Disability Ministries

Hello, friends of ELCA Disability Ministries!

As we prepare to send out our next newsletter, I wanted to offer a short update on a couple of our bigger projects, which may impact many of you.

We had an awesome showing of applicants for our new and open positions on our advisory team. We have some amazing leaders to connect with on our team and beyond. At the moment, we are still in discernment and will be having further conversations with some of our applicants. We will be in contact as soon as possible with all applicants, as we invite them to partner with us in other vital ways.

Unfortunately, this has pushed us back a bit in preparing for our next round of grant applications. We still plan for spring but need more time to prepare and help this round to go smoothly and well. We are grateful for everyone’s patience in the meantime. You may contact me at disability.ministry@elca.org if you have any questions for now.

Please keep tabs on this space and our other communications in the coming weeks as we move forward with new team members and the grant cycle for 2025. Thank you!

In Christ,

Rev. Lisa Heffernan

ELCA Disability Ministries coordinator

Hi friends!

Every day I get the honor of serving as the coordinator for ELCA Disability Ministries. I love so much of what I am called to do, but I know I’m not able to get it done alone. The advisory team that volunteers with Disability Ministries does amazing work in this ministry. They craft and lead workshops, review grant proposals, develop new resources, speak at events across the church, and a lot, lot more. Every day I give thanks to God for them and all they bring to this ministry.

We have reached a point in our time together where we feeling a want and need for some new friends to be on this advisory team along with them and myself. So, if you sense God may be calling you to come alongside us, here is what that search process is going to look like and the qualities we are looking for in 1-2 new team members.

Volunteer Job Description: The purpose of the ELCA Disability Ministries Advisory Team is to advise and support the work of the ELCA Disability Ministries Coordinator.

Duties:

Bring your ideas, experience, and insights to the work of the team
Attend web-based team meetings as scheduled by the coordinator (at least once a quarter and typically on Microsoft Teams)
Contribute ideas and material for the blog and the quarterly newsletter
Review grant proposals and collaborate with the team on final selections
Attend in-person planning meetings (Usually one a year)
Prepare workshop proposals and presentations in consultation with the team
Conduct workshops and presentations on behalf of the team as approved by the coordinator

Qualifications:

Strong team player who will fit in well with the current team
Knowledge of and/or experience with a disability
Must be able to keep confidentiality
Support the ministry of the ELCA and ELCA Disability Ministries

Next steps:

Write up a bio and a short document (300 words max) sharing why you feel this ministry is important to you and the life of the church, and why you feel called to serve in this capacity.
Applications can also be received in a video or audio format. Do not exceed two minutes, please.
Dates: Please send your materials to https://bit.ly/DMTeamApplication by no later than January 31st,2025.

New members will be announced by March 31st. Thanks and God bless your discernment.

Peace,

Rev. Lisa Heffernan, ELCA Disability Ministries Coordinator

If you attended the Extravaganza last January, this resource may be familiar to you! It was revised and put together by Rev. Peter Heide in consultation with the rest of the Disability Ministries advisory team. We offer it here to share with our friends and colleagues who may wish to explore the Thanksgiving for Baptism from a lens of disability. It had quite an impact when Rev. Peter Heide and fellow team member Anita Smallin shared it with the assembly at the Extravaganza, and pray that it can be shared well in your communities, too.

Thanksgiving for Baptism

The assembly stands. The presiding minister invites all to make the sign
of the cross +, the sign marked at baptism.

Blessed be the holy Trinity, one God,
the fountain of living water,
the rock who gave us birth,
our darkness and our light, our life and our salvation.
Amen.

The presiding minister addresses the assembly.

Joined to Christ through the waters of baptism,
we are clothed in God’s mercy and forgiveness.
Therefore, let us give thanks for the gift of baptism.

Water may be poured into the font as the presiding minister gives
thanks.

We give you thanks, O God,
for in the beginning your Spirit moved over the waters
and by your Word
you spoke the amazing diversity of the world into being,
from darkness you brought forth light in rainbow colors,
from darkness you brought forth varieties of seeds and trees,
from darkness you brought forth animals of every size and kind,
birds of the air and fish of the sea.
And lastly, from darkness,
you brought forth humanity in your own image,
of all colors and in many sexual identities,
people able-bodied and disabled;
and, having called forth creation
and recognizing your image reflected in myriad ways,
you took delight and called it good.

Through the waters of the flood, you delivered Noah and his family.
By the Jabbok river, you wrestled with Jacob,
named him Israel and gave him a holy limp.
At the Red Sea, through Moses, your stuttering servant,
you led your people Israel from slavery into freedom on dry land.
At the River Jordan, your Son was baptized by John
and anointed with the Holy Spirit.
By water and your Word, you claim us as your children,
heirs of your promise and hope for the world, servants of all.

We praise you for the gift of this water that sustains life,
and above all we thank you for the gift of new life
received in the many-gifted, resurrected body of Jesus Christ.
By your grace, shower us with your Spirit,
renew us in your forgiveness,
embrace us in your love.
We give you honor and praise
through Jesus Christ our Lord
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, now and forever.
Amen.

