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The Overlooked Situation
- Pastor Caleb Hanna
- 3 days ago
- 25 min read
Jesus has called us to live a certain way and to care for the people around us. Can we confidently say that we're truly caring for every generation in every situation? Do we need a change in our heart or our strategy in order to reach and care for those impacted by disabilities?
If you've been around our church for any amount of time, you've probably heard us say this a lot. And this is our vision statement of what we want to be as a church. It is to be a Christ-centered, diverse community that's caring for every generation in every situation. Now, if you think about that, we're doing pretty good with that, right? If you listen to the songs, if you listen to the messages, you know that you're hearing about Jesus. You're hearing Christ proclaimed hopefully. If you're not, you might want to get your hearing checked because it's there.
We're speaking about Jesus. We're teaching about him. And we're continuing to evaluate all that we do through that lens of helping people learn about Jesus. Is Jesus at the center of what we are doing? So, I think we're doing well on that. We want to continue doing that.
Diverse community. Look around the room for a second. Is this not diverse? Is there is there not people from many different backgrounds? Is it not a very diverse congregation that's here? And now some of that is the cool blessing of where God has placed us. But it also is true that we are focused on caring for people across different cultural backgrounds, different paths of life that they got to get here.
Also every generation. You look around the room and you're going to see a wide spread of generations here. Most of our kids are downstairs in Junior Church but even if you consider that, there's a lot of generations represented here.
But what about every situation? Now when we say every situation, what we have in mind is not that we can actually care for every single person in the world but rather that everybody that God puts into contact with us is somebody that we should be caring for. No matter their situation or no matter their generation, anybody that walks through these doors, anybody that we come into contact with is somebody that we should be caring for no matter what they are going through.
Now, the problem with this is that there's an increasingly common situation that is facing families and individuals and that the church often has a tendency to overlook and that situation is people with disabilities and their families.
When you look at a picture of my parents and all of their kids, there's eight of us and all of their kids and their spouses. And I am the second oldest of my family. My parents felt led by God to adopt. I have five younger siblings that all are adopted. All of those adoptions were some level of special needs, whether it was a physical condition, like some of my siblings have like a heart defect or some concerns with that. Some of them had other issues, more serious problems, like their birth mom drank heavily when she was pregnant with them causing permanent brain damage or drug exposure. So
all of my siblings that were adopted had some varying level of special needs or some varying level of a disability.
I don't share this to propose to you that I'm an expert and that I know all about how families are impacted by disability and what we need to do. But I want you to know that it is something that is on my heart, something that I've lived, something that I've seen, and something that God has used in my life for the good, for my good, and for His glory. And so my pursuit today is not to give you some expert opinion on what we should be doing with individuals or families that are impacted by
disabilities, but to help us to see what's God's heart for people, what's God's heart for people with disabilities, and then therefore, maybe cause us to question, what should we do to help care for people in this often overlooked situation?
And so some data for you that is going to be a little troubling but will hopefully set the tone for today. There is a study that was done in 2018 by Dr. Andrew Whitehead from Clemson University that found these numbers about families who have a child with one of these disabilities. A family that has a child with
autism is 84% more likely to never attend church
depression is 73% more likely to never attend church
traumatic brain injury is 71% more likely to never attend church
oppositional defiance disorder is 48% more likely to never attend church
anxiety is 45% more likely to never attend church.
And interestingly, the study found that some of the ones that we would think of that might keep people from coming to church like epilepsy or hearing and vision problems or cerebral palsy or intellectual disabilities, there was no effect that that that had at all on a family's likelihood to attend church.
It's the ones where the conditions greatly impact their ability to have social interactions or communication that are the ones who experience this this greater impact.
Now, this is important and relevant for us because according to the CDC, it's estimated that one in 31, or 3.2%, of children aged 8 in the United States have been diagnosed with autism. If you go on their website and you look, you'll see that that number has been climbing. A couple years ago, it was 1 in 44, a couple years even before that, it was 1 in 60, and the numbers keep going up.
