Become a place of belonging for everyone. Help people discover their gifts and use them in ministry. These are the goals of Disability Awareness Sunday. By observing Disability Awareness Sunday in your congregation, you take another step toward becoming a place where everybody belongs and everybody serves.
We encourage churches to celebrate Disability Awareness Sunday on the second Sunday in October. Any other time is great too.
Included on this page are suggestions for observing Disability Awareness Sunday, as well as worship resources for planning a service that emphasizes God’s wide, welcome love for all people.
Suggestions for observing Disability Awareness Sunday
Whatever approach your church uses, exercise care to avoid perpetuating disability stereotypes.
- You’ll find an array of prayers, litanies, sermon ideas, and more on the Network, the site that hosts all Disability Concerns resources for the RCA and Christian Reformed Church.
- Plan a worship service, alongside persons with disabilities, themed around God’s love and acceptance of, and purposes for, all people. Encourage the worship leader to consider gathering a few people from your church community who have a disability or parent a child with a disability to talk about what they experience, helpful or hurtful scriptures, life experiences, etc.
- In worship planning, invite people with disabilities to share their gifts in appropriate ways (as liturgists, ushers, communion servers, musicians, preachers, etc.), but do so in a way that avoids putting people with disabilities “on display.” Encourage your pastors and worship leaders to utilize these gifted worship leaders throughout the year.
- Emphasize that persons with disabilities are made in the image of God and that all are part of the body of Christ, meaning all have value, dignity, and spiritual gifts.
- Schedule an adult forum on living with a disability (or a similar topic). Offer children a chance to meet a person who is living with a disability who would like to share how they use different forms of communication or transportation in their daily life.
- Complete a church accessibility audit that involves church leaders and people with disabilities. Find ways to make your church as accessible as possible.
Worship Resources
Get tools to plan a service that emphasizes God’s wide, welcoming love for all people—including people with disabilities. Or plan a series of services. We’ve got you covered with resources.
- Bulletin insert about creating space for younger generations. (Download this two-sided PDF, which is suitable for printing by your church. Alternatively, request copies for your church by contacting mailroom@rca.org; include quantity requested, mailing address, and date needed.)
- Brief videos that work well for Disability Week worship services and other events.
These images are also downloadable and suitable for projection:
- Disability Week Community.jpg
- Disability Week Everybody Belongs.jpg
- Disability Week Everybody Serves.jpg
- Disability Week Households.jpg
- Disability Week Indispensable.jpg
In addition, we have a variety of worship resources to help you plan a service or series of services that emphasize God’s wide, welcoming love for all people, including people with various disabilities. Check out specific types of resources:
- Sermon or Message
- Prayer
- Litany
- Devotional
- Bulletin
- Lesson or Study
- Video
- Presentation
- Images
- See more
Questions? Email disability@rca.org. We’d love to help your church participate!