A New Way to Worship: Addressing the Special Needs Family

Beauty in worship (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We have noticed some churches with larger congregations have gone out of their way to address these needs.  Does the size of the organization matter? Are larger congregations more financially able to handle the task?  Should the church or worship house even TRY to take on such a herculean challenge?

This article on Religion Making Room for Special Needs Children in the Huffington Post brought up so many different emotions…emotions, thoughts and conversations that I have had within my own family and body of worshippers.

We have heard and encountered the difficulties that families go through in finding a place to worship where parents and children all get fed spiritually.  We have experienced having to leave the service because our child was not wanting to be there.  We have dealt with the stares and glares from other congregants about why we didn’t take him out sooner.  We have also been encouraged in the pews as well.  One particular instance, at a church we were visiting, made quite an impact on us as a family.

The Huffington Post article sparked a really meaningful conversation between my wife and I on the subject.  It seemed to me that the mother was too busy to be a significant part of the solution to her own problem.  But my wife made me realize that mothering is a full-time job! Throw in a special needs diagnosis and it becomes something else entirely!

I guess ideally,  it would be great if those who headed our temples, mosques, churches and other institutions would read this article and others and just ask the question…”Are we doing ALL that we could do to help families challenged by Special Needs?

We have noticed some churches with larger congregations have gone out of their way to address these needs.  Does the size of the organization matter? Are larger congregations more financially able to handle the task?  Should the church or worship house even TRY to take on such a herculean challenge?

We want to know what you think?  We created this website as a forum for these types of conversations.  Pass it along to every one you know. What are your own experiences?  Have you started something for your kids? How has your house of worship faced this dilemma?   We want to hear from you.