Whatever the reason for that is, it's fair to assume that if these numbers are increasing and specifically that situation of a child with autism is something that we are expected to see more of, it should be concerning that at the top of that list was 84% more likely to never attend church.
If you're not good at math like I am, here's what that means. It means that they're 1.84 times more likely to never come than a family who has children without disabilities. It's almost twice as likely to never come to church as opposed to a family who doesn't have a child with autism in that particular case.
The crazy thing about this is that Dr. Whitehead, who is not a believer, he in his research and in his findings, he wonders that perhaps the families and the parents of the children who never attend are actually better off in some ways. The reason that he thinks that is because he looks at some research that's been done and he finds that the greater involvement in religious activities and organizations can have a detrimental effect on the mental and emotional health of the parents of children with disabilities.
Do you guys catch that? The church of Jesus has a potentially detrimental impact on families who have children with disabilities. Does that seem right? No, that that can't be right. How can that be true of us who are called by Jesus to love the people around us and to care for them? And yet that's what is being found. Now, it is fair to note that this study is not done by a believer who has the same worldview as us, who shares the same beliefs about the benefit that the church does provide for these families. And so, he's not very motivated to look into that. But these are real numbers. These are real studies that he's doing of people.
And you do not have to go far to find that even within the church, you talk to families in our church who are impacted with their children with disabilities, and they're going to tell you it's a lot of work to get here. There are a lot more hurdles that they have to get over to get in this building than you do on a Sunday morning. And many times they don't even want to come because it's just a lot to handle. And so for us as a church, it's not fair for us to say, "Oh yeah, we're doing a good job. We're doing all this these things right” and to look at some of the success cases and just write off this information.
We need to be willing ask ourselves what have we missed and what do we need to change? We need to be willing to look at this and to say, "Okay, God, we must be missing something here." If these families are not feel feeling like they could ever come to church and if the research is saying and suggesting and starting to wonder maybe the church isn't helpful for these families. That's crazy to me. And so, we need to be willing to look at, have we missed something or do we need to change something in the way that we are interacting with these families? And so my hope and prayer is that as we look at this today, we allow God's word and the Holy Spirit to convict our hearts, to change our attitudes and to maybe reveal to us some things that we need to change.
God’s View of All People
(Gen. 1:27; Ps. 139:13-16; John 3:16-17)
And so we want to start off here by asking, “What is God's view of all people?” If we want to understand what God's view is of people with disabilities, we need to understand, first of all, how God has made everyone. And Genesis 1:27 says, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
Being made in the image of God means that you are made special and unique and for a purpose. And as such, you have value and worth and dignity as a default setting of being a human. Everyone in the world is made in God's image. And therefore, they are special and unique and precious in the eyes of their creator. That's everyone. It doesn't matter what your accolades are. It doesn't matter all of these different things that are going on. If you are a human being, you are made in God's image.
But the Bible doesn't tell us that God just sort of jumpstarts the universe, that he just gets things set up and then he just leaves it and he's kind of hands off and lets everything kind of happen however it's going to happen.
David recognizes that God is still very much a part of his creation. In Psalm 139:13-26, David writes, "For you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I have fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”
God hasn't just made people in his image. He's personally involved in in every single one of our lives. David says that God saw him when he was in his mother's womb. God knows him. God knows the number of hairs on the head of everyone in this room. For some of you, that's really easy to count for and some of us, it's not. I'm headed to getting easier to count by the day. It's terrible, but it's okay.
God knows you. He didn't just create everything and just kind of say, "Okay, I'm just going to let this run itself." He says,
"No, I'm going to be part of this creation. I'm going to be part of creating you." He knows your names. He knows your worries. He knows your thoughts. He knows how many things you have on your mind. This isn't a God who is uncaring about his creation. It's a God who loves his creation.
