The Ministry of the Disabled p. 34
Thank you @CTmagazine for being “willing and able” to put #DisabilityMinistry on the cover of your May 2018 issue. Far too many publications and churches shy away from addressing this indispensABLE ministry.
@RyanEWolfe
I am a pastor as well as a mental health professional. For the last four years, I’ve worked with children and adults with various developmental and intellectual disabilities, especially in the area of autism. I have a stepson who is nonverbal autistic. Our special adults and children have so much to offer. They serve their church and God with so much love and compassion. If we can only take a few moments and see the world and Christ through their eyes, we would truly be blessed.
Edward L. Tatro Jr. Palm Bay, FL
I am so pleased with the cover story in the recent Christianity Today. I am blind and I served for six years with my wife as a missionary in Bangkok, Thailand. We emailed a lot of connections within our denomination before finding a place that would take us. I had served for five years in full-time ministry as a youth pastor and associate pastor, but still people were not sure what to do with us, with me as a blind person. However, I found that in my blindness I connected at a different level with the Thai people. My vulnerability drew them to me. The fact that I needed them to help me caused them to open up in a different way. I am now studying at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for a PhD in intercultural studies and investigating the role of weakness in the gospel- witnessing person.
For the church to truly witness to this world, we must not only find ways to serve people with disabilities and abnormalities, whatever that means, but also see them as indispensable to the mission of God on this planet. When the whole church actually becomes the whole church, then we can see the whole church take the whole gospel to the whole world.
Andy Opie Deerfield, IL
God’s Peace Is Not Always God’s p. 23
This article does a huge disservice to the two examples given in which these particular believers may be sharing a testimony to having prayerfully discerned God’s calling to a ministry by placing them alongside a “call” to purchase a larger home. I understand the much-needed caution in what we are proclaiming we hear from God as bordering on trivializing a scriptural approach, but in this particular article, I feel our brother has been insensitive.
Joy Soltis Bellingham, WA
I always appreciate Mark Galli’s pieces, including this one. I would simply suggest that knowing God’s guidance, in addition to the inner voice and the Bible, is the confirmation of the community of faith. These three together form the three-legged stool that makes for knowing the way forward.
Sam Berg Regina, SK
The Business of Growing a Church p. 50
Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between secular life and our lives as Christians. This was an interesting read as we try to be in the world but not of the world.
@MattCattau
I had two very strong reactions to “The Business of Growing a Church.” Thankfully Crossroads is that rare church willing to set aside the “good” to resource the “better” approach to ministry. This requires courage and real leadership because most of us are comfortable with the status quo and distressed with change. However, all references to growth, including the title, related to turnout. There was no report on the number of folks who have come to Christ and no mention of spiritual growth among those in attendance. So sad. Even those who genuinely want to emphasize kingdom growth find it so easy to simply measure how many show up.
David Bugher Frederick, MD
Thank God for Those Bombs p. 88
I am only a few years older than Kim Phuc Phan Thi, and I remember the news broadcast that first aired the picture of her. I’ve thought about her with every new war—all these years—and now I know that one day, when that glorious trumpet sounds, I will meet her, and together we will worship our God and Savior forever.
Carol J. Rudicil Whitehall, MI
In Vietnam, I guarded a helicopter medivac unit and children’s medical clinic near the demilitarized zone. I have special sensitivity for what Kim Phuc Phan Thi shared about her wartime trauma and faith. We should not thank God for the napalm that burned her, knowing this was part of a tragic war, but for how God worked even through this horrific experience to draw Kim to himself.
Jim Hilt Sheboygan, WI
Oh my, I have wondered forever what happened to that innocent, poor young girl, caught in a hellish experience not of her making. To know you found Jesus and are happy and content makes me feel such joy.
Pamela Beamer Weaver
