a people group, if they were, they would be the largest unreached people group in the world.
Tracie Corll:And so there is an incredible need of people, especially the church, because the creator God, says you are worth it, you are valuable, you have a purpose. And why do we know that? Because scripture is scripture and it doesn't say except for, there's nothing in there that discounts a certain group of people to be receivers of the gospel. And so we need to think about what we do, how we do it, and be intentional, which is a word that I use often, because it's not that we go, we're going to exclude this group, it's not that we want to keep them out of our churches, although I would say, in the past years we have made choices that have made families believe that they are not welcome inside our churches, and I would say that that's not because we serve as Christians, as a bunch of terrible, horrible people, but I would say that it is because of the fear of the unknown people, but I would say that it is because of the fear of the unknown. So let's break out the barriers, let's break past the fears, let's get into the good of God's word and his intention for the people that he created. And, as I have said many times, if someone has a breath in their lungs, they have purpose on this planet.
Tracie Corll:And if you guys have listened to this podcast any bit of time, you understand that that actual statement means a whole lot to me, because I was sick, I was on a ventilator, I did not have breath in my lungs. There was a machine putting breath in my lungs. There was a machine putting breath in my lungs, and so I really believe in God's purpose and plan for each and every person and that not a single one of us is here for no good reason, right? And so just this summer, in August of 2024, I released a book called Gospel Accessibility and the Indispensable People, and let me just tell you it has been a labor of love, and the full extension of the title is Gospel Accessibility and Indispensable People Disability Ministry Foundations, relationships, strategies and Co-Laboring in Christ, and you can find it on Amazon.
Tracie Corll:It is definitely something that I thought, oh, this will be easy, right? I've written trainings, I do this. I'll just put them all in order. Right, I've written trainings. I do this. It'll be, I'll just put them all in order and it'll be a great opportunity for me to share the things that I feel like God has really put in my heart to train and equip churches, to cast vision, to help people to be reached with the gospel with tangible tools, and this podcast proves as one of those as well, and so my prayer is that it grows and that it gets bigger and there's a bigger listening audience, so that our churches will be flooded with people who have compassion and not pity, that have a biblical foundation and understanding that they want to grow and serve this population of people with disabilities and that there are endless opportunities of what God wants to do with these people as they join the family of God. Because again we go back to where we get indispensable people from, where in the scriptures we are hearing about the parts and pieces of the body, and then where it says those that seem the weaker are actually indispensable. So I'm going to read to you it's kind of like the it's in my introduction piece where it says the world has gone from an isolating perspective of people with disabilities to a celebration of disabilities In years past.
Tracie Corll:It is unlikely to have regular interaction with someone with a disability. Today's statistics show that one in five people are impacted by disability. Over 60 million Americans have a disability, yet over 80% of those people do not attend church. Thankfully, we've come so far in our treatment of people with disabilities, but we've not fully arrived. In the almost 10 years I've been in disability ministry, the statistics have changed from 90% to a little over 80% of people with disabilities not attending church. The world has taken significant not perfect, but significant steps, like television shows, campaigns and inclusion in schools and sports, but over 80% of people with disabilities not attending church is unacceptable.
Tracie Corll:It's time for our churches to make big strides. The church must become the most welcoming, valuing and inclusive place for individuals with disabilities and their families. The future is bright because pastors, leaders, churches and volunteers are stepping out and standing up to make sure all of the parts of the body are included in his church. And I will tell you, I am seeing that. I am seeing pastors and leaders reaching out. When we started working in disability ministry, it was almost to the point of begging people to participate in our ministry, to jump on board with what we're doing, to see the need and the value in what we're doing. And now we're getting phone calls and we're booking up weeks and months and all of those awesome, incredible things to be able to partner with churches to help them reach, and reach the loss, share the gospel, change lives for eternity, and so it is so exciting to really jump into that. But here's the deal. A lot of people want to jump right into the tangible things, right into the strategies that they're going to put in place as they minister to people with disabilities, and those things are incredibly important. They are. That's the survival of the day-to-day, that's what gets you through, that's what helps you build beneficial relationships, that's what makes the environment safe, fun, enjoyable. That is ultimately what gets you to the point where you can disciple and deploy.
Tracie Corll:However, the beginning of this book Gospel, accessibility and Indispensable People starts with scripture and we have to know God's direction, we have to know his intention and we have to understand the way that God experience the people that we encounter. The past, the history that we have seen, impacts our perspectives, impacts our views in the scriptures and we want to dive into those things, like Genesis 127, where it says that we're made in the image of God, or where we look at Exodus 411, when God says who made man blind? Who made man mute? Was it not I, the Lord? Or we look at the book of John, where we have a questioning of where the sin came from that caused this man his disability, and it's totally debunked by saying that it's for the glory of God, so the works of God might be displayed in him.
Tracie Corll:Then we jump into the controversial discussion of healing and what that looks like from the perspective of a person with a disability and also with the understanding that our God heals and he is capable of healing. And how does that play into the person with a disability? And I can say it as simple as two things in this place. One above healing is salvation. Right, if we could be healed but not saved, we don't get to heaven. So our priority in disability ministry will always be providing an opportunity for people to accept Jesus as their savior over the opportunity to heal. Second, god has a plan and a purpose for the story that he has created and allowed, because he is sovereign and nothing passes through his hands without that allowance. So whether he chooses to heal that person here on earth or to make them healed and whole when they arrive into heaven. That is up to the creator and the sovereign, because he knows what he's doing and he knows why he's doing it.
