In the May 2007 issue of Connections, Jim Pierson discusses both autism and the recent Accessibility Summit at McLean Bible Church. We also show you what others are doing by highlighting a Special Needs Ministry Celebration Sunday event at Pentecostal House of God, Detroit, Michigan.
Click the link below to read Connections.
The May 2007 issue of our Connections newsletter gives details of Celebration Sunday at Pentecostal House of God, Detroit Michigan. Click below to see a copy of the printed program from the event.
By Jim Pierson
There are some pretty special people in my life that I couldn’t identify if I saw them. They are my Distance Learning students who are taking disability ministry courses through Johnson Bible College. Recently, at the Summit at McLean Bible Church in Virginia, I saw three of my students, from Pennsylvania, Arizona and Iowa. Now, I can put faces with their names as I grade their work.
At the moment, I am reading lessons from eight students from as many states. They are taking one of four courses: Introduction to Disability Ministry, Survey of Persons with Disabilities, Family Issues in Disability Ministry, and Ministry Strategies for Persons with Disabilities. The Certificate in Disability Ministry is awarded to the student, who takes all of the courses and passes them. Other students are taking a course for self improvement or to learn more about helping people with disabilities.
My students turn out some excellent work. A student from Indiana did an outstanding job on explaining how Jesus ministered to people with disabilities. I have her permission to put it on our Blog eventually. Another student labeled her church to make it easier for the people with autism to get around. For example, in the Sunday school wing, she labeled the doors with the name and a picture of the teacher. Another wonderful idea was making the bulletin available to attendees with autism. Using a popular set of symbols, she gave each section of the morning service an icon that makes it easy for the worshipper to know where he/she is in the service. Her work is in the additional resources section one of the six training modules of CCFH’s Exceptional Teaching Online.
I learn a lot from my students. Through Internet sites, magazine articles, and books they use in their research, I add a lot of resources to my personal bibliography. I discover disability ministries I didn’t know about. They tell me about churches in their areas with outstanding disability ministries. They share ideas that work in the Christian education of persons with disabilities.
Knowing that my students will make a difference in the field of disability ministry is a wonderful encouragement to me.
Readers who are interested in the program, should click the following link http://www.ccfh.org/education/certificate.html for more information. Use Want to enroll? Click here for a link to access the JBC Distance Learning Undergraduate Catalog. The catalog contains complete information on costs and requirements.