People in healthy congregations value serving others at their point of need, supporting and building one another up in the faith. Relationships are fluid, networks inviting, and conflicts are addressed with maturity.

Books

	Autism and Your Church: Nurturing the Spiritual Growth of Persons with Autism Spectrum Disorders by Barbara Newman (Friendship Ministries, 2006). This slim volume begins with a theological grounding for a ministry of inclusion, followed by a succinct outline of various ASD and the behavior differences they typically represent.
	Building a Contagious Church by Mark Mittelberg (Zondervan, 2002) The author presents a six-stage process for unleashing “contagious Christianity” in a church.
	Evangelism that Works: How to Reach Changing Generations with the Unchanging Gospel by George Barna (Regal Books, 1995) Along with a demographic profile of nonbelievers in the United States, the author provides useful, tested methods for reaching them for Christ.
	Helping Kids Include Kids with Disabilities by Christine Guth (CRC Publications, 2001). This book provides a basic overview of the most common kinds of disabilities churches may encounter, along with related lesson plans for elementary age children, handouts, fact sheets, sample letters for families, and suggestions for devotions.
	How to Reach Secular People by George Hunter (Abingdon Press, 1992) This book provides a helpful overview of the types of Christians and churches that are reaching people for Christ.
	People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States by Michael Emerson and Rodney Woo (Princeton University Press, 2007) offers data and stories to help congregations that seek to be multiracial.

 

Multimedia

Fierce Goodbye: Living in the Shadow of a Suicide (DVD) looks at suicide—the heartbreak and pain, and later the hope and healing—through the perspectives of five loving and courageous families. Additional families, individuals, mental health experts, Bible scholars, and theologians add their experiences and insights in dealing with the issue of suicide. This resource is also available in book and VHS form.

Shadow Voices: Finding Hope in Mental Illness is an intimate, inside look at what it is like to live with a mental illness and how individuals and their families find their way through a tangle of medical, governmental, societal, and spiritual issues. Discussion guides are also available and are an excellent introduction to a Sunday school class or small group series focused on mental illness.

Someone is Reaching
This 3-minute video is a reminder that everyone knows someone who is hurting, needs answers, or is searching for something better.

Study guides

Second Callings

Retirement and vocation from a biblical perspective
by Peggy Mumper

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This four-part study explores themes such as the role of older people in the church, finding a post-career vocation, the effect that aging does or doesn’t have on the life of faith, and staying involved while making room for the next generation in the church.

Building Better Relationships

by Discipleship Journal

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This intensive Bible study points the way to quality relationships on the job, at school or church, in the family, and everywhere else.

 

 

The Blessing Study Guide

by Gary Smalley and John Trent

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This small group study guide encourages believers to be a blessing to others in word and in deed.

 

 

Making peace with your family

by Glenn Robitaille,
certified pastoral counselor, CMFT

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Drawing from passages in Romans and James, this four-session study guide looks at interpersonal relationships through the lens of scripture.

 

Other helpful websites

ADNet
Anabaptist Disabilities Network provides encouragement and resources to congregations, families, and persons with disabilities as they identify and embrace their God-given gifts and abilities in ministry to each other and to the larger church. One of the resources provided by ADNet is a free online newsletter titled Connections. 

The Christian Council on Persons with Disabilities
This website is dedicated to connecting, advancing, and nurturing disability ministries.
CCPD’s quarterly newsletter is “an all-encompassing resource for knowing what is going on in the field of Christian disability ministry and developments.”

Clergy Care Network
Sponsored by Focus on the Family Canada, this website is a source of practical information and resources for pastors and their families, along with helpful suggestions for how lay people can encourage and strengthen their pastors.

Friendship Ministries
This website seeks to help churches and organizations around the world share God’s love with people with cognitive impairments. The site includes a links to Sunday school curriculum, CDs, and a Bible study in Spanish.