From the Editor

Tapping Unused Resources
Brian Proffit

At Church Volunteer Central, we stress that all believers are called to be ministers. We provide many resources to help our members guide people into the most appropriate ministry for their gifts and passions. Yet a significant number of believers are routinely overlooked because we don't always know how to find appropriate ministries for the physically challenged.

My sister-in-law, Cindy Norris, has cerebral palsy. She is restricted to a wheelchair and communicates only through a talking computer. Her motor control is very limited, and every movement takes a long time. As a ministry leader, it would be very easy for you to overlook someone like Cindy when thinking of volunteers. Not in a cruel way, but simply by assuming that she was someone who had nothing to contribute.

What you don't know is that Cindy has served as president of Southern Independent Living, an advocacy group for the physically challenged. She has met with Florida governor Jeb Bush several times to discuss the needs of the handicapped, and has met with numerous members of Congress. In her spare time, she creates and sells beautiful silk flower arrangements.

Now does Cindy sound like someone who could contribute to your ministry?

Sure, it might take a person with profound physical challenges four hours to do something you could do in 15 minutes. So what? Your physically challenged volunteer will receive the blessing of having served the Body of Christ for those four hours, and you will get help with a task that needed doing!

Options for physically challenged members aren't limited to rote physical activities like folding bulletins or stuffing envelopes. In our technological world, there are dozens of ways challenged people can help by using their computers. For example, many profoundly challenged people can help in areas such as:

•  Entering song lyrics for display on the video projector

•  Entering Scripture passages and sermon notes for display

•  Entering bulletin content and designing layout

•  Entering newsletter content and designing layout

•  Preparing and printing mailing labels

The list goes on and on, but even this list has a lot to do with physical activities. It can be easy to assume that physically challenged people have mental challenges as well. But the most brilliant physicist of our generation, Stephen Hawking, has almost no motor control and can communicate only through a talking computer. Yet his intellect remains one of the greatest of our time!

The fact that most tasks would take a physically challenged person much longer than it would take you or me doesn't change the fact that they may be among the best qualified people to write things like articles and lesson plans. If we assume that slowness of motion means slowness or shallowness of thought, then we are demeaning children of God and robbing our church and the Body of Christ.

We say that all believers are called to be ministers and that all are gifted for a particular kind of ministry. It may be more difficult for us to find the right area for some than others, but that doesn't relieve us of our responsibility to equip them for—and release them into—ministry.

Brian Proffit brings experience as discipleship pastor and senior pastor to his position as senior editor of Church Volunteer Central.

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