God’s Heart for People with Special Needs and the Church

Welcome and Introduction

• Tribe Church has been supporting Upside Farm for the past quarter

• Today’s Guest speaker: Scott Habeeb, childhood friend of Karl

  • Grew up together in Virginia, attended the same church, played soccer together

  • Now lives in Salem, Virginia

  • 30-year educator, former high school principal

  • Executive Director and Founder of Masterpiece Alliance (Roanoke Valley, VA)

• Scott’s core passion: everybody belongs and has a friend

Core Message: You Are Loved and Made for Mission

• God’s message for the room: “You are loved, collectively and individually”

• Every person is a “unique image-bearing Kingdom revealer,” made in God’s image for purpose

• Enemy’s lie: you’re not loved, not enough, not special

  • Counter-truth: “You are enough because He is enough”

• God created people as masterpieces, with no qualifiers

  • Abilities, disabilities, strengths, weaknesses: all made in God’s image

  • Ephesians 2:10: created for good works, co-laborers with God

• Enemy’s strategy: keep people in “savior mode,” never “king mode”

  • Settle for Sunday attendance and moral living, never living on mission

Universal Design and the Church’s Call

• Universal design: build for the “farthest out” person, and it benefits everyone

  • Examples: ramps (help stroller pushers, book carriers, kids), subtitles (help non-deaf viewers)

• God’s church is designed the same way: built for the least, better for all

• Jesus’s ministry mandate (Isaiah 61): good news to the poor, release to captives, sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed

• Matthew 25: “When you did it to the least of these, you did it to me”

• Luke 14: Jesus commands inviting the disabled, poor, lame, and blind to banquets, not friends who can repay

The Disability Gap and Why It Matters

• One third of homes include someone living with a disability

• Adults with disabilities face a “cliff” at age 21 when government services end

  • Relationships, community, and belonging drop off sharply

  • Parents either work full-time to connect their adult child, or the child sits home doing nothing

• Over half of families with disabled members have left churches feeling they don’t belong

• People with disabilities are statistically underrepresented in church congregations

• Scott’s Masterpiece Alliance: 150+ adult friends with disabilities; “my life is richer”

The Five Stages of Changing Attitudes

• Framework from ELIM; a journey toward Kingdom life in the disability world:

  1. Ignorance: simply unaware the isolation exists

  2. Pity: awareness triggers an emotional “that’s not right” response

  3. Access: begin inviting and removing barriers (e.g., “stand if you are able”)

  4. Caring: serving people with disabilities, though still hierarchical

  5. Inclusion: people can genuinely be present and participate

• Beyond inclusion: friendship (flattens hierarchy, mutual giving) and belonging

  • Belonging: being missed when absent, having a saved seat, having a role

  • Emmy (flag-waver) named as example: not “cute,” she is a worship leader with a role to play

• Goal: co-laboring, where people with disabilities go on mission side by side with the church

Upside Farm: Vision and How to Get Involved

• Founded by Karl and Julie; Emmy (their daughter with Down syndrome) was the catalyst

  • Julie’s NICU moment: a vision of Jesus saying, “Julie, how do you like your gift?”

• Vision: a place where adults with special needs use gifts, talents, and vocational skills with purpose

  • Activities: pottery, brownies, jewelry, art, pies, coffee shop, event barn, crop growing and greenhouse

  • Everything done by “citizens”; supervisors make only slight modifications as needed

• Hope Night: monthly gathering, always the second Friday of the month

  • Next Hope Night: Friday, September 11th

  • Sign up and info at upsidefarm.com

• Three ways to get involved:

  1. Pray

  2. Volunteer (Hope Night and beyond)

  3. Give financially (land purchase and buildings needed)

• No in-person service next week; online video available; back in person July 12th

Next Steps

• Sign up to volunteer at Hope Night

  • Next Hope Night is Friday, September 11th. Register and get info at upsidefarm.com.

• Invite participants and volunteers to Hope Night

  • Reach out to anyone who might want to volunteer or would benefit as a participant.

• Explore financial support for Upside Farm

  • Land purchase and building construction are the current funding needs; speak directly with Karl and Julie.