our little church

we've recently had some very exciting opportunites develop at bethel. a family from another church in fort worth approached us asking if we would consider a different focus; families with children who have special needs. essentially there is no church in the dallas/fort worth area geared primarily towards families with a special needs child. typically churches that do have a ministry for special needs members devote no more than a spare room and perhaps a sunday school teacher to them. this is not enough because problems are complex and to effectively engage a person with say, autism, a teacher must know their specific learning method. it's difficult for families to get along in church when their child has no understanding for social norms, has frequent uncontrollable outbursts, and receives little more than odd stares. there are even instances of families being asked to leave a church because of their child's autistic outbursts (one church issued a court order for against an autistic child.) this affects the entire family, alienating them from churches and church in general. there is a great need for churches that are open to such families and oriented towards educating their children biblically. there are so many families in the d/fw area with this problem who have such a desire for strong church community!! how could it be so easily overlooked? i ask this knowing that i would have gone the rest of my life without the thought dawning on me.

so, we're voting in a week and a half on this change. if all goes well, and i'm pretty sure it will, then a number of families with special needs children will move into our body and begin work with us immediately. we are currently connected to a network of families of children with autism in texas. after a lot of training and months of planning and structuring and working out kinks we will be ready for a relaunch. i'm incredibly excited about all of this. this opportunity without a doubt is from God. there is no way we could have thought of this, sought it out, and made it happen on our own, no way we could have brought this idea even past idea phase without the men and women that have come to us with their expertise and heart. not that we're past the idea phase, but i'm confident we will get there. i believe our small church body is equipped to handle the task and will rise to leadership. i am beyond excited!

a fantastic aspect to this vision is that it by nature breaks the mold of the standard church. we have to rethink everything. EVERYTHING. there will be typical church ministry because usually only one child in a family has special needs, leaving the rest of the family for a more typical ministry model, i.e. youth groups, small groups, etc, but the heart of the need is the child. i believe that at the root a church with this focus will discourage folks from simply showing up on a sunday without considering the true use of a church and their true role in a church. it won't be comfortable and it will not be smooth. i hope that everyone who does become a member will do so for a reason deeper than going to church just because it's sunday morning. i hope that by its nature a church with this focus will challenge us to servanthood.