KIRKSVILLE – A task force appointed by Southern Baptist messengers last year is prepared to give a report at this summer’s annual meeting in Orlando, urging more special needs ministries be established. They are trying to identify ways SBC entities and state conventions can assist churches to reach more people with disabilities.
Several Baptist churches in Missouri have classes and ministries for individuals with special needs. Most are geared for adults and sometimes teens. And often children with special needs are mainstreamed in regular Sunday school classes but with additional helpers and accommodations. A rising need is support for those who are on some level of the autism spectrum—also called people with neurodivergent needs. Professionals also refer to people in this category as Level 1, 2 or 3 autism, depending on the level of impairment.
Marci Campbell, a member of the task force, was the wife of a pastor in Bend, Oregon 10 years ago. The church office received a call from a mother. The message was stark. “I have a child with autism. We have been asked not to return to four different churches because of the behaviors. Would we be welcome at your church?” The office contacted Marci, who had a son with autism and had extensive experience with special needs ministry at LifeWay Christian Resources and the Tennessee Baptist Convention. She reached out to the mother and said, “Give me two weeks.” She stayed in contact with the mom. And in two Sundays they found people familiar with autism, had training, set up a class and thus began a thriving special needs ministry at Highland Baptist Church.
The Pathway asked a few churches how they operate ministries to special needs individuals and what they can do to include more people with varying levels of autism.
First Baptist Church, Kirksville, has been reaching out to the special needs population in their north Missouri city for many years. Joyce Lundstrom is one of the teachers of the “Sunshine Crew” class. They use the Access Bible study curriculum, published by LIfeWay Christian Resources, which offers teaching plans for special needs adults.
Lundstrom said a typical class starts out as, “We sing, have prayer requests, then some Bible study and end with a craft and a snack. We watch out for special diet needs.” She and Peggy Hettinger lead the class. Sometimes they are assisted by medical students who attend A.T. Still University, an osteopathic school there.
She remarked: “It is a joy to see faces when they recognize they have heard Bible stories in the past. We try to relate them to today. It gives us a sense of accomplishment.” Lundstrom added, they try to have birthday fellowships and parties every now and then for the class members. In the past they have held Vacation Bible School sessions for them.
At First Baptist Church, Eldon, the class is called “Good Neighbors.” They have about six regular attenders and then once a month they meet for a meal and game night. Usually about 30 attend, including several from area group homes. Carol Strange and Stacey Rader lead the ministry.
Mrs. Strange said right now they are studying the history of the Old Testament prophets, and they’ve been discussing Jeremiah.
She said they started 22 years ago with one participant. The Sunday school director asked if a class could be started. Strange said she worked in a group home for special needs individuals. After praying about it, she got involved, along with another lady, Charlotte Buster.
They have students as old as in their 50s and 60s but some in their 20s. Some have received Jesus in the classes and game nights. She said they try to teach on about a 5th grade level so the learners can understand it well. They give them a lot of help with the reading and believe it actually helps many with their reading abilities. Some are blind, and they have some on the autism spectrum.
Sherri Wirt, of St. Louis, leads a ministry in the Concord Baptist Church where her husband is the senior pastor. They do have one class for younger adults and several of them have autism. But she emphasized that their church tries very hard to be “inclusive in many ways.”
They asked themselves the question, “Who is God bringing to our church?” And they discovered that special needs population and their parents find that church is a “hard space.”
Pastor and Mrs. Wirt know this very personally since they have two children with special needs. It seemed like the right thing to begin a ministry when the Wirt family moved there, but Sherri said she really didn’t want to totally start a new thing in the church, since many people already worked hard. So they just tried to make the church a place where anyone can be included, no matter what their needs.
She said a lot of children, teens and adults are “mainstreamed” in classes and activities. But they build in “safe places” for them to withdraw for a moment if they get overwhelmed or need a break.
Wirt told of a day when a child with autism was having a “meltdown.” She was summoned to help the child and was in the hallway trying to calm the child. The church security team also responded, but they stood back at a distance so as not to further overwhelm the child. She was proud of their limited and cautious response.
Mrs. Wirt works for the “Joni and Friends” organization which exists to help churches become more inclusive to people with disabilities. She said that organization has training materials to help churches get started in this area.
Sandra Peoples, of Houston, Texas, was one of the members of the SBC Disability Task Force. She said two out of seven families in the U.S have a disabled family member. She also cited a Clemson University study showing familes with a disabled child are 8 times less likely to attend a church than a family without a special needs child.
Peoples is pursuing a P.h.D degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and teaches classes there on special needs ministry. She is the author of “Accessible Church: A Gospel-Centered Vision for Including People with Disabilities and Their Families” (Crossway, 2025).
The draft of the SBC Disablity Task Force Report can be found at https://www.baptistpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Disability-Ministry-Task-Force-Report_DRAFT.pdf.