But it gets even better. As if that's not already good enough. God doesn't just create people in his image. And he's not just personally involved in creating you and knowing you, but he also stepped into the earth that he created, the world that he created, and embarked on a rescue mission to save us from ourselves and our sin.
Probably the most popular verse in the entire Bible, John 3:16-17. Don't lose sight of this just because you know it and you've heard it so many times. It says, “16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
If you still aren't getting it, God loves you. He loves every single one of you. He loves his creation. He has made each individual special and unique for a purpose. Now, you might be here today and thinking, "Well, Pastor Caleb, you know, when I look at my life or I look at the life of someone around me, it just kind of feels like God made a mistake." Did he just kind of look over at something that someone else was doing as oops, oh, oh well, guess we're rolling with that. Or did he fall asleep when he was making me or did he miss a piece or something? Because it just doesn't seem like things are right or the way that they should be.
Now, it may be tempting to believe that, it may be tempting to think that God made a mistake, but the Bible's pretty clear. God doesn't make mistakes. He doesn't even have happy accidents. He makes no mistakes. And we are told that he works everything according to his perfect plan. And even in the middle of our sin and our brokenness, he still works. Amen. And so God hasn't made a mistake in your life or the lives of other people. And he loves you. And so this is how God views all people.
God’s View of People Impacted by Disabilities
(1 Cor. 1:26-31; Matt. 4:23-24)
But what about how God views people with disabilities? What is his view of people that are impacted by disabilities? What can we learn about that? Well, the Bible has a whole lot to say about this. And we could have an entire sermon series where we're going for a couple months on this and we still wouldn't get to the end of these passages.
But my goal for today isn't to do that. My hope for this is today is just to get an overview. We want to look at a couple passages in God's word so that we can understand what God's view of people with disabilities is.
In 1 Corinthians 1:26-31, Paul writes, "For consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, so that as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
Paul's saying that God hasn't chosen us based off of our strengths or the things that the world would look at, right? God hasn't taken out your resume and gone, "Hmm, all right, graduated from college, that's a check. Works a job, that's a check. Can interact in society normally, that's a check." He doesn't look at those things and go, "All right, this is somebody that I'm I can use. Yeah, this is somebody that, you know, really has a lot going for them."
God instead looks at people that the world considers weak. The world says these people are irrelevant or they're not important or they're just maybe not as capable. Yeah, they're special, but they just they're not as capable, so we're going to pass over them for somebody else. God looks at those people and says, "Those are the people I want to work with.
Those are the kind of people that I want to use— the people that the world writes off and says are weak for my glory."
So that people will be able to see who God truly is. And so my families and friends who are here today who are who are impacted or who know somebody's impacted by disabilities, please hear this. God delights to work through you and your loved one with disabilities to do far more than anyone thought was possible so that through your life, God may be glorified. Amen.
And not only do we see that God's heart is to use these people that the world considers weak for his glory, but we also see that so many of the miracles of Jesus have to do with healing somebody or caring for somebody who is impacted with disability. You can look all throughout the gospels. You can look the work of the early church and see that this ministry was prevalent for them. But one of these verses is Matthew 4:23- 24. It says that Jesus went throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. Jesus taught. We know that. That was a huge part, right?
That's what Jesus was all about was teaching and telling people that they needed to repent, right? But then we also see it says that he was healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures and paralytics, and he healed them.
This is a huge part of what Jesus is doing when he's here on earth is caring for these people that have disabilities. And God's love for people is not like ours tends to be, right? We tend to look at the outside. Like I said, we look at the resume of what people have going for them and we kind of evaluate that.
That's not how God selects the people that he's going to work with. So many times, God chooses people that the world looks at as not able to do as much. And he says, "No, no, no. I'm going to use you and together we're going to do things that that are going to bring glory to my name as I work through you."
