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Stephen J. Tracey
This is a book written to help your church minister to people with disabilities. The emphasis is not on being a disability expert, rather, the “goal is the gospel.” Sandra Peoples writes from personal experience: She had a sister with Down Syndrome and has a son on the autism spectrum. She also writes from years of experience serving the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention as their disability ministry consultant and helping churches around that state start, and strengthen, disability ministries.
Chapter 1 lays a foundation, a theology of disability, that highlights our creation in the image of God. Peoples briefly notes, “The fall and sin distort our ability to reflect God perfectly, but the image of God remains in each person” (9). She reminds us that “being born with a disability or developing one later in life is not a sign of faithlessness or weakness on our part or a mistake or anger on God’s part. Disabilities may be results of the fall, but they are still part of God’s plan and his purpose for our lives” (13). She draws attention to God’s plan, purpose, provision, and promise. It is a helpful beginning, but in light of the spread of “disability theology” as a movement, I encourage further reading and offer several suggestions below.
Chapter 2 addresses the fact that people with disabilities and their families are often missing from churches. Peoples does not attack us with a guilt stick, but the irony is that most of us are unaware of the absence. She quotes a recent survey,
According to a Lifeway Research study done in 2020, “Nearly every pastor (99 percent) and churchgoer (97 percent) says someone with a disability would feel welcomed and included at their church.” When special needs families saw that survey result, they felt a disconnect between what these pastors believe is true about their churches and what they had personally experienced. (25)
The fact is, we sometimes struggle to minister to people with physical or cognitive disabilities, learning disabilities, and mental health conditions.
In chapters 3, 4, and 5, Peoples outlines “how to set up a ministry that is inclusive and meets the diverse needs of children, teens, and adults with disabilities. When we approach special-needs families and ask how we can serve them, we’ll be ready with options to adjust for accessibility” (47). The goal, of course, is to share the good news about Jesus. We are to take the gospel to the whole creation (Mark 16:15), and we are to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19). These chapters contain a wealth of wisdom. Though they often assume a “disability/children’s ministry team,” there are practical suggestions that can be used in organizing Sunday school, VBS, and thinking carefully about ways to help people. Peoples covers areas such as safety, classrooms and classes, and training leaders and volunteers. There is an excellent section on “Behavior Challenges and Solutions” (101–104).
Chapter 6 looks at whole-family inclusion, emphasizing strengthening marriages and supporting siblings. Disability puts enormous strains on a family, and pastoral care is not simply about serving one person, but whole families. Central to this chapter is the importance of discipling families in the gospel. Note this helpful insight:
Maybe they had unknowingly bought into a prosperity-
gospel message, believing that if they did everything right, God would bless them with healthy kids, and now they are rethinking everything since life didn’t go according to their plan. They have to evaluate what they believed to find out the actual truth that will be powerful enough to get them through life as caregivers. In this season, parents need three things: They need a theology of disability based on Scripture, they need grace as they rebuild their trust in God and his goodness, and they need solid, biblical resources. (119)
Chapter 7 is titled “Beyond Children’s Ministry” and as such reveals that most of this book is about ministry to children with disabilities. It is not always obvious that children with disabilities become adults with disabilities, and churches often struggle to reshape pastoral care through that transition. It is all too easy to continue to treat people as though they were children.
The final chapter discusses ways to grow this ministry and includes helpful ideas on how to communicate (including on your website) that your church is accessible. There are good ideas on outreach.
This is a very helpful little book. It does not ooze with Reformed theology, but it breathes with simple gospel practicalities. The language used throughout is of a particular form and model of church that assumes large, well-organized, staff-run, program churches. For churches that approach church in an ordinary-means-of-grace way, much of this language will sound foreign. Sometimes she uses the language of special education:
Because every child is unique, we have developed ISPs for each one—individual spiritual plans. Similar to what the students have at school under their IEPs (individualized education programs), our ISPs take into consideration their likes, dislikes, strengths, goals, and behaviors. We decide on the goals after we get to know the student and by talking to the parents about what goals they have while their child is with us at church. (97)
We may hesitate at the language of an ISP, but it is good to have a pastoral plan for the care of every sheep and lamb under our care. What she suggests is good pastoral practice.
At the beginning of the book Peoples says, “If you’re going to read just one book about inclusion and accessibility, it should be the Bible” (7). She is right, of course. I would suggest, however, that you read this book, and your Bible, and Michael S. Beates’s Disability and the Gospel, Stephanie O. Hubach’s Same Lake, Different Boat, and OP pastor George C. Hammond’s It Has Not Yet Appeared What We Shall Be.
I recommend that pastors, elders, deacons, and Sunday school teachers read and adapt this book to their own congregations. Our aim is not to segregate and separate, but that together we may “with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus” (Rom.15:6).
The author is pastor of Lakeview OPC in Rockport, Maine.
© 2026 The Orthodox Presbyterian Church
