The Role of the Church- Disablities and other matters

It is the duty of the church to help fill the void in everyone’s life, to show humanity that there is something more. What does that entail, say, once a person is saved? We don’t just toss them into the world and say, “Good luck!” , I believe James said something about that, so I’ll let him speak to you about that if necessary. The church is supposed to mimic the practices of Jesus. If we claim to be imitator’s and representatives of Christ, then why do we like to focus our attention of the middle-class/upper class Americans almost exclusively for church membership? Jesus went to the poor, the unclean, the blind, the crippled, and the altogether “lower tier” of society. So, why the difference? Well, I can go off in any one direction from here, and may do the rest on another occasion, but right now, I am going to focus in on one: The Disabled.

 It is sad to see, that many of the churches I have seen/visited do not even have so much as a wheelchair ramp or handicapped accessible restrooms. This is not my main issue, however, my main one, is the lack of readiness to accept anyone “less than whole”.  Many times people will use the excuse “Well, they disrupt the service!” DEAL WITH IT, the service is for everyone including them. I once more cite the American mentality as the source of this problem. It’s all about me, me, me, and what I want as an “American”. As Christians it is our duty to “Obey God before man.”, and to take identity with God and Jesus over nationalistic ideals. We are Christians, who live in America, not Americans who happen to believe in God! There may come a time where we will have to choose one; we may not always be able have such an easy merger of the two. If we took the Bible and all it entails seriously, then we will realize it is these people who we should reach out to the most! The Church should be the champions of those without hope, without help, or without friends or family. We should strive to reach all people not just “whole” ones. If a couple of uneducated fishermen from Galilee are good enough for God incarnate, then I am sure we can make do with whatever we get. Christians need to make provisions for all types of people to be able to attend and be a member of a church. This applies to everyone. I understand, that some things cannot be done due to lack of training/funds, such as having a learning disabled child in Sunday School. I teach Junior High, if someone brought in a learning disabled child, I wouldn’t know how to help that child understand, since I lack the training. I am just a volunteer teacher; I am not even on the payroll. This does not mean the child could not come to my church. The child could sit in with his parents in service, as they should be trained in how to help him understand. So, I understand that there are issues that stand in the way of my grand master plan, such as financial and circumstantial reality.

This fact does not excuse us though! In Ffirst Corinthians 9:22, Paul deals with this by stating, “To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.” One’s strategy should include flexibility to meet the needs of more than one type of people *NOTE: One must never compromise the truth of the Gospel to “include” more people! The point of the Gospel, is that it change people, not that people change it! Do not take this message and twist it to support some postmodern “new Gospel”, I believe Paul has some choice words for you in Galatians if you consider such a thing!* We must reach out to the rich, the poor, the needy, the rejected, the accepted, and all others who are not saved. Though, it does not end when they are saved; we must continue to aid those in need outside and inside the church.

*Disclaimer, this is not a stab at my church! I think we do a pretty decent job with this issue. We have to fight a battle within our means, and we do that with local help, outreaches and the food pantry.*