How Many Disabled People Attend Your Church?

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How many disabled people attend your church? How does your church compare to society at large? Over 25% of the people in the U.S. are disabled, and notice in this graphic how the likelihood of disability increases with age: as shown here, it's about 10% of working-age adults, for those 65-74 about 35% are disabled; for those 85 and up, it's about 70%! Remember: only about 5% of those you invite to church will come, but 100% of those you take to church will come!

Is your church designed to minister to these disabled people? How can we more effectively minister to these people in our churches and society at large? What did Jesus Christ and His disciples teach and do about these people? Jesus Christ first proclaimed that His ministry would be to "the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind" (Luke 4:18-21). Then He showed His disciples how to preach the Gospel and minister to the sick, handicapped and poor (Luke 5:12-15). Next, He sent them out two by two and they practiced what He taught (Luke 9:1-2): preach the Gospel, care for the needy and heal the sick.

Our courses are called "Social Ministry of the Church" because Jesus taught His followers to minister to this same group of people - (Luke 14:12-13 and 21), and He put it into practice: "Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people" (Matthew 9:35). And in the Great Commission, Jesus didn't tell His disciples to just preach and teach the Bible and serve the Lord's Supper (although that's important!): He commanded His disciples to make more disciples and teach their disciples to OBEY ("observe" but not just watch!) everything He had taught His disciples to DO (Mat. 28:18-20).

So the Apostles selected seven deacons to carry out diakonia-ministry to the poor, widows, etc. "...and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly" (Acts 6:1-7). St. Paul taught that the bishops, pastors and deacons should equip the saints to do the work of diakonia-ministry "to build up the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:11-12). This is not just dry theory or theology: it is practical, hands-on ministry that will make the church grow!

Dear disciple, please study these courses so that you will be able to "teach others also" (2 Tim. 2:2)! Your regular interaction is required! Enter into the discussion in each lesson - don't be shy! Only in this way will you carry away from these courses new skills for your life. It is long ago proven that most real aquisition of knowledge takes place at every lesson and in discussions with the instructor and other students. If you don't participate or turn in three lessons in a row on time, according to the schedule [without advance permission of the instructor], you will be dis-enrolled.

The purpose of these courses is to prepare ministry teams to Build the ARC and serve in it.   So please ENROLL, or choose any lecture you want from the above courses, login as "guest" (password = "TryMe"), and try out our courses, or find out how to use this interactive version.

Please read How To Use These Interactive Courses -
how to login, interactive quizzes, enrollment, discuss with other students, and receive a certificate.

In all our courses, we use positive and negative audio and visual feedback to indicate if the student's answer is right or wrong. Don't hesitate to write us if you have questions about these courses, or you've found some programming mistakes! (Describe them to us in detail.) Would you like to get aquainted better with us? You can also get our free "Distance Discipleship" software to create your own courses.

Click HERE to see the course schedule for the .

Pastors and deacons: please invite people in your church to create a "diakonia-ministry team" for mutual support and encouragement. Have them enroll with you in these courses, so you all can learn how to minister to "the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind, to widows and orphans." When you finish these courses, you can build a self-financing multi-purpose Agape Restoration Community for diakonia-ministry for them, for housing and for worship. Click HERE to see three ways you can help teach these courses:
  1. You simply observe, and we lead the discussion group(s) and grade the lessons,
  2. You lead your discussion group, and we grade the lessons,
  3. You lead your discussion group and grade the lessons.

Yours sincerely,

"Dr. Bob"

Robert D. Hosken, M.Min., M.Th.S., D.Min.