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
Church for All Attention Spans
Imagine creating a place of worship where everyone—regardless of their challenges with attention—can thrive and connect meaningfully. What if doodling during a sermon or taking a body break were not seen as distractions but as vital tools for engagement? Join me, Tracie Corll as I explore innovative strategies to foster an inclusive environment in church ministries, especially for those navigating ADHD or other attention-related challenges. From busy boxes filled with Legos to offering alternative seating options, we share practical ways to transform services without turning them into mere entertainment, allowing each individual to participate fully in worship.
In our journey towards inclusivity, we focus not only on children but also teens, adults, and also on the broader community, emphasizing the role of sensory tools like fidget tools in maintaining attention. Understanding behavior as an expression of individual needs is key, and we discuss creating structured, consistent, environments where stress is minimized because we have an understanding. Our commitment to inclusivity extends to making ministry opportunities accessible to all, encouraging everyone to know Christ, grow in their faith, and serve using their unique gifts. Join this enlightening discussion on transforming church ministries to be more engaging and welcoming for individuals of all abilities.
Hi, my name is Trac Correll 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. Let's dive into those hard topics biblical foundations, perceptions and am Tracy Corral and I want to welcome you to Indispensable People. I am so thankful that you have joined me and I hope that this podcast is helpful to you. That brings ideas, possibilities and open perspectives towards people with disabilities. And today I want to talk about.
Tracie Corll:Focus and distractibility are big, big issues, and here's the thing it is issues with or without people diagnosed with ADHD or sensory things or whatever that could cause distractibility and take away their focus. Whenever we are considering our ministries and the things that we need and listen, we have incredible messages, important things that we need people to hear and receive. Our goal is to disciple and grow so that we can deploy, and it is very difficult to do that when the individuals that we are serving are distracted. And let me just point this out this is from birth to death. This impacts, and we again, we live in a world that instant gratification is in front of us at all times. So we have phones that keep us busy when other people are talking or we're engaging in different things. We have tablets and we have toys and we have depending upon your age and stage you name it, it exists, and so we are fighting those constant battles on a regular. Then add to it the idea of disability. That creates a whole nother layer, right. So we have come to a point of almost where it feels like ministry has to be an entertainment or we lose people. But let me just encourage you that your Sunday morning service does not have to look like a rock concert. You don't have to have 85 illustrations and all of the things. However, we can be intentional about the way that we share the message of Jesus Christ with people, so that it helps them to engage and to focus in on the things that we're doing, and so I want to talk to you about some basic strategies, and this is going to impact more kids and teens, because obviously adults can make choices to do these things. However, if you're a buddy that sits with an adult in a Sunday morning service. This may be helpful to you as well, but sometimes we just need a body break and we can offer up the opportunity to go get a drink of water. Some individuals do really really well if they are doodling while someone is speaking, so a journal is really beneficial and their doodling may look nothing like what is going on and what the message that's being delivered, but a lot of times being able to doodle funnels that distractibility and allows that person to hear what is being delivered through the message. In addition to that, having the option to sit in a different type of seat or maybe standing while the message is being delivered.
Tracie Corll:I believe I've shared this story before of a gentleman who I did not know had ADHD before of a gentleman who I did not know had ADHD and I had met him during a play that my church was putting on we call it the Passion Play and I was in charge of keeping a group of individuals calm and quiet and that included lots of kiddos, and during that time this individual would kind of pace the room, the space until they needed to go out on the stage. And I didn't understand and I'm trying to keep the kids still and calm and quiet. And he explained to me how difficult it was for him to stand still and he said that on a Sunday morning if he were to sit in the seats and listen to the pastor preach he wouldn't hear a single thing because all he could do is focus on sitting still and maintaining his space in his seat. However, he said if he just stood in the back of the sanctuary and kind of shifted his weight from one foot to another, that he could have great recall of everything that pastor preached on that particular day. And so those are incredible strategies that really don't impact our Sunday mornings. Right, these are great ways, great strategies to deal with that. I will also say we have kind of what.
