From Disability to Adaptation: Rethinking Church Service

Adaptation At Church

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we often discuss magnifying our callings, or in other words, filling our church jobs with energy and extra effort. I have a new job at church that I had never heard of before I got it. They call it a “disability specialist”. And for a long time, I have been filling my calling based on its title. But I realized this week that I need to change how I am going about it. Instead of focusing on disabilities, I need to seek to adapt meetings to anything or anyone that will make it easier to feel the spirit. I need to become an adaptation specialist, not a disability specialist.

What Have We Implemented?

What kind of adaptations can make church easier for folks to participate? Technology has been a wonderful help for our ward. We have started having a microphone in the Fast and Testimony Meeting so that folks who have limited mobility can bear their testimony from their seats. We have also added microphones for teachers in both Relief Society and Priesthood meetings to help those who can’t hear as well.

And thanks to the miracle of broadcasting technology, those who are homebound or at home with an illness can watch the Sacrament meeting even if they can’t attend in person. It keeps the ward connected. I’ve often enjoyed that benefit.

I honestly feel the shorter meeting schedule the church implemented in 2018 has greatly helped attention spans and attending church in general. Since the meetings are shorter, the lessons are more condensed. To save time from all the announcements that used to take half the class time, we now have emailed newsletters.

Another cool adaptation our Bishop has started is aimed at home-bound folks. We have a lot of retirees in our Ward (congregation). Many of them are homebound, and since they don’t make it out to church, our Bishop wanted to be sure everyone got to bear their testimonies.

So he has requested that anyone interested write down their testimony and email it, or mail it in. Now he reads those testimonies either during the Testimony meeting or throughout the month during the Sacrament meeting. That is a huge adaptation, and one that blesses a lot of people.

Primary adaptation

The Primary has implemented several adaptations for the kids. The younger kids sit next to a bigger kid so that they can both feel supported. There are fidget toys and lots of movement during song time. A shorter song time and lesson time have been a gift for all the kids since they used to be an hour of singing and an hour of class. Now it is 30 minutes of each, and it is much easier to keep a kid’s attention for 30 minutes than it is for an hour.

Now that I am seeing this as an adaptation calling, I am no longer limiting myself to those with disabilities. And I have to ask myself, what other adaptations can we make for the benefit of those in our Ward family?

Previously, I have sat in different classes and observed to see if there is anything I can recommend to help. But now I think it would be wise to visit each family in our congregation to see if they have anything they are struggling with. It’s often too busy at church to get to every person, so this will be a project that could take some time. But I feel it is worthwhile.

What will you do?

The same concept can be applied to any church job. Everything from the biggest job to the smallest is all about showing our love for God and His children. I have found that what we should do in our callings is not always spelled out, but God will guide us. He wants our success, and He asked us to do these church jobs because He needs us. It may be the Bishop asking you to fill the calling, but we both know it’s God’s work, so it’s God doing the asking. So, how would you expand your calling?