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Jacob's LadderOur MissionA community of all abilities, learning to offer our gifts and receive God's grace. |
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To find out more or get on boardContact:Martha Rogers MarthaR@ChristEpiscopal.org Judy Thayer judy.thayer@gmail.com |
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.jpg) ...because heaven and earth can touch within us and through us |
Do you believe in...
Welcome
A church that welcomes all, all that we are, all our abilities, our disabilities, our differences?
Trust
A church that trusts in true community--developing and depending on the gifts of each and all?
Transformation
A God who transforms what we separately can do, and separately cannot do, into the spirit-filled Body of Christ??
What is Jacob’s Ladder?
View/download Jacob's Ladder brochure
In Jacob‘s dream, angels go up and down a ladder stretching from earth to heaven, carrying our needs and prayers to God and God‘s gifts to us. When we reflect God‘s loving relationship by welcoming people with different abilities, Jacob‘s dream lives within us.
| “Unwrap each person as a gift from God to your community,” says Barbara Newman. We are each created bringing a different gift of blessing. That is God‘s doing, because alone, we cannot survive—and that scares us. In community, the abundance of our collective gifts casts out fear. And sometimes the gifts of the smallest and weakest most communicate God‘s love. Build relationships. Everyone has needs. Most of us, most of the time, have the support we need, because people in communities support each other almost without thinking about it. Human relationships are that powerful! When differences disrupt relationship-building, support suffers and barriers develop. If we build the missing relationships and listen with compassion, a stronger community may easily find ways to provide needed support. Learn from each other. People with different abilities, or their supporters, are their own best advocates and information sources about their strengths and needs. If we 'look again,' and truly listen with curiosity to each others' stories, we can imagine new ways of experiencing the world and creative ways to address needs and remove barriers. Together, we share abundance. When we build relationships and strengthen communities, we experience the abundance God meant for us. One gift at a time, one need at a time, person to person, relationship by relationship, we build community that all may call home. Let us celebrate and give thanks for what we CAN do. Let us celebrate the gifts of those we call "disabled" and those who welcome them…the stories of courage and reaching out across barriers.…the success stories where gifts and needs meet to empower all, where our whole selves are lifted to God as living offerings of thanksgiving and ministry. Then let us share our wisdom, and climb a rung higher. As we learn from each other and find our successes, our abilities and resources grow. Lifted by the Spirit and climbing together, our dreams, like Jacob‘s, bring us to a place where God is surely present. |
Get in touch:
· Send us your stories; share your dreams.
· Invite us to visit your congregation to share hopes and experiences.
View/download Get In Touch form or contact us by email
Build relationships: · Discover what someone needs in order to use his or her gifts in worship. How? "Just ask."
· Invite someone with a disability for coffee to share faith stories and dreams for ministry.
· Form a playgroup for parents and children with and without disabilities.
Start a discussion:
· Who are those in your church with disabilities? Different abilities? Do you know what might encourage their greater participation in worship?
· In what ways do you sense the desires of persons with disabilities or different abilities to participate more fully in ministry? What constraints do you sense? How could you find out more?
Celebrate your successes and share your wisdom:
· Look around your congregation to discover how and where people with disabilities are being included.
· Can you replicate your successes in different activities or different locations?
· Share with Jacob‘s Ladder what you find out. So we can celebrate and multiply your successes.
View/download Share the wisdom form or contact us by email
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Celebrate—and multiply!
“...if there is any excellence or anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Phil 4:8
Let us celebrate your ideas and success stories to give thanks for all that God has given us! Please contact us so we can identify trends and share your great ideas. We’d love to learn what works for you.
Let us tell your story (with consent) in this space to give hope to all and encourage others.
Let us celebrate your ideas and success stories to give thanks for all that God has given us! Please contact us so we can identify trends and share your great ideas. We’d love to learn what works for you.
Let us tell your story (with consent) in this space to give hope to all and encourage others.
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Learn more
We have a wealth of resources to draw upon. Check out the Jacob’s Ladder bibliography (updated May 2011) of books, websites, movies, and other media. Or use our Selected Media from IRMS to borrow a relevant video or media presentation from the Iowa Religious Media Service (IRMS). Get ideas you can use from Barb Newman’s book, Helping Kids Include Kids with Disabilities. Or use this Mennonite questionnaire to ask parents how to best include their child in church school or youth group.
View/download Jacob’s Ladder Bibliography (upated May 2011)
View/download Selected Media from IRMS
View/download Jacob’s Ladder Bibliography (upated May 2011)
View/download Selected Media from IRMS
Your recommendations
Do you have ways to learn more or resource recommendations to share? Please let us know!
Do you have ways to learn more or resource recommendations to share? Please let us know!
Books, websites, media
Highlights
View/download the bibliography (updated May 2011)
The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship’s website has a wonderful article, 'All God’s Children have Gifts: Disability and Worship,' celebrating successes and providing resources and ideas.
Kondrath, William M., God's Tapestry: Understanding and Celebrating Differences. The Alban Institute: Herndon VA, 2008.
The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship’s website has a wonderful article, 'All God’s Children have Gifts: Disability and Worship,' celebrating successes and providing resources and ideas.
Kondrath, William M., God's Tapestry: Understanding and Celebrating Differences. The Alban Institute: Herndon VA, 2008.
The God who created the rainbow created us too. “ Feelings, imagination, and relationship” – those are the guideposts to genuinely multicultural communities where all abilities can thrive.
National Public Radio. September 15, 2010. Talk of the Nation: Making the World Work for Adults with Autism.
The happy, independent life of Donald Triplett, now 77, the first person ever diagnosed with autism, demonstrates how community helps create fulfilling later years for adults with autism.
Molsberry, Robert F., Blindsided by Grace: Entering the World of Disability. Augsburg Press: Minneapolis MN, 2004.
Hit by a drunken pickup driver while biking near Grinnell, Pastor Robert Molsberry (UCC), now a paraplegic, confronts stereotypes and compares his adjustment to an immersion in an alien culture. He eventually returns to former activities.
Rennebohm, Craig, and Paul, David, Souls in the Hands of a Tender God: Stories of the Search for Home and Healing on the Streets. Beacon Press: Boston MA, 2009.
Pastor Craig Rennebohm (UCC, Seattle) "companions" those who are homeless and mentally ill. “What I offered Ally was not words, doctrine, prayer, or penance; it was not rite or practice. What I offered was my own fragility and vulnerability, to be shared with hers.”
Stories of how disability affects their faith practice: http://www.beliefnet.com/Inspiration/index.aspx
Stories with disability themes: http://adifferentlight.wordpress.com/
Blanco, Jodee, Please Stop Laughing at Me... Adams Media, Avon MA, 2003.
Jodee writes about the power of bullying when she was in high school where she was the butt of the bullying. Loving parents were unable to understand, and the school was unbelieving. Mind-bending.
Gardner, Nuala, A Friend Like Henry. Sourcebooks, Naperville IL, 2005.
The magical chemistry of an autistic boy and his dog as the world opens to the boy through Henry.
Kolsrud, Ann, Almost Normal. Chipmunkapublishing, Brentwood, Essex, UK, 2008.
Ann talks of her experience of being schizophrenic since childhood.
Scanlan, Audrey, and Linda Snyder, Rhythms of Grace: Worship and Faith Formation for Children and Families with Special Needs. Morehouse Education Resources, Denver CO, 2010.
The title is self-explanatory. The book gives lesson plans and material lists for one year of Christian formation.
