Lynnette Peckett, Disability Champion at St Saviour’s Sunbury-on-Thames, shares her passion for this role along with the joys and challenges of advocating for the inclusion of disabled people in every aspect of the life and ministry of the church.
What is a Disability Champion?
Quite simply put, it’s someone who is willing to look at what happens in the church that might prevent a disabled person from being fully involved. They pull together the strategy, resources and planning to make the church more accessible. However, implementing changes should be done gradually. A few changes made well is better than several changes rushed through with very little thought. Of course, this should be done with input from the disabled people in church. After all, someone who is disabled is the expert in their disability and they will know what will be helpful for them (and more importantly what won’t be!).
Why be a Disability Champion?
Jesus loved and included everyone. We’re called to follow his example. However, disabled people can be overlooked when it comes to being involved in church life. I’ve been involved in church all my life and I’ve seen disabled people being given the easy jobs to do – handing out Bibles, making tea, watering the plants, etc. Now, I know these jobs need doing, but are we missing out on the gifts that God has given a disabled person just because we don’t think that they could do a role? Take the time to get to know the disabled people in your church and ask them what they really want to be involved with. You may discover that their gifts lie away from just making tea! It’s possible that adjustments may need to be made, but by including them, the whole church gains from their gifts.
Do you need to be an expert?
The good news is that you don’t need to be an expert. The experts on disability in your church are the disabled people. However, you do need to be willing to listen to them and act on what they say to make church more accessible. I have a reasonable understanding of my son’s epilepsy and autism (I can still get some things wrong!). However, I’m not an expert on other people’s disabilities, so I’ll always ask them what support, if any, is needed.
What difficulties can there be?
As you may imagine there can be some difficulties along the way. Here are a few of them for me:
- I’m an introvert – As an introvert, I can find that I need to step outside of my comfort zone at times. It may include plucking up the courage to start a conversation with someone that I don’t know, speaking to the church from the front on a Sunday, or leading some additional needs training for children and youth leaders. However, I know that God has called me to do this role, so I’m able to do it with his help.
- Needing to persevere – Sometimes not everyone will be willing to make the changes you suggest. You may have to remind them that for some people the change is necessary, and it could cause more problems if it’s not implemented. A few years ago, I was doing a similar role at a Baptist church. I knew that there was someone in the congregation at the time who had coeliac disease. I said it would be helpful if we had gluten free bread when we had communion. I was met with barrier after barrier as to why it wasn’t possible (including the comment that “a little bit of normal bread wouldn’t hurt them”). I refused to give up and six months later gluten free bread was used at communion. It’s not always easy to stand up to being told something can’t be done, but if you keep the discussion going, a way forward can usually be found.
- There aren’t many Disability Champions – In schools, you have SENCOs who support the children who have additional needs and give advice to the teaching staff. However, there aren’t many people doing a similar role in the church. My dream is to have a Disability Champion in every church to look at supporting disabled people and making church accessible. I only know of a few others in the whole of the UK. This means that there’s little chance to meet up, support one another, and pray together. I’m praying that the Church will see having a Disability Champion is as important as having a youth leader or children’s worker.
Being a Disability Champion is a role that I love doing, even if it does take me out of my comfort zone on occasions. If you’ve read this and think that it might be a role that you could do, I would say pray about it and chat to your church leaders. Let’s follow Jesus’ example and include everyone.