I want you to think about it like this. Imagine you're back in in school. It's probably a terrifying thought for some of us in the room. If that's really too scary, imagine you're back in youth group or something like that, right?
And you hear the dreaded words called out, “All right, guys. Today we're playing dodgeball for recess or for the game time.”
Instantly your head drops because you're thinking, "No, not dodgeball. I'm the worst at dodgeball." And you think back to last time how the two team captains were asking the leader, "Do we even have to pick them?" They were content to be one man down instead of picking you because that's how bad they believe you to be at dodgeball.
And so you shuffle over to the line where everyone lines up and your head is down. You're looking down at your tired, ratty shoes and just waiting. You kind of gear yourself up, “Okay, I'm not going to let them see me cry this time. I'm going to I'm going to try to be brave.” And your head's down.
You're looking at your feet and you hear the first team captain call, “I want you.” You don't move because you know it's not you. But nobody moves.
So the team captain calls out again. He says, "I want you.” You're kind of confused. So you start to look side to side. You kind of look like, "Why is nobody moving?" When still nobody's moving, you start to look up and try to figure out what's going on.
As your eyes come up, your gaze meets that of the team captain looking directly back at you. He points at you again. and he says, "I want you."
Still in disbelief, you kind of point to yourself and you go, "Me?"
He smiles and God says, "Yes, I want you."
In absolute disbelief, you start to shuffle your feet forward as the weight of all that fear and worry and embarrassment starts to melt away and you walk over to your team captain who puts his arm around you, smiles, and says, "I'm so glad that you're on my team. Now, let's go win this together."
That's exactly what Jesus does when he chooses those that the world considers weak and says, "I’m going to work through you to bring glory to God." And this is God's heart and strategy for people with disabilities is that people with disabilities are not a side project for God. They're at the heart of his work. He chooses those the world considers weak to bring glory and honor to his name.
Our Response to People Impacted by Disabilities
(John 9:1-7; Matt. 25:31-40; 1 John 3:17-18)
So if this is true, how should we respond? What should be our response to people who are impacted by disabilities?
Well, if you're asking that question today, you're asking a really good question. And it's a question that the disciples of Jesus also were asking as he was working with them.
Look at what John 9:1-2 says, "As Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth. And so his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind?"”
Now, in a world that is sin cursed, we would say it's a fair assumption to go and say, "Okay, we know that sin causes hurt to the people around us. Our actions don't just affect us, they affect other people." And often times there are consequences for our sin. So it's a fair assumption for the disciples to look at a man who is born blind and say maybe this is a result of sin, maybe his parents sinned or maybe he sinned and so they asked Jesus who sinned had to cause this man to be born blind because they think that's how it works. If you have this problem something you had to have done something wrong in order to have this consequence and Jesus as he so often does throughout all of his time here on earth, he gently turns it on its head.
John 9:3 says that Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him."
Jesus says, "No, no, no. It's not about sin in this case. It's not like this man has been punished for something that his parents have done or for something that he's done. This disability is not the problem. It's an opportunity for God to work. This is something that God sovereignly allowed to happen so that the works of God might be displayed in this man.
Does this sound kind of similar to 1 Corinthians 1 where Paul's talking about how God likes to use those who the world would consider weak? He delights to use them for his glory. Does that sound kind of familiar, right? Because we're seeing that disability is not the problem. It's not even a problem Jesus is saying here. It's not like somebody sinned, but that God allowed this to happen so that he could be glorified through this man. And Jesus does go on to heal him of his blindness. And God does receive the glory.
Secondly, Jesus also makes it clear what our role should be in caring for individuals and families in general but people with disabilities. In Matthew 25:31-40, he says, “When the son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right but the goats on the left. Then the king will say to those on the right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.’”
Jesus is connecting our care for people, I would argue certainly, includes people who are impacted with disabilities to our care or our love or following of Jesus, right? He says, "If you want to follow me, if you want to love me, if you want to care for me, you are going to care for those that the world considers the least." And he talks about this. He's saying that this is sort of setting the stage for when he returns and we're going to stand before God and give an account to God.
