IVP Readers' Choice AwardLamar Hardwick was thirty-six years old when he found out he was on the autism spectrum. While this revelation helped him understand and process his own experience, it also prompted a difficult re-evaluation of who he was as a person. And as a pastor, it started him on a new path of considering the way disabled people are treated in the church.Disability and the Church is a practical and theological reconsideration of the church's responsibilities to the disabled community. Too often disabled persons are pushed away from the church or made to feel unwelcome in any number of ways. As Hardwick writes, "This should not be." He insists that the good news of Jesus affirms God's image in all people, and he offers practical steps and strategies to build stronger, truly inclusive communities of faith.
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1. This paragraph was also published on my blog, J. Lamar Hardwick, “A Love Letter to the Church from an Autistic Pastor,” The Autism Pastor (blog), April 18, 2018, http://autismpastor.com/?p=2546.
2. “New Development Agenda Must Be Disability-Inclusive – UN High-Level Meeting,” UN News, September 23, 2013, https://news.un.org/en/story/2013/09/449782-new-development-agenda-must-be-disability-inclusive-un-high-level-meeting.
3. This section was also published on my blog, J. Lamar Hardwick, “How Being Diagnosed with Autism as an Adult Has Influenced My Social Awareness,” The Autism Pastor (blog), September 20, 2016, http://autismpastor.com/?p=1454.
4. The Understood Team, “Inclusion Fact Sheet for Faith Leaders,” Understood .org, accessed March 7, 2020, www.understood.org/~/media/3a48784093634340aea479e115f06b5e.pdf.
ONE: BORN THIS WAY
1. Christena Cleveland, Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces That Keep Us Apart (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2013), 63.
2. Amy Jill Levine, Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi (New York: HarperCollins, 2014), 41.
3. Levine, Short Stories by Jesus, 41.
4. Cleveland, Disunity in Christ, 45.
5. Ken Wytsma, The Myth of Equality: Uncovering the Roots of Injustice and Privilege (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2017), 165.
6. John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God’s Best Version of You (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 16.
7. John M. Perkins, One Blood: Parting Words to the Church on Race and Love (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2018), 32.
8. “The Declaration of Independence,” USHistory.org, accessed March 22, 2019, www.ushistory.org/declaration/document.
TWO: BEGIN AT THE BANQUET
1. Material in this chapter was published previously in my blog posts for Key Ministry, www.keyministry.org/church4everychild?author=5b1926bf0e2e721b421b50cf.
2. Hunter and Amberle Brown, “Three Key Lessons About Disability Inclusion in the Early Church,” Key Ministry Church4EveryChild (blog), April 9, 2020, www.keyministry.org/church4everychild/2020/4/9/three-key-lessons-about-disability-inclusion-in-the-early-church.
3. Nancy L. Eiesland, The Disabled God: Toward a Liberatory Theology of Disability (Nashville: Abingdon, 1994), 25.
THREE: A BETTER QUESTION
1. The Westminster Presbyterian, “The Westminster Shorter Catechism,” accessed August 7, 2020, www.westminsterconfession.org/resources/confessional-standards/the-westminster-shorter-catechism.
2. Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000), 29.
3. Conversation with Peter Kreeft, quoted in Strobel, The Case for Faith, 48.
4. Stephanie O. Hubach, Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2006), chap. 1, Kindle.
5. Nancy L. Eiesland, The Disabled God: Toward a Liberatory Theology of Di...
