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
Everyone has a seat at God's table, but not every seat is for everyone
What if we've been thinking about inclusion all wrong? While the world promotes the idea that inclusion means "I get to be wherever I want," genuine biblical inclusion offers something far more meaningful—the accessibility to serve exactly where God has called you.
This episode tackles the challenging terrain of what inclusion truly means within church communities, especially when it comes to disability ministry. Drawing from personal experience and biblical foundations, we explore how over 65 million Americans have disabilities (25% of the population), yet a staggering 80% remain outside church walls. This reality demands that we reconsider our approach to welcome, belonging, and purpose.
Through examining Scripture's guidance on welcoming others and utilizing spiritual gifts, we unpack the paradox that true inclusion isn't about erasing all boundaries, but rather creating the right spaces for people to thrive according to their divine design. Just as churches have youth ministries, women's groups, and other specialized communities, there's profound value in disability-specific ministries that provide understanding, connection, and equipping—all while maintaining pathways to full participation in the broader church body.
The heart of this message resonates beyond disability inclusion, challenging all of us to reconsider how we welcome, equip, and deploy every person according to their God-given gifts. Whether you're a ministry leader seeking practical wisdom or someone wondering about your own place in the body of Christ, this conversation offers a fresh perspective on what it means to create communities where everyone has the opportunity to know Christ, grow in Him, and serve with their unique gifts. How might your church's approach to inclusion change if you embraced this understanding?
Hi, my name is Tracy 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 world-changing ideas. Hey, hey, and welcome to this episode of Indispensable People.
Speaker 1:Today we're chatting about inclusion and that might be kind of like old news. Why are we talking about this? Maybe you're going, okay, we've heard this, why, why? And I have recently had some conversations that really impact my thinking and my processing and inclusion overall the definition, how it fits into our churches, all of those kinds of things and inclusion, simple, right Included, and the idea of inclusion is that everyone would be included. And here's the thing I don't fit everywhere and that's okay, but the idea of inclusion, the way that we are kind of walking this through in the world, is that everybody belongs wherever they want to go, and that's not accurate, it all that kind of situation. We've gone to some things where you know kids in school, like controversial things, with kids in school saying you know, I'm a cat, I identify as this or whatever. That the identification is in all kinds of things, right. We have men's sports, women's sports and now we're having, you know, the crossover of who belongs in where and how is that fair and all of that kind of thing right? So this idea of inclusion is almost kind of like wherever I want to be, that is considered inclusion for me.
Speaker 1:However, when we take this into the context of church and we look at the family of God God we're identifying what does inclusion mean within the church and how does that impact how we serve people in general and how we serve people with disabilities. And inclusion at its purest means that everyone has an accessible seat at the table, right, worldly. Inclusion means I fit wherever I want to. True inclusion means that there is accessibility to fit where God wants me, and so the idea of inclusion isn't the same as the way the world looks at. The world looks at inclusion as I get to be a part of. I'm not excluded, I am welcomed, those types of things.
Speaker 1:But the family of God, okay, and the concept of inclusion in my mind and in my understandings, actually very, very different. Because, as a person created in the image of God, god has specific calling and purpose for my life. Okay, and scripture says from Romans 15, 7, therefore, welcome one another, as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. So our purposes of being a part of the family of God are to glorify God. And so then we go to more scriptures that speak about our giftings, our talents, our callings giftings, our talents, our callings and we know and need to understand from that that not everyone belongs everywhere. Not every person is called to do certain things. I do not have the talent of leading worship, I do not sound good, I don't know how to sing on key, I don't understand all the musicality of the things that go along with it, and it's not been one of my giftings. However, prior to becoming a pastor and missionary, one of the things that I was very good at and pastors who knew me and that I worked under organization and planning and prepping things like that was a huge gifting for me. Things like that was a huge gift thing for me, and so those were areas of which I was used. So here's the thing Inclusion in the church has to start with accessible doors, to be welcomed, to be included as a part of the family of God.