And he's saying, "Hey, when you get to that that spot, this is what I'm going to tell you." And he says that the people before Jesus who have done these things are going to be like, "Jesus, we didn't ever feed you. You didn't come to our house. We didn't visit you in prison. We didn't clothe you. What are you talking about?"
And Jesus says, "Those people that you did it for, you did it unto me."
So if we if we want to follow Jesus, if we want to care for Jesus, we're called to care for those that the world considers the least. We're called to care for these people around us that are in need. It says that it it's the same thing as doing that for Jesus himself.
Obviously, if Jesus walks through your door into your living room today, you're going, "Whoa."
But if it's a stranger, you go, "Hang on, what are you doing in my house?" And you shouldn't just let a stranger into your house, right? But Jesus says, "If you care for these people, the way that you care for those people is the same as caring for me."
Adding one final layer to this of how we should view and care for those with disabilities is 1 John 3:17-18 which says, "But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.”
It's not enough for us to simply say, "Oh yeah, God's heart is for people with disabilities and oh yeah, we got to be all about that." And we walk out the door and we do nothing about it, right?
We as the church are called into action. That's what John is saying when he says, "Don't just love in in word or talk, not in the just the things that you say, but love in the way that you live in in deed and in truth."
We can't sit back and say that our vision is to be a Christ-centered diverse community caring for every generation in every situation if we are neglecting to care for a rather large group of people in a situation that God very much cares about. So, what do you do? What can you do? Some of you may be aware that for the past year at a children's ministry level, we've been working on putting together a plan and a strategy for helping families with a special needs child. And we're
continuing to move forward steadily with that. We're seeing some God gives some blessing and some growth in that and are prayerfully considering what are some of those next steps for us.
But caring for people and individuals and families that are impacted by disabilities goes so much farther than just children's ministry or a special needs room or a budget or any kind of system. If we truly want to care for these families the way that God cares for them, the way that God calls us to care for them, it requires all of us asking a couple questions.
First, we need to ask God for forgiveness and for wisdom, right? We need to start in humility and say, "God, there maybe we've done some things right, but there's certainly some things that we have done that aren't right, ways that we need to change, ways that we need to consider. How can how can we get past this, these numbers that are saying that these families are likely to never come to church?
Recognize that that we failed in in many ways to live out the call that Jesus has given on our lives. It's okay to admit that we failed.
It'd be it'd be wrong for us to sit here and be like, "Yeah, we've got it all together. We've got it all figured out." We start from a position saying, "God, we haven't done this the best that we could. Would you forgive us of that?" In that, we also ask God for wisdom, “God, what's our next step? What would you have me to do? What do you want me to do in this? Would you give me wisdom to know how we should move forward?”
Second, after we pray and ask God for forgiveness and for him to give us wisdom, we need to start asking ourselves, “What am I hearing from God? What might God be calling me to do? Is there someone in my life that I need to invite that I need to reach out to? Is there someone in this church family who I know is walking through this situation of life that I haven't really reached out to? I haven't done anything or I don't even know how I could help. What might God be calling me to do? What might he be calling you to do?”
Lastly, as we have the privilege to walk with these families and to care for them, we need to ask questions and listen to these families who are impacted by disabilities.
If you have any experience with disability, that is wonderful. It doesn't mean you know anything about that family's unique situation or what their child needs.
I cannot tell you how impactful it is for that family for you to care about not only their child who is impacted by that disability but about the parents. Ask them how you can help, what you can do. Ask them personally just hey how are you doing? Not just how's your child? How are things going with your child? How are you doing? They have siblings. Caring and investing in those siblings asking them how are you doing?
Not just because of their sibling who has a disability, but to care about them. I can't tell you how much of a blessing this is for a family who is impacted by disability. I shared with you earlier that my family has experienced this. I've walked this with my family.
And at one of our churches, there was a group of three sisters. They were all elderly. They had had a younger brother who had some higher level disability needs. And they had cared for him and loved him and walked with him all the way through his life until he passed away. And so this was something that was already on their hearts.
But when we came to that church where my dad was the pastor, they saw that my youngest brother who I mentioned before, that his birth mom drank pretty heavily with when she was pregnant with him. He has permanent brain damage from that. It's called fetal alcohol syndrome if you if you are familiar with that. He also has an official diagnosis of autism.
And so they saw my brother and God gave them a desire and a heart to reach out to him and to care. But they started with asking questions, asking my parents, "Hey, what would be helpful? How can we help him? What are some things that that you would need?" And listening and hearing what my parents would share with them. And they poured so much love and care into that little guy and changed his life so much because of just being used by God.
But they didn't stop there. They didn't just care about my brother who had special needs. They also cared about my parents and they would take the time to invest in them. And they cared about me and my siblings, my sister who was two years older than me, my brother who's two years younger than me. They would take us with them to the things that that they were excited about. They loved Gaither music, if you know who the Gaithers are. I can't say that as a teenager I loved the Gaither’s music, but it was something that when they would take us, they would pay for us to go to concerts with them and we began have fun. We had somebody that was investing in us and giving us even some a break outside of the stress of our life at home. They introduced me and my siblings to the Lord of the Rings movies and we watched that, had some watch parties, and they would make us all these snacks and really just they took time to care for not just my brother with special needs but my family as a whole.
Now, they weren't perfect. They had their flaws and they made their mistakes, but they were ready and willing to be used by God by simply seeing a family in the church and saying, "Hey, we're here. We care. What can we do?" There was no special needs ministry. There was no budget for it. There was no system. Just some sweet ladies living the way that Jesus calls us all to live with one another.
Closing Thought
And so as I close this morning, I was thinking about this past summer. We had the privilege of being a part of the Metuchen Street Fair back in August, and I got to be a part of that and have a lot of really good conversations with people in our community.
And there's this one that stood out to me that God has continued to bring to my mind, which really is in many ways, the reason I feel like God putting this message on my heart this morning. A father came with his two daughters and we had a good interaction. I had opportunity to share with him about what we have for our children at our church.
I was telling him about my family. He was sharing about his and he said that he was interested but he had some concerns because one of his daughters had autism. And so I told him that there are people in our church families going through the same situation as you. We love them. We care about them. This is a safe space for them. I shared some of the things that we're working on doing and tried to assure him that his daughter will be cared for and loved when she comes here.
But he said something and he responded with this statement that that I will never forget. He said, "It's just that we've been kicked out of these programs before because of her autism.” So far, he's never set foot in this building.
Take a second and consider this. No, we can't reach every single person. We aren't going to be able to do that. But Jesus has called us to live a certain way and to care for the people around us. And can we confidently say that we're truly caring for every generation in every situation? If we are neglecting people in in this situation, maybe do we need a change in our heart or our strategy in order to reach and care for those impacted by disabilities?
Today isn't about answers. It's not about rolling out new plans. It's about getting on our knees and asking God to forgive us for the ways in which we have neglected these families in this these situations. It's about asking for wisdom for from God to know how we should respond. And then it's stepping forward in faith and in action and becoming the hands and feet of Jesus for these individuals and these families in this often overlooked situation. Let's pray.
Small Group Discussion Questions
What surprised you about the statistics regarding families affected by disabilities and church attendance?
In John 9:1–3, how did Jesus correct the disciples’ assumptions about disability? What wrong assumptions do people still make today?
What has been your attitude or comfort level toward people or families impacted by disabilities?
Where do you think the church (in general or personally) has fallen short in caring for these families?
John emphasized loving “in deed and truth” (1 John 3:17–18). What are some practical ways we can do that personally?
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