Tracie Corll:If you're familiar with anything, you might have been heard the term busy box before. So a busy box is something that you might take in the car to keep a child busy while you're going from one space to another. Or maybe if you're sitting in the doctor's office or something like that, where they have an activity to do while they're waiting, where they have an activity to do while they're waiting, and it may sound counterintuitive to say that a busy box for a child who is distracted easily may actually benefit them as they are listening, and this can go with teens and all the way through adults. That busy box just might look different and what it's full of because of the age group, but that is incredibly beneficial to those people because message and to the point at which they're still able to interact, and I've seen this take place with one of the kids that we served. At one point. He needed that busy box to keep him busy while he was in the space because otherwise he would have been up moving, walking the room, getting into other things that might distract the other kids and things like that, and so we offered him that box and in that box at one point I think we had some Legos. Another time we had you know different things whatever watching and listening to him while the children's pastor was preaching and hear him interact and answer her questions while he was playing in his busy box. It really gave his body something to do so that he could listen. It wasn't having something to do and he didn't listen. It really provided that open access to be able to listen and hear, and so that was really very, very helpful.
Tracie Corll:Also, if you want to consider some other options within that. They're really endless and they're really very dependent upon each individual. You may have fidgets, each individual you may have fidgets. They're called toys, fidget toys, but they're actually tools that give the body something to do while they are engaging and listening. There are also some great ways to take sensory breaks where kiddos can disengage for a moment or two, Maybe. Where they can. A great option is like a stuffed animal that has sequence on it or a pillow that has sequence on it. They could even do that while they're sitting or listening. They could sit on an exercise ball. Sit on an exercise ball. They could play with some water beads. That could also be in a busy box. They could have a squeeze toy like a stress ball, a sensory block, those kinds of things. And a great sensory break away from things is a few jumps on an exercise trampoline. Using pipe cleaners to fiddle with while listening to a story is a great opportunity to kind of switch up that body, give it that sensory break that it needs so that it can fully listen.
Tracie Corll:No-transcript, to maintain focus and have optimal engagement. Now there are some things that are outside of the individual's control that you can put into place. That would be incredibly helpful and we say and have said many, many times that routines, consistency, will add to that and make it beneficial. You can also create multi-sensory experiences within the environment that you're in. Also, when you remove the big possibilities for stress and anxiety, that will also help a child maintain being engaged with whatever you're doing. Also, whether it's a teen or adult as well, that stress and anxiety really plays big into the distractibility because they are focused on that stress and even to an extent, to become hyper-focused. In addition to that, you can create the activities, the information that you're delivering into games or challenges. Those that focus and attention are difficult, that focus and attention are difficult. They seek that experience that brings fun and joy and accomplishment and when you provide opportunities for them to reach into the possibility to achieve those things, the engagement goes up exponentially. Things the engagement goes up exponentially and all of those strategies are really tools that really benefit every person in the room.
Tracie Corll:Those kinds of things, the consistency, the kind of enlightened environment where it's not full of stress, the creation of ways to engage, create all types of opportunities for people to maintain engagement, to retain the information that you've provided and to put it to use, and that's what we want. That's a disciple right. A disciple is learning, it's taking in that information, it's putting to use, which opens the door to serve. And those are our goals, as we share with people. Once they have chosen to accept Jesus as their savior, they get to grow in him and they get to serve him. And those are incredible opportunities, incredible opportunities.
Tracie Corll:And I just want to remind you that disengagement from what you're doing is not an offense to you.
Tracie Corll:It is not laziness in the person that you experience.
Tracie Corll:So we want to make sure that we're breaking down some of those stereotypical barriers of what we believe of people know that there's always a story behind the behavior and there are different ways that we can engage and reach out to people so that they are not left behind, so they are not forgotten, and so that we make our environments not only physically accessible but spiritually and socially accessible for each individual that we encounter, Because the gospel is a message no one should be without, and when we can input strategies and we can find ways to make sure that that message is delivered, then we have effectively been the body of Christ.
Tracie Corll:We have gone beyond the ease of just delivering a message in which way that works for us, but we have considered those who are receiving it and have taken all the steps to make sure that the opportunities are big and wide and available to everyone, regardless of the need that they have. Do I know everything about disability ministry? Do I have all the answers? Have I done everything perfectly? I have 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. You.