Speaker 1:Inclusion from there means that we're identifying gifts and talents within each person in the body of Christ so that they can serve him and glorify him. So, also, in addition to those very it's honestly a very simple way of thinking. In doing that, we don't have to complicate it, we don't have to cloud it. Yes, some gifts are going to be evident and easy to see and other gifts are going to be something that we have to look for more deeply and investigate and find placement and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:But beyond that, this is kind of the do we do inclusion only? Do we have a separate learning, disability ministries, all of that kind of thing? And I think the answer is yes. And tab, kids ministry, youth ministry, women's ministry, men's ministry, prison ministry you know all the different groupings of people that we minister to separately. And why do we do that? What is the core reasoning behind that? The core reasoning behind that is you can be a part of a group that fully understands you, that gets you, that speaks specifically to your place in life, what you're dealing with, where you're handling at um, they're also common commonalities and people walking life out together um living, living this life for Christ through the story and the story that you have been given in your life.
Speaker 1:And so I feel the same exact way about people with disabilities. I can tell you that I love a church where people with disabilities are everywhere and they are a part of things and they are serving and they are attending and they are included. Okay, that's what my church looks like, but also we have a specific disability ministry and we do respite events and we have support groups for parents of children with disabilities. We have a neurodiversity Bible study group. We have all of those different kinds of things that minister specifically to the people where they're at, what they're walking through, what they're dealing with so that we can apply the scriptures to their life, and where they're walking through, what they're dealing with so that we can apply the scriptures to their life, and where they're at, but also where, when we minister to them specifically in that space, it allows them to fully participate in their giftings and callings within the entire body of Christ. So we equip them and build them up where they're at, in the communities and with people who get them, who understand them, who are walking out a similar life to them, but then also it's not so just they can stay there, right, we don't minister to women just in women's groups so that they can only be with women.
Speaker 1:We don't minister to women just in women's groups so that they can only be with women. We don't do that with youth. We don't do that with kids. We are growing and discipling kids and teens so that as they grow into adults, they are able to minister, glorify God and live out their God-given talents and gifts for Him. So that is the ultimate goal and I can tell you, through the ministry that I serve under that, when you come to one of our summer getaway programs and you watch people with disabilities minister to one another have a fair and level playing ground where people who get them, who understand who they don't have to explain themselves, they don't have to kind of live in a different.
Speaker 1:I don't want to say they don't have to mask or they don't have to pretend, but it's kind of like you know, you can shed all of those worries, those extra barriers that typically exist, and I know that people are going to say, well, full inclusion means those barriers aren't a thing. Well, listen. Just as men and women are not the same human beings and God created them and designed them differently for a purpose, that means that men are not ever going to fully get women and women are not ever fully going to get everything about men. We can work to understand and gain understanding and acceptance through that, but that doesn't mean that we see things the same, that we live things out the same, that we'll get full understanding. And so to believe that people who are not impacted by disabilities will fully understand and have full compassion and be able to break down barriers and do all of that kind of stuff, it's just that's living in a fairyland.
Speaker 1:However, an expectation of building understanding, breaking down some of those barriers within your church, that is fully doable, fully accept you, who you go, you know it, you understand it. All of those kinds of things gives opportunities to minister so that you can be deployed to do what God has called you to do. And it's the same thing in other groups and separations that we do in other ministries, so that as we come together in the body of Christ, we can be fully equipped, we can be fully understood, we can fill that space that God has created us for, and we can't do that if we don't have an understanding of where we're from, what we're dealing with. Have other people that we can relate to, grow together as the body of Christ? There's so many components of positivity that come from ministering to people where they're at, and so inclusion is great. Every person should have a seat at the table. But inclusion doesn't mean I get to do and I get to go wherever I want to In the body of Christ. It means going and doing as God has called me to do, and we can do that by building one another up in inclusive spaces and in separated spaces. And in separated spaces Because the models of school, the models of churches this is what has worked for years and years and years.
Speaker 1:And having a disability doesn't negate your need to be ministered to in ways that work specifically for you. And so we do that, so that every person can know Christ, they can grow in Him and they can serve Him with the gifts that he has given. 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. For deeper dives into these topics and more, check out indispensablepeoplecom and visit Amazon to purchase the books the Indispensable Kid and Gospel Accessibility and the Indispensable People.
