What I learned at the Preachers Conference - and what you should learn too.

Leah Whicker, Pastor Lamar Hardwick, and me before our marathon sprint.

Last week Leah and I got to take part in something amazing. It was a national ministry conference made just for lead pastors. It's called the "Preachers Conference," and this year its theme was all about disability and the church. Every speaker who donned the stage or led a workshop shared about why accessible church matters. As far as I know, this is the first national lead pastors conference anywhere to be exclusively about disability. WOAH!!!

We were thrilled to be on the speaking team and presented our topic, "Making the Church Work for the Whole Flock—Adapting Church Policies for Disability," with gusto. (adapted policies are my favorite topic, so I was extra excited!) But it was one of the keynote addresses by Pastor Lamar Hardwick, which would turn out to be my biggest takeaway of the conference.

You see, Pastor Hardwick