The service continues with gathering song. As a reminder of the gift of
baptism, the assembly may be sprinkled with water during the singing.

revised by Rev. Peter Heide in consultation with ELCA Disability Ministries
Advisory Team for ELCA Youth Extravaganza 2024, New Orleans, LA

ELCA Disability Ministries Workshops @ Extravaganza!

Have you registered for Extravaganza yet? Better get to it, because we would love to have you join us for our TWO workshops this year! Here’s a glimpse of what each workshop will be about. You can go to https://www.elcaymnet.org/workshops to find more information about all of the workshops happening at the E! this year.

D.A.R.E. to Play (Disability Access Resource Experience): All are welcome at church? Some of our youth group games don’t include all of God’s children. During this workshop, participants will learn how to make icebreakers, team building activities, and games more inclusive for those with disabilities and/or those who are neurodivergent. We will discuss the “why” of inclusion, along with navigating conversations surrounding youth with disabilities. Participants will also receive a list of supplies to have on hand at their congregation to make games and activities more accessible for those with disabilities. Come prepared to play some games and have some fun.

Catechism D.A.R.E. (Disability Access Resource Experience or Exploration): What does dying and rising mean from a disability perspective? Join the ELCA Disability Ministries Team as we explore the baptism texts of the New Testament, Luther’s explanation, and our contemporary Lutheran baptismal worship services. Mark Allen Powell, New Testament scholar and music critic, and others have demonstrated that we are influenced by our context. Indeed, it is Scripture’s content in conversation with our changing context that engages and reveals the Living Word of God. The Church often wrestles wondering how to make accommodation for the disabled student, but in this workshop come consider what might happen if people living with various disabilities are allowed to speak and interpret Scripture.

The Extravaganza is January 23-26, 2025 this year at The Galt House in Louisville, Kentucky. Hope to see you there, friends!

Pastor Mack Patrick (he/they) serves as an Assistant to the Bishop in the Northern Illinois Synod focusing on communications, stewardship, and works with youth and young adults. As a transgender pastor in the ELCA, Pastor Mack strives to make the church a more inclusive and accessible place for all of God’s beloved children. Outside of work, you can find Pastor Mack reading in a hammock, building things with Legos, tinkering with technology, or riding roller coasters. Pastor Mack is proud to have served on the 2024 tAble Planning Team for the ELCA Youth Gathering.

Our blog post for this month is a sermon preached by Pastor Mack Patrick at the opening worship at the tAble, a pre-event to the 2024 Youth Gathering. Based on Psalm 139, it grounded attendees and staff in their time together, exploring “how we are created to be wHoly”.

Originally posted at: Created to Be: wHoly You (mackpatrick.blogspot.com)

Grace, peace, and mercy be to you from God our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Amen.

Wow. The day is finally here, the day we have been waiting for, working for, praying for, is finally here. We are gathered here, in this space, with each other because we all share something in common, we are all created to be wholy. We are created to be authentic, created to be free, created to be one, created to be claimed by our Creator as beloved.

Over these next few days, we will take time to explore what it means to be created. What it means to be loved by a God who took such care in creating us that we are not only named but that we are claimed as beloved. Exploring what it means to be created means we will get a chance to explore who we are, who our neighbors are, who we are as a community, and who God is. Each day there will be time and space to move and be and experience new things, each day there will be something to hold on to, something to trust even when everything else seems so different.

Now you may be thinking this is just like church on a Sunday, sometimes a bit boring and stuffy, a place where you might be told you do not belong, or you are told to refrain from leadership or whatever the case may be. But here is the thing, this space, this team, this community, is something that is unlike anything out there. This is a space that is created for you, created for you to experience God’s love, to see that you have a seat at Christ’s table and that no one can take that away.

One of the things that makes this community so unique is that we have all come with different expectations. Some things about this week give us anxiety, and there are other things we are excited about, and for each of us those things may be different, and that is okay. The important thing, the thing we all share is that we came because we wanted to be in a space that fully embraces us as we are, to be in a community that sees the whole person, the person God created us to be, not just our abilities or disabilities or whatever identity we hold true. There is something truly special about being in a community where you are seen as your whole self, and I am so excited that we get to experience it together these next few days in a city that is created to be exactly as it is.

So what exactly does it mean to be created to be wHoly you?

I feel like if you ask any member on our team what it means the answer will differ, we all have different lived experiences, we all come with a different background and passions and that is part of being created wHoly. Answering this question is not like a multiple-choice test with only one right answer but it’s designed to be what we need in the moment, what we need to feel the love that has been poured out for us, what we need to live fully as God has created us to be.

To me part of being created to be wHoly, is being invited to name our identities, not just the ones that we share in common with others but all of our identities, the ones we hold true, the ones who make us who we are. I am a pastor. I am a communicator. I am neurodivergent. I am transgender. I am wHoly. We are created to be authentic, to rip off the mask and live out who we are, even when not everyone agrees with that. It is hard to be authentic when we are in spaces that are not designed for us or spaces that have expectations that do not take account of our needs. Being created to be wHoly, being created to be authentic encourages us to use what we have, to communicate what we need to be successful, to be involved, to be loved.