Tracie Corll:And so, after we move into some further discussions, beyond healing and what that looks like in the lives of those people, we I dive into understanding accessibility, and we've talked about it on here before. We've talked about it on here before. Accessibility goes beyond the physical. It really impacts the social and the social highly impacts the spiritual. Accessibility is big and it goes beyond minimal things. We have the opportunity to make sure that our churches are optimally accessible through those opportunities. Then we go on to talking about and listen in all of that. We talk about the physical accessibility and what that looks like within their church and how we can do that. We look at the social accessibility and then we dive into the spiritual accessibility and even diving into sharing ways to discover spiritual gifts.
Tracie Corll:And next in the book I talk about compassion versus pity and we've really kind of dived into that here in this podcast through that and Pity basically says I'm not going to teach you, you might not understand, and Compassion says God has a plan for you, god says to disciple you. God says you have gifts and you have talents, and so we really dive into that through the book and really what that means and what that looks like and how we can really see beyond the disability and through what God sees and knows for each person, we dive into different disabilities. We talk about what that looks like, what it's, what it might, how it might impact your ministry and some strategies that go along with it. But we don't stop there. There's definitely more. We talk about some misconceptions, some misconceptions. I remember one of my favorite, my kids' favorite TV shows was Mythbusters and some of those things just really blew our minds as we watched them and how they experimented with all of those kinds of things. So we kind of bring up those different types of myths that you might have heard or seen or maybe has become common knowledge with people with disabilities and we try to really bust through that.
Tracie Corll:And changing perceptions really impacts how we do ministry, how we look at people and how we can let go of pity and move into the portion of compassion but also belief, belief in what God has for each and every person. We talk about the building blocks of how to build that special needs ministry and what that might look like in your church. We give you some tangible policies and procedures, all that kind of stuff that really impacts your day-to-day, gives you that strategy. That kind of stuff that really impacts your day-to-day, gives you that strategy. But then, after that and this is a topic we've covered on this podcast as well we go beyond that and we consider how do we serve families? What do we do to go past the one that we have the opportunity to meet and which I will remind you of the importance of that one? First of all, jesus left the 99 for the one, but also, if that one can't come, neither can their family. But we reach into that whole family and we find their felt needs. We go past the asking of what can I do for you and we offer to just do things. Um and uh. Dive into what that looks like of being the family of God, like truly being the family of God. Um.
Tracie Corll:Then we dive into some spiritual development and again we look at the vision, mission and goals of your ministry. We tackle one of the things that you hear me say often is that every person should have the opportunity to know, grow and serve Him, and those are the layers to the ministry that I do, especially at my home church. That's our, that's our statement that every person should have the opportunity to know, grow and serve, and so we need to. Our accessibility is in the know right, opening up the church and the ability to be, to learn about God and know him, and then the opportunity to grow in him, so to be discipled. So we consider what that looks like and then onto the serving portion, which means we believe that God has gifts and talents for everyone, and how do we make that happen within the church in the context of disability and what are some of the struggles and things that we walk alongside of because of that? So there are all of those different kinds of things that we take into consideration of how that impacts what we do.
Tracie Corll:I'm going to also then go on into further chapters, talking about visual supports and how that can impact different people and what needs they might have within those. Also talking about de-escalating techniques, which, you know, a lot of times we don't hit all of those big, high, difficult moments, especially within our churches, because we are a low impact situation, meaning a lot of times when people are being pushed to do hard things is when they experience those intense behavioral type deals. So giant behavior issues are few and far between, but also are dependent on the people that you serve, so they can happen. So we're going to talk about what you do before, what you do during and how you tackle that when things get out of control, because those are the big things that churches really want to hear about. I can tell you a million times when people have walked up to me and they have said so. Let me tell you about this time, and then they had finished up with the very difficult things that they had encountered in their disability ministry.
Tracie Corll:We're also going to talk about outreach opportunities. How can you go outside of the walls of your church or open up the doors for people outside of your church to engage in what's going on, even if they're unsure of what that might look like for them? We're also going to tackle some frequently asked questions and every year I hold statewide trainings where people can come to this training and when they register we ask them to share one question that they have about disability ministry. And we've compiled those and a team of us have sat and talked through them and kind of tooled them out, and so we decided to make sure that we included that in the book so that we could share that with all of you. But that is kind of the book in a nutshell.
Tracie Corll:Again, I will never claim for anything to be the end-all, be-all of everything.
Tracie Corll:I can tell you that I have researched, read, watched other programs, seen other things, and then tested it all out, tried it and made it work for the ministry that I get to do, and so it's been built on not just knowledge base but also experience.
Tracie Corll:And here's what I can tell you, along with that, is that people with disabilities are so unique and so vast in their differences, not because they have a disability, but because the world of disability is so vast. There are so many different kinds of disabilities and then so many variations within them. And then you add to that the environment that the person grew up in and the personality that they have been given by God, and you have a very unique individual. So every person that you come in contact will benefit from you getting to know them, learning their wants, their needs, their likes, their dislikes and building a beautiful relationship with them. And that is where that's the true school of disability ministry, right there in the trenches, getting to know the people and building those relationships with them. That helps build a foundation that breaks down barriers of fear and builds up the opportunity to serve, so that every person can know, grow and serve.
Tracie Corll:Do I know everything about disability ministry? Do I have all the answers? Have I done everything perfectly? I've absolutely not, but we are going to continue this conversation so that people of all abilities can have the opportunity to know Christ, grow in Him and serve Him with the gifts that he has given them.
