Books on Disability and the Church
Resources for Building a More Inclusive and Accessible Christian Community
As the church seeks to reflect the full beauty of the body of Christ, a crucial reality demands our attention: one in four adults lives with a disability. Yet many congregations and ministries remain unsure how to move from good intentions to genuine belonging. Disability ministry is not a niche concern, it is a vital expression of the gospel’s call to mutuality, dignity, and interdependence.
The following books invite individuals, ministry leaders, and entire congregations to move beyond awareness toward meaningful inclusion. They offer theological grounding, practical wisdom, and powerful stories that challenge us to reshape how we serve, empower, and learn from people of all abilities.
Centering Disability in Worship
A unique resource written by and for Christians with disabilities, Centering Disability in Worship helps create worship spaces that embrace the diverse experiences of people with disabilities. This book includes prayers, liturgies, and songs written by individuals with disabilities, alongside practical tips for planning inclusive worship. The authors invite readers to embrace inclusion, reimagine worship, and act boldly toward true belonging.
Neurodivergent by Design
Neurodivergent by Design offers compassionate answers from Dr. Robin Warner, a Christian psychiatrist who combines clinical expertise with biblical wisdom to help you embrace God’s design for neurodivergent minds. This book aims to help you understand how God has uniquely crafted neurodivergent people and learn how to love them well.
Disability and Evangelism
Rochelle Scheuermann provides a vital resource for ministry leaders seeking to include people with disabilities in all aspects of evangelism. This book offers a biblical understanding of disability and evangelism, practical guidance for inclusive practices, and stories that highlight the importance of sharing the gospel both with and through individuals with disabilities. A must-read for leaders looking to create a more inclusive, gospel-centered approach to evangelism in their ministries.
Disabling Leadership
This practical theology of disability equips church leaders to build accessible and welcoming communities that resist ableism. Drawing from real church experiences, Disabling Leadership explores key topics like what it means to be human, how to understand suffering and healing, how churches can be welcoming and accessible communities, and how to face common challenges and issues in resisting ableism.
Rebecca Sue
Great for ministry leaders who walk alongside families affected by disability, Rebecca Sue tells a heartfelt story of resilience, faith, and love. Ministry leaders will discover stories that resonate with those who have loved ones with disabilities, offering the comfort of shared experience; a candid and vulnerable portrayal as Kathleen Norris balances the heaviness and hardships brought on by her sister's diagnosis with the joy and hope in her life; and a testament to how unwavering love, perseverance, and commitment can guide a family through life's most arduous journeys.
Disability and the Way of Jesus
Bridging biblical studies, ethics, and disability studies with the work of practitioners, this book is a unique resource that is both theologically grounded and winsomely practical. The author examines Jesus's healing narratives in their biblical and cultural contexts and considers perspectives from medical doctors, disability scholars, and pastors to more fully understand what Jesus does as he heals and how he points the way for relationships with people with disabilities. Featuring personal reflections from Christians with disabilities and concrete practices for churches to implement, this book helps ministry
When I Go to Church, I Belong
This children’s book is a valuable resource for ministry leaders working with families and children. Through the stories of six children with special needs, it beautifully illustrates inclusion and belonging in the church. Use it to spark conversations about diversity and help shape a culture of acceptance and understanding for children of all abilities within your children's ministry.
Disability and the Church
Written by pastor Lamar Hardwick, who is on the autism spectrum, Disability and the Church is a call to action for leaders to build inclusive faith communities. With practical strategies and theological insights, Hardwick challenges churches to affirm the image of God in all people and create spaces where individuals with disabilities feel truly welcomed.
Special Grace
This collection of prayers and reflections is an invaluable tool for ministry leaders supporting families with special needs. Covering topics like school, church, and milestones, Special Grace offers heartfelt words that families can bring before God. Filled with humor and wisdom, these prayers and reflections help families process their experiences together and offer them to God with hope and simple trust.
Disabling Mission, Enabling Witness
Professor Benjamin Conner starts a new conversation between disability studies and Christian theology and missiology that seeks to answer, "How can we shape a new vision of the entire body of Christ sharing in the witness of the church?" He imagines a church that fully incorporates persons with disabilities into its mission and witness, the entire body of Christ functioning beyond distinctions of dis/ability, promoting mutual flourishing and growing into fullness. This book is a fresh and inspiring look at the mission of the church when it enfolds people with disabilities as full members.
Belonging
Want to equip others in your ministry? This nine-session group Bible study helps people learn how we all miss out when any members of the body of Christ are not included. For those with visible or invisible disabilities, attitudes and systems of ableism can lead to deep hurt and barriers to fully participating in God's kingdom work. Your group will explore the deep love and acceptance of our heavenly Father and what it means for offering love and acceptance to one another. You'll learn how God responds in love to those who are often marginalized and excluded so that you, too, can welcome people of all different abilities.
