![\"Enabling](\"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/New-Blog-Book-Review-Graphic-11.png\")
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A short review of a short book today! I was interested to read this little gem of a book aimed at equipping churches to be more inclusive of disabled people. This book – with two authors, Gordon Temple and Lin Ball, is a product of “Torch Trust”, an international Christian organization serving people with sight loss – website at http:\/\/www.torchtrust.org – and its pretty cool to note on the back that this book is “published simultaneously in giant print, Braille and audio formats<\/i>“. This book is a brilliant one, providing useful information, inspiration, and sample bible studies.<\/p>\n
One of the most useful parts of\u00a0 <\/span>this slim volume are the various sections on WHAT disability is – providing a full picture, and equipping those of us who are ignorant (me) to think better about disabled people. There is a brilliant section, drawn from the Lausanne 2010 Cape Town commitment, which gives a real sense of cross-denominational authority to the book – and will hopefully stifle any criticism. There is also a useful section on holding an accessibility audit – many churches (and this is my experience too) are not particularly well thought out for disabled people – beyond perhaps a dated pa\/hearing loop – often because of historically small church attendance by those less able.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The meat of this book is in the seven bible studies that can be used. The titles give a useful nod as to what they are about, so I will share them here, without ruining the content;<\/p>\n “1: Knowing we’re made in his image.<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>2: Fearfully and wonderfully made.<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>3: Standing up for justice.<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>4: Experiencing God in togetherness.<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>5: Entering the Gate called Beautiful.<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>6: Living with diversity.<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>7: Going to the great banquet.”<\/i><\/p>\n I don’t know about you, but each of those presents – even as ideas – a great set of challenges to the able bodied parts of the Church.<\/p>\n Framing the book, and interwoven into it, are quotes and stories from a bunch of people that the book introduces early on; “Quoted on the Disability Wall<\/i>“. The range of names here is impressive, witha a variety of people: from Susan Boyle to Irenaeus, Helen Keller to John Stott. Each of the individuals named and quoted in this book has fascinating and crucial experience\/knowledge\/insight onto this issue – some of their observations and stories are worth the price of admission alone!<\/p>\n I’d highly recommend this book – especially to those in leadership, be that of a church, ministry, or even (and perhaps especially) a small group. This is a book that equips us to be inclusive in a biblical way. Its small size, impeccable credentials, and great central resource make it a valuable tool for the church. I hope people in leadership will read it, digest it, and apply it! Big thanks to SPCK<\/a> for the review copy, and for publishing this needed book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A short review of a short book today! I was interested to read this little gem of a book aimed at equipping churches to be more inclusive of disabled people. This book – with two authors, Gordon Temple and Lin … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"kt_blocks_editor_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[87,2,179,392,114,73],"tags":[120],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2433"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2435,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2433\/revisions\/2435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}