A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article appears below. Herman de Jong is Coordinator of Friendship Groups Canada.
Missing Persons: Ministry with Persons Who Have Special Needs, Oliver Ohsberg. Winfield, B.C.: Wood Lake Books, 1990.
A significant portion of our population suffers from some form of limiting disability. Perhaps more than many of us are aware of. The following statement appeared in Newsweek, March 16, 1987: “Of every 100 human babies, three will be born with major defects, a figure that has not changed substantially since the United States first began keeping this data in the late 1960s, or for that matter, since studies dating from the 1890s in Denmark.”
These words are found in the Preface of Oliver Ohsberg’s extremely useful book Missing Persons: Ministry with Persons Who Have Special Needs. One of the reasons why Oliver Ohsberg wrote this book may well be found in the words written on the cover: “You will often see people with disabilities in our communities, but rarely in our churches. Here’s how to help those among us with special needs feel welcome in the church.”
Oliver Ohsberg, an associate professor of Christian Education and associate dean at Acadia Divinity College in Wolfesville, NS, believes that the church needs everyone, not just the able-bodied. We have more in common with most people with disabilities, he says, than we have differences. Our churches can only benefit from including those who have disabilities. Changes in church and Sunday school programs will usually enhance the worship and learning of everyone. Persons with disabilities will gain from their participation in the church. They also have much to offer the church.
In Missing Persons, the author describes various disabilities such as: intellectual impairment, communication impairment, visual impairment, physical impairment, chronic medical problems, and social and emotional disorders. In plain language, he helps church teachers and leaders identify special needs persons may have. He then suggests a number of practical ways in which we can help these persons feel welcome and comfortable in our faith communities. It is this reviewer’s firm belief that this book deserves a much wider reading circle than church teachers and leaders. All church members should read it! Is there anyone amongst us who does not have a disabled person in her/his family or circle of friends? Yet, unlike our Master, we often find it so difficult to tune in to infirmities surrounding us. Our hesitation to draw closer to people with disabilities is often caused by an incapacity to fully understand the enormous problems and suffering disability has in its wake. In a sense this incapacity to understand and reach out, is one of the greatest disabling factors in the Church of Jesus Christ. Oliver Ohsberg uses a paraphrase of Matthew 25:37-39: “When did we see you in a wheel chair, or stuttering, or blind, or deaf, or confused, and neglected you?” Missing Persons is written in a positive, warm, non-condemning style. The paraphrase of this well-known Bible verse is not followed by: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Oliver Ohsberg brings “the least of these” (but never as images of God) so very close to us!
Missing Persons is especially a practical book. Too often we are at a loss how to interact with persons who are disabled physically or intellectually. A few of the many suggestions in the chapter on “Ministry with Hearing Impaired Persons” are:
- speak distinctly to all individuals
- avoid covering or hiding your face or mouth when speaking
- use more than the usual amount of visual aids in a class setting
- if the doctor has recommended a hearing aid, encourage the person to use it.
As Coordinator of Friendship Groups Canada, a Canada-wide organization which promotes spiritual and social development of persons with developmental disabilities, I believe the title of the book to be aptly chosen. Even today, thousands of persons with mental handicaps, upon returning from institutions to our communities, are missing in churches. While institutionalized, many of these lovable people attend chapel services, but have not found niches in the churches of their new communities. Unlike most other disabled people, they are unlikely to find out about God on their own. Their absence in churches should be recognized as a result of churches disobeying their Master’s marching orders. When the community offers special programs to create maximum development for persons with developmental disabilities, when many school systems have seen the value of total integration, can the church of Jesus Christ do less in the area of spirituality?
Missing Persons! For how long? Thank you, Dr. Oliver Ohsberg, for writing this excellent book. It comes at a time when many churches are reconsidering their place in community. The bottom line questions for all churches may well be: How and what does Jesus want Canadian churches to be? Looking at his own ministry the answer is surprisingly simply: Caring churches! John Stott once wrote: Jesus looked over the shoulders of his disciples and had compassion on the suffering community surrounding him. Every church is an amazing reservoir of love. Let it spill over!