What If Inclusion Starts With Wiring, Not Willpower

We explore neurodivergence as a nervous system difference, not a willpower issue, and share practical ways to make worship spaces more accessible without losing spiritual depth. We balance theology and practice while equipping individuals and families to belong and serve.

• scale of disability and church attendance gap
• definition of neurodivergence as biological wiring
• sensory needs versus personal preferences
• common triggers and stress responses in church settings
• who fits under the neurodivergent umbrella
• balanced theology of sovereignty, purpose, and pain
• environmental adjustments and sensory tools
• predictability with schedules and clear language
• flexible participation without creating spectacle
• empowerment to serve in meaningful roles
• support for the whole family unit
• commitment to ongoing learning and resources

If you want to dive deeper on your own, you can check out the Indispensable-People blog or my books on Amazon called The Indispensable Kid or Gospel Accessibility and the Indispensable People.

Transcript

Framing The Accessibility Gap

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hey, hey, my name is Tracy Coral and welcome to Indispensable People. I'm a pastor, a teacher, a missionary, a mom, a wife, and I believe that every person should have access to the gospel so that they can know Christ, grow in him, and serve him with the gifts that he has given. Over 65 million Americans have a disability. That's 15 to 20% of every community. And over 85% of those individuals do not attend church. 90% of pastors believe that they are a disability-friendly church, but only 20% of parents and families agree. Let's dive deep into hard topics, big questions, perceptions, stereotypes, and so much more. Hey, hey, and welcome to this episode of Indispensable People, where we talk about all things related to abilities, disabilities, and how to make the gospel accessible. And today we're gonna talk about something a little bit different. Not necessarily an old term. This is a new term. We've discussed it a little bit in this podcast in different ways. And the term is neurodivergent. It's understood as an umbrella term that describes individuals whose brains function, learn, and process information differently than what is considered typical. And a few weeks ago, I saw a video that basically wanted to say that the behavioral aspect that comes from a person who is neurodivergent isn't about their inability to understand or their want to or not want to do something, but that it's tied to the way that their system, their nervous system is wired. And so here's the biological perspective of neurodivergence, right? It's fundamentally about the nervous system and biological wiring rather than a simple lack of understanding or social nonconformity. And when we understand how the brain works and we understand the nervous system, it helps us to put together the proper way to respond, interact, and minister to people who would be considered neurodiverse. And so we need to understand that their bodies are wired differently, right? It this refers to enduring variations in the brain structure and chemistry and organization. And this affects how quickly information passes through the brain and how the body responds to the stimuli. So the next natural progression in that conversation goes to sensory processing because the nervous system may be hypersensitive, which is over-responsive, or hyposensitive, which is underresponsive to light, sound, touch, or smell. And many common sounds like simple buzzing lights or rustling bags can trigger trigger intense physiological stress responses. And yes, some strategies can be put in place and there are ways to support these individuals, but understanding that it's not a preference, okay. And I try to explain this anytime I do trainings, I really try to help the people that are sitting in the seats to go, okay, every single one of us has a preference, right? I don't prefer spicy food, I don't prefer the heat, I love soft clothing, and I like low lights in my house. Okay, those are preferences. Not having those specific things don't send me in a fit of rage or a place of meltdown. I might be uncomfortable for a time, but I can work through it, right? I might be slightly distracted because I'm uncomfortable or whatever. But for someone with a brain that is wired differently, who experiences things differently, feels things differently, that's not the case. That's a need, not a preference. So we approach things differently when it is a need, a necessity over a preference, right? A preference, we can get over it. We can deal with it. If you're in a church, you experience people who would prefer worship to be softer and not as loud. You have people who say, I don't like the lights down, I'd like the lights turned up. Why do we have to have lights? Those are all preferences, right? So we can't, in that sense, attempting to meet everyone's preferences is not first of all, it's not possible. Second of all, whenever you come to meet someone who is neurodivergent, you have needs, and we may not be able to meet all of their needs, but we can help them. And so, how do we best minister to people who are neurodivergent? Well, first you have to also ask who fits into this neurodivergent category, right? It might be people who are autistic, it might be people who uh have ADHD, it might be someone who has a sensory processing disorder. A lot of people fit into this category of neurodivergent. And we have to be cautious because it's like any new term that comes, it can either come with a stereotypical negative look, or it can be a positive look. And the a lot of people are using the word neurodivergent to say, this is a great thing, it's a different way that the brain is wired, and it helps for different thinking and new ideas and creative ways to do things, and all of that can be true, right? But we're looking at it as how do we understand it? How can we support those who are neurodivergent? And how can we aid an accessible gospel in the understanding of someone who is neurodivergent, right? So you have this new term that is being given in a positive light. However, we also have to understand the other side, and we've talked about this before. God created people with disabilities in the sense of he is sovereign, so if it happened, he allowed it, right? His full intention was for no imperfections. So, but we understand that scriptures like the scriptures from the book of John that say that this person was created so that the works of God may be displayed in him. We understand that if God allowed it, okay, right, he's sovereign, then he has purpose in it. And that doesn't mean that we, when we have a purpose, that there's no pain, that there's no difficulty, that there's no struggle with it. So we have to have a balance in understanding neurodivergence. Yes, it can mean that the brain is wired differently and thinks differently and can come up with creative ideas because no one thinks in that particular way, or someone else doesn't think in that particular way. But we also have to understand the difficulty, the sensory needs that come along with it, the coping mechanism mechanisms that happen because of the people who are trying to feel or appear normal or to deal with their situation. And so how do we how do we best minister to these people? How do we make the gospel accessible? How do we open those doors? Number one, this is seemingly easy, but can be complicated. We can make environmental adjustments, okay? We can create sensory-friendly spaces, and we can do that by lowering music volume or giving earplugs. We can dim harsh lights or we can give sunglasses, we can provide quiet rooms for regulation. And during a main service in a church, there are lots of typically lots of rooms that are empty during that time because everybody is in the sanctuary except for maybe kids and babies and you know those individuals. So there could be a quiet space. It doesn't have to be fancy, it doesn't have to have all kinds of bells and whistles in it, but it could be a space that someone could step away. I understand that this becomes challenging because we think sometimes in the church world that the more hype and the more excitement, the more energy, the more emotion that we can create that we set the stage for the presence of God to move, right? So we have to be cautious, first of all, not to get that all mixed up, right? The presence of God can move in a quiet room in a house that's falling down, and it can move in a giant mansion full of gold and beautiful things, and it can move in a countryside church or a mega church. God's presence is not confined or defined by what we think will create a space for God to provide, right? We have to open our hearts and our minds and have faith in a God who can do all things and accomplish all things in his way and in his will. And so some people would say, oh no, if we turn the music down some, we'll lose people. Just in case you weren't sure, if you turn the music up too loud, you're gonna lose some people. So you, if you find a nice balance and add in those other things that I mentioned, you know, earplugs or noise canceling headphones, sunglasses, or something like that, those types of things can help aid in that middle ground. Okay. Another thing that we need to consider is predictability and communication. Predictability helps people who aren't sure what to expect or have lots of big feelings or process through, they when they know what's coming and they know what's gonna happen and they know what it's gonna be like, you can accept it a hundred times better than if you are surprised with everything. So, for example, I got to help at a big conference with about 500 kids. And in that, when the kids day one, I got to help out with the kids who needed some extra support in whatever way that might look like. And so day one, we kids, we've got tears and we've got big emotions, we've got all kinds of feelings, but like by the third day in of this conference, it was so much calmer, less big feelings, no no tears, you know, all of that kind of stuff. Why it became okay, they knew the room leaders, they knew what the schedule was, they knew what was expected of them. When you walk into something and you don't know and you don't understand, it is it can be very overwhelming. And that's to a person without any disability, right? So this considering this, whenever we take in the way that the body processes and the brain thinks and the neuro, the complexity of neurodivergence, providing predictability is incredibly beneficial. So if you run a similar service, whether it's in kids, teens, or with the adults, and you go in that service order and things are predictable and you know what's coming, you could provide schedules, you could provide visual schedules, you could help them step by step. There could be someone that would let them know or speak to them about it as it comes. All of those kind of things are going to be very important. And that goes with your communication, right? You're helping to let people know what's going on, you're using direct and straightforward language, you're trying to stay away from abstract things. And another thing sometimes we have to consider is that not everybody who works, or I'm sorry, not everyone who steps inside of our church knows the religious type words that we use. So we have to remove a lot of that so that we don't mix understanding. The next thing that we can consider is flexible participation. And everybody doesn't have to do the same thing to be able to participate, okay? So we can normalize different ways of worshiping. Okay. It might be standing in the back, it might be sitting, it might be using fidget tools, it might be all different kinds of things. We just need to know that it might look different. And here's kind of the way that I kind of approach it is as long as we're not becoming a spectacle in the sense that the behavior that is happening is purposefully, I want you to see me, I want you to look at me, I want to be all eyes on me. As long as it is about God and not a self-inward approach to attention, I think you're safe. When you are, again, trying to get your own personal attention. That's when something would need to be addressed and to be changed. Because this life in this world is not all about me. It is about the one who made me, who created me, who has plans for my life. And so the next thing we want to think about in supporting people and making the gospel accessible to people with neurodivergence is the empowerment. And we say that because oftentimes people with disabilities they tend to be treated as if they only need to be served. And if you're treated like that all the time, then you get into that mindset that people should serve you. And we need to remember that we are created with a purpose and God has a plan, and each of us has a place in the family of God to serve and to make him known. And that is going to look different across the board, but we want to make sure that we don't just serve people, we also equip them and empower them to serve as well. Because that is what God has called us to do. Okay. And the last thing that I want to leave you with is to remember that that person is typically connected to a family unit. And so we want to be sure that we are supporting that whole family and that we don't make them feel that they're not that they're being judged. We don't want to make them feel like they're not included. We want to, we don't want to stick them out on the fringes because their child does ABC, right? We want to help them to, we want to get to know them, we want to be able to minister to them. We want to be able to support them in whatever way that that might benefit them. So we want to consider the whole family. Listen, the brain works in different ways, and God uses everything for his good. We need to find ways to support, equip, and empower people that they can, first of all, that the gospel is available and accessible to them, but then also that they have the responsibility and the ability, in whatever way that looks like, to share that accessible gospel with someone else. And that is how we take an understanding of neurodiversity and make an accessible gospel. I can't claim to have all the answers. I can't claim to know all the things, but here's what we are gonna do. We're gonna keep this conversation going. We're gonna make the accessible gospel available to individuals with disabilities in our churches and in our communities so that every person has the opportunity to know Christ, to grow in him, and to serve him with the gifts that he is giving. If you want to dive deeper on your own, you can check out the Indispensable People blog or my books on Amazon called The Indispensable Kid or Gospel Accessibility and the Indispensable People.