“The Special Needs Ministry Handbook” offers step-by-step instructions on how to establish a special needs ministry for children pre-school through middle school. The book includes an outline of the process, along with lesson plans, forms, guides to resources, approaches to handling various behavioral issues, tips for helping families of a special needs children, and outreach ideas.
A member of Pine Lake Covenant Church and an educator who also has a severely disabled son, Rapada has presented workshops across the U.S. to help congregations develop special needs ministries. She has drawn on material that she developed and tested over the years for the book.
In her endorsement of the book, Sandy Klein, Pine Lake’s pastor of children’s ministries writes, “This book provides clear, thoughtful and practical strategies and tools for developing a successful special needs ministry.”
“This ministry is an outreach mission,” Rapada says. “Many people are so discouraged with their situation. They can’t understand how God could allow this.”
Rapada knows that kind of despair firsthand, having watched as a rare neurological disease took away her son Zach’s physical and mental abilities. “It was like he was becoming another person,” she recalls.
National organizations estimate that 95 percent of children with special needs are unchurched, Rapada says. “Many people stay away from the church because they think that the church won’t be able to care for their children.”
When Zach first became disabled, Rapada and her husband, Cal, knew they had to cling to their church for strength. A first step came when congregation members offered to watch Zach at home so the Rapadas could attend worship services.
Wanting to do more, Rapada proposed the idea of a special needs ministry. The ministry serves Zach, now 16, as well as other special needs children and their families.
Many churches initially are nervous about starting special needs ministries because the task seems daunting. But it doesn’t have to be, Rapada says. “It is hard work,” Rapada “but it also is a joy!”
Klein believes that special needs are an important part of a church’s response to living out Matthew 19:14, when Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
“The Special Needs Ministry Handbook” is available at major retail and online bookstores.
Rapada encourages churches to try to start with a model she refers to as “total inclusion,” where children with disabilities participate in regular Sunday school classes, accompanied by a volunteer.
If churches are unable to use this approach, she recommends “reverse inclusion.” The approach calls for “specialized but not isolated” classrooms. Each student is matched with a typically developed student and adult in addition to having a teacher in the classroom. This is the model Pine Lakes uses.
Rapada says other children enjoy and benefit from having special needs students in their classrooms. “It’s a huge blessing for them. I think a lot of times that get more out of it than the special needs kids,” she adds.
Local disability organizations generally are eager to work with congregations. Pine Lake says national organizations such as Children’s Institute for Learning Differences and The Young Life Open Door Program are excellent resources.
Rapada is a member of the Covenant’s newly established Disabilities Ministry Resource Committee. “I am incredibly impressed that the Covenant is doing this at a denominational level,” she says, noting that many other denominations have yet to develop similar ministries.
