The first-ever Special Needs Ministry Conference was held on 31 May 2025 at Bukit Panjang Methodist Church (BPMC). Organised by the Chinese Annual Conference (CAC) Board of Family Life, in conjunction with the Koinonia Inclusion Network (KIN) and the Methodist School of Music (MSM), it attracted many participants who were keen to gain biblical and practical insights to fostering a disability-inclusive church.
From the start, the conference welcomed participants with disabilities. The use of sign language interpreters, programme visuals with check boxes to show the progress of the conference and pre-lunch “social stories” were small, yet meaningful, touches to better include persons with special needs or disabilities.
The parable of the paralytic man
The conference began with an opening message by Bishop Philip Lim. He started by praising God’s hand in helping to establish ACS (Academy)—a collaboration between the ACS family and Methodist Welfare Services. He also commended BPMC for how they had “taken the bold step to plant a preaching point in the school”. Taking inspiration from Mark 2:1-12 about Jesus and the paralytic man, he discussed the harsh reality of running disability ministries, and highlighted that it is a work that must be carried out by the entire Body of Christ and not just by a few individuals.
He elaborated on how the paralytic man’s disability was not due to him sinning but instead was present so that God’s work could be revealed through him when Jesus healed him. Mentioning the paralytic man’s four friends as well, Bishop Lim had this to say: “What is important is their faith in Jesus. And the Bible placed a lot of focus on the exceptional trouble they took to get this man to Jesus. You can say their actions were an expression of their faith in God … when we come to see Jesus we must come in faith. We come with expectancy. And when we encounter obstacles, we do not give up. We try another way. I think their coming with expectancy caused them to think of another way to get to Jesus …”
He ended his message by challenging participants to reflect on whether they would be willing to bear the cost to help friends with disabilities.
What a disability-church looks like
The morning plenaries conducted by Rev Leow Wen Pin from KIN afterwards built on Bishop Lim’s message.
For his first plenary, “The Missional Imperative of Disability Inclusion”, Rev Leow thoughtfully remarked that the reasons for including people with disabilities (PWDs) in church shape how we include them. He shared that if pastoral care was the sole reason to include PWDs, it could become problematic as PWDs are then seen as “needy” and “unable”.
Furthermore, when PWDs are seen as a problem, inclusion is often “half-hearted, patronising and condescending”.
“Disability inclusion is a missional care issue, not just a pastoral care issue,” Rev Leow said, urging participants to aspire to make disciples of all nations, as we are called to do (Matthew 28:19). PWDs should be seen as fellow disciples and disciple-makers.
With disability becoming a universal stage of life, Rev Leow was concerned that churches would become irrelevant if they ignored missional care. He concluded that there must be changes in how disability ministries are perceived and run as they are an essential part of the Christian mission.
The second plenary by Rev Leow titled “Being a Disability-Inclusive Church” helped participants to consider how Christians with and without special needs enable each other to flourish as disciples and disciple-makers.
Using an ABC framework (Accessibility, Belonging, Contribution) and referring to Erik Carter’s “10 Dimensions of Belonging”, Rev Leow defined Accessibility as ensuring PWDs have equal access to church areas—physically, cognitively and in processes.¹
For Belonging, he urged participants to reflect on how belonging for PWDs could be fostered, emphasising how the Church is supposed to be family in Christ. He stressed how people feel needed if they are Contributing meaningfully, and that churches must ensure that they do not fall back to a charity mindset since service is part and parcel of discipleship.
Rev Leow concluded his talk by commenting how PWDs have so much to teach us if we let them and encouraged participants to focus on the God-given mission of disability-inclusivity in church so that each step taken will bring us closer to God’s vision for his people.
Four Praxis sessions were conducted in the afternoon, each focusing on specific areas of Inclusive Worship & Liturgy, Inclusive Environments, Inclusive Discipleship and Being Communities of Care & Belonging.
Reflection questions during the plenary sessions
- What does it mean to you to see people with disabilities as disciples of Christ?
- What do you want to change or do when it comes to disability-inclusion in your own church?
- Which of the principles of inclusion do you find the hardest and why?
- What is one thing you want to do to promote inclusivity in your own church?
Committing as one body
A Closing Service led by CAC president Rev Lek Yong Teck concluded the day conference. Rev Lek invited participants to lament and repent for failing to respond in the area of special needs or setting unrealistic expectations on those with special needs. Then he invited participants to hold their origami paper hearts (made at the start of the conference) to their own hearts, symbolising their commitment to changing their mindset on disciple-making, moving towards a discipleship that is expressed with love and care for each other.
By Lianne Ong and Elliot Soh. / Photos courtesy of Chinese Annual Conference Board of Family Life
1 To learn more about the 10 Dimensions of Belonging by Erik Carter, see for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjSWNyE8aUo