Joni and Friends is an international ministry aimed at advancing disability ministry and changing the church and communities around the world. They offer programs, resources, training, and missions efforts that involve the church in ministry to people who often seem so different, but who are equally loved by the Lord.

Joni and Friends has a section of their website called “Kids’ Corner” where kids can download activities, research disabilities for school reports, share prayer requests, and even communicate with Joni.

I think this is a great resource for us to point to kids in our ministries so that they see that no matter how a person is born, they are inherently loved by God.

What resources do you offer to kids in your ministry to engage them in a better understanding of persons with disabilities? What resources do you offer to special needs families?

The following is a guest post from Cassi LeTourneau, a mom and author of Treasure the Rain.

If I could visit every single church around the country (maybe even the world) I would. I’d bring a stack of books with dog-eared pages, highlighted paragraphs and notes scribbled in margins. I’d sit across a little table from you, coffee in hand, and we’d walk through the needs of your church and how you might begin to address them. We’d share whatever knowledge we have of special needs, ministry, and God’s call in our lives (please know that my knowledge is fairly limited…but my God is definitely not!). I’d probably remember at the very last second that I wanted to pass along a couple of resources—and I’d quickly write them on the back of a napkin before praying for you, your church, and your community. And then we’d go our separate ways…friends for life because that’s kind of how I work.

That is my heart. To reach families in my own church as well as individuals and families thousands of miles away. I want to see these precious children, their families, church staff, and volunteers as well as entire communities blessed in ways they never would have imagined. If special needs ministry is on your heart—and my guess is that it very much is—start praying. Ask God to open doors.

Here are a few resources, in addition to Free CM Stuff, that you might look into:

Joni and Friends

The Inclusive Church

Ministry to Children

Keep in mind inclusion will look different for each and every congregation. I don’t believe there is a one-size-fits-all plan for special needs ministry. There are definitely “best practices” that can be gleaned from churches with existing special needs ministries and from resources such as those listed above. For now I will offer the following thoughts to help get you started.

• Communicate Your Ideas. Present your ideas to church leadership in a clear, concise way. Your Pastors, Elders and Children’s Ministry Directors have a lot on their plates. A lot. That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t love to see a special needs ministry in place—it just means they may not have the means to see it through personally.

• Research. Provide them with a summary from the research you’ve done. Statistics along with success stories might be a great place to start. Just the Facts! Compile statistics along with examples of what other churches are doing. Remember that where you are headed, others have gone before. And many of those people are committed to seeing special needs ministry impact individuals and families far beyond the walls of their own churches. Check out these special needs statistics from the Inclusive Church Blog to give you a boost.

• Share a story. Don’t have a success story to share? They are out there—I promise—but if you’re like me, I didn’t know where to look and what I had at the time were stories of heartbreak. Stories of families being turned away…church after church informing them their children weren’t welcome. Stories of people being isolated from the one place they should feel most loved and accepted. So those are the stories I shared.

• Be consistent. Become familiar with your Children’s Ministry policies and procedures. If there is not currently a “Safe Kids” policy in place I highly recommend that you work with your Children’s Ministry Director to implement one. It is my opinion that this should be mandatory for all churches/Children’s Ministries (with or without a special needs ministry). Applications, criminal background checks, references and training…these basic safe guards should be non-negotiable when working with children.

• Step out in faith. Don’t think you have to have everything in order before sharing your heart. You may not have all the answers—or know exactly what special needs ministry will look like for your church—but what you can share is your heart! And when you boldly share your vision for inclusion you just might come across someone with a God sized vision of their own; waiting for someone like you to step out in faith and give voice to a need that is all too often overlooked.

• Cast the wider vision. With the blessing of church leadership, share your vision with the entire church body! This can be done in a number of ways. We chose to reserve ten minutes during each of our three weekend service times. We shared a brief video, were interviewed by one of our Pastors and encouraged everyone to visit us at a table in the foyer after service. For a sample on how to do this, check out this post, especially the document at the bottom.

• Recruit. Survey your church members. Look for needs that can potentially be met as well as people who might be experienced in a particular area (i.e. medical professional, special needs educator or someone with ministry/event planning experience). Don’t be afraid to recruit support from the secular world as well. Pediatricians, special education teachers, etc… These dedicated professionals have a heart for children even if they don’t necessarily share your faith. And what an amazing opportunity to model the love of Jesus!

• Manage volunteers and families. Provide a basic intake form for anyone interested in volunteering and for families of special needs children. Here are a few examples to get you going.

• Train. Offer an Orientation/Training day. For us that consisted of:

1. A (free) CPR class offered by a church member who responded to our announcement in service.
2. A brief video introduction to special needs ministry. One great option is “The Father’s House” by Joni and Friends.
3. The opportunity for everyone to introduce themselves and share their heart.
4. The option to attend our mandatory Safe Kids Training that evening (other training dates were available).

If I could leave you with just one thought it would be to remind you that special needs ministry is about relationship. Get to know your volunteers. Get to know your families—I would urge you to spend whatever time you can getting to know these parents and their sweet children.

Remember – parents are your best resource when it comes to caring for their individual child. Be sure to provide them with a thorough intake form where they can share vital information about their child. Listen to their questions and concerns and be completely upfront about what you can and cannot offer.

If you run into bumps in the road—ask someone who’s been there. If they can’t help you—ask someone else. Ask until you find someone who can. Just please—don’t give up!

About the Author: Cassi a wife deeply in love with her husband, a mom incredibly proud of her boys, and a girl forever indebted to Jesus. She started her blog, Treasure the Rain, as a place to share her heart and hopefully a little encouragement “through the rain.”

Kids on Mission is a great resource from the International Mission Board. Here’s a description from their site:

Through Kids On Mission videos and newslettters, children grades 1 through 6 will learn about exotic destinations, different cultures and what missionaries are doing around the world.  They will see how they can be a part of what God is doing, too!

Each quarterly KOM resource comes with video segments, activity sheets, prayer times, a detailed leader’s guide and hands-on missions ideas. You can subscribe for a small fee and automatically receive a new DVD-ROM release every quarter. If downloading large files is not a problem for you, you can access everything you need for free.

This would be a great addition to your Vacation Bible School, summer camp, or as a monthly emphasis on Sunday mornings.

How do you teach kids about international missions in your church?

The North American Mission Board has generated a very large list of memory verse and missions games. I could not access the root webpage that contains this list (www.kidzplace.org), so I have uploaded it to my site, giving full credit to NAMB. You can access the original file here, or on my site here.

I came across a book review site done for kids, by kids recently called There and Blog Again. The main author of the blog is a kid named Cal and I think he may be a grandson of RC Sproul. Please correct me if I’m wrong here.

This would be a great site to let pre-teen readers and parents of these kids in your ministry to know about. Cal writes well, but from a kid’s perspective. He filters his reviews through a Christian world-view and makes solid recommendations for other kids. I’m thankful for kids like Cal who step out with bold faith in an effort to serve other kids.

Ministry Matters™ is a community of resources for church leaders. Whether your church has ten pews or a thousand seats, a praise band or a pipe organ, one-room-Sunday school or a network of small groups, a huge staff or just you, Ministry Matters can be a resource for you.

This is a place for you to brainstorm, research, and plan. A place to collaborate with colleagues across the office or across the country. A place to connect with others with the same responsibilities and concerns, hopes and dreams as you.

Do sermon research with their Bible commentaries, find the perfect video to discuss with your class, select prayers and music for a transformative worship experience. But take a minute for yourself, too. Listen to an inspiring sermon, read an invigorating leadership article, or chat with other leaders about what’s keeping you up at night. (Chances are, they’ve been there too.)

There is an entire section devoted to Children’s Sermons in the Library. I’ll definitely be adding Ministry Matters to my list of object lesson resources.

A lot of stuff there is free, and there’s no charge to register! Set up your profile and you can comment on articles and blogs, join in discussions, and collect resources in bins to share or save for later! Become a subscriber and get access to hundreds of other resources to help you in your ministry.

Ministry Matters™ was launched in 2011 by The United Methodist Publishing House, based in Nashville, Tennessee. As with most other resources developed by UMPH, Ministry Matters™ aims to serve Christians of many denominations—or no denomination at all!

Focus on the Family Canada has a great site called Kids of Integrity that provides tools for growing godly character in kids. Kids of Integrity is a set of free resources that will help you coach your kids with confidence and a clear sense of direction. Better still, Kids of Integrity will excite your children about living “God’s way.”

You can utilize this resource either as a tool for parents or for supplemental materials for a lesson you may be teaching. It is filled with lessons, memory verse activities, object lessons, Bible stories, and practical suggestions for implementing that character trait into a child’s life. You will find materials on acceptance, generosity, honesty, kindness, and more.

What other free materials do you know about for building godly character in kids?

What you see above is the Awana Gospel Wheel. When I found out about this about a year and a half ago, I became a big fan. I think that it appropriately communicates the gospel message along with, for the most part, a clear response. I appreciate how the Gospel Wheel utilizes I Corinthians 15:3-4 to accentuate not only Jesus’ death, but his resurrection–a portion of the Good News of Jesus that is often forgotten and relegated to a footnote. I found out now that they have an app available in Android, iPad and Iphone configurations. I just used it this week with my daughters to communicate the gospel to them and it served me well.

I think this is a great tool for those of us who work with children whether you are an Awana fan or not. You can go through the App with someone and never know it is an Awana tool except for the initial splash screen.

One critique I have, and it is a general critique for the gospel wheel, is that they do not include the concept of repentance in this presentation. Repentance, a change in mind and heart–away from sin and toward the Lord, is a critical component in a response to the gospel that goes hand in hand with faith/belief/trust. When presenting this to my daughters I had to insert the idea of repentance in it on my own.

Format wise, I do like how you have three options of presentation to choose from: kids, teens and adults. I believe the adult one could be more visually appealing perhaps utilizing symbols or “icons” to display the truth on screen. I really like how the teen portion allowed for some discussion questions, though a few of them seemed slightly surface level. Others, however, were quite poignant. You also get to choose from NIV, KJV or Spanish–another nice feature. Take a look at this video to find out more.

Since I am new at a church, I wanted to connect with each child with a birthday card. This is a tall order as I’m hitting every kid on our roll, even if they haven’t attended in a while. That’s almost 600 birthday cards this year! A week does not go by, however, that a child or parent doesn’t thank me for their card. This has been a game changer for me as I get to know folks.

I have designed these so they can be printed on a “bleed.” You could also just copy these designs in a Publisher document and cut them out yourself. There are boys and girls designs. They are high res quality. Hope you can use them!

ZipZap is a family friendly web browser that allows parents to closely monitor and control what their children view on the internet. It essentially revolves around giving each family member a user account which can be filtered using 64 different categories. I think this would be a great tool to make available to elementary and middle school parents and could even be something that you installed on any ministry computers used by children.