To me being created to be wHoly means we have been given unmeasurable grace, grace that extends past what is imaginable. This grace, this free gift from God, leads us to look past the limits that others have placed on us, and the assumptions that society has. This grace, this outpouring of endless, transformative love, encourages us to risk something, to try new things, to fail, to get back up again. This grace is what leads us to find spaces like this, spaces that welcome and embrace us, invite us to the table not to be in a place of pity but to be honored guests, to be treated with the same dignity and respect as everyone else. We are created to be free, free from the limits that we put on ourselves, limits that have been put on us by others. We are created to push those limits, to be free to explore whatever makes us happy, free to try and fail, free to get back up again.

To me being created to be wHoly means living out what I know is true, not so much in the words I say but in my actions. The greatest thing I have ever experienced is being in a community like this that all understands that we come from a variety of places and backgrounds. In a community that understands we carry more than one identity and that there is no need to check them at the door. We are created to be one, created to be in community with each other and with God. We are created to be friends, to have conflict, to work together, and to give praise to God because of who we have been given in our lives. Being created as wHoly, created to be one, invites us to live with God’s love on our sleeves, invites us to live out the joy we have experienced, and invites others into that space.

I wish I could stand up here and say that its easy to live into the promise of being created to be wHoly, to live into the unmeasurable grace that has been poured out, but if I were to do that, then I wouldn’t be living authentically. It is hard to hold what we have been taught about who God is and how we are created with what society tells us. It is hard to believe that we were knitted together with the same care that crafted the smallest seed to the largest galaxies. It is hard to trust that we are the invited guests, that this table is set for us, that this water is for us. It is hard to hold our identity as a child of God with the identity that we are human.

But I think that is the challenge of being created as wHoly, the challenge of being created to be beloved. When we embrace who God is and what God has done and what God is doing, it doesn’t erase what society is doing but it gives us space to wrestle with what is true, to experience love that knows no bounds.

Being created to be wHoly, created to be free, created to be authentic, created to be one, is the truth that we get from our Psalm, the promise that we get through Jesus’ meal with friends, the promise that we are reminded about in the waters of baptism. Being created to be wHoly is not an identity that we ever lose, it is not an identity that we ever have to work for, it has been given to us from the very beginning. It is now our time to live into that identity, to discover what it means for us, to discover where God is calling us to be. Being created to be wHoly, being fearfully and wonderfully made invites us to open ourselves to be part of something bigger than ourselves, part of something that is so special we haven’t experienced it yet.

You are fearfully and wonderfully made, you are created to be wHoly, you are created to be beloved and I am so excited to witness, to experience with you this week as we create something special, something that gives praise to God for all that we have been given, to create something that sustains us when we leave this place.

We are created to be wHoly you and thanks be to God for that!

Dear friends of ELCA Disability Ministries,

Thank you for considering Disability Ministries to potentially help fund your request or initiative via grant. Grant applicants are required to follow the guidelines below to be eligible to receive grant funding through Disability Ministries.

All applicants seeking funds from Disability Ministries must demonstrate how the request or initiative addresses at least one of the following goals:

– Raising up people with disabilities for leadership positions, encouraging the participation of those with disabilities in the wider church, and preparing leaders for serving people with disabilities.

– Equipping our synods, congregations, and members with relevant and practical information that enables them to welcome and support individuals with disabilities so that they might participate fully in the life of the congregation, and that, together, all might experience being the body of Christ.

– Gathering and connecting those with disabilities and various groups within the church so that they might help us become an inclusive, supportive, and whole community of faith.

Additionally, all applicants must show that there is a current relationship, or that they are actively building a relationship, with people living with disabilities in their settings.

We want to recognize that we are moving beyond having an attitude of “If we build it, they will come” in the church. So, for example, not requesting funding for a ramp simply for the sake of having a ramp. But rather explaining how the ramp (or whatever your project may be) would be of a benefit to the disabled people in your setting and your ministry.

We will be funding a total of $50,000. Grant applicants can apply for a grant in the range of $5,000-$10,000. Previous applicants who were not funded may reapply.

The application will open on May 28th, and close on July 31st, or earlier if we have received 30 completed applications. Projects receiving grants will be announced before the end of October 2024.

To register with GrantMaker, please go to https://www.elca.org/grants/impact-church-ministry, and follow the links and instructions that follow. If you have a profile with GrantMaker already, log in here: https://elca.fluxx.io/user_sessions/new to begin your application process.

For questions, please email grants@elca.org or disability.ministry@elca.org.

God’s peace and blessings as you begin the application process!

—ELCA Disability Ministries

A Short Update: Grants and Advisory Team search

ELCA Disability Ministries Advisory Team: Seeking 1-2 New Members

Resource: Thanksgiving for Baptism

We’re Coming to the E!

ELCA Disability Ministries Workshops @ Extravaganza!

Created to Be: wHoly You

Disability Ministries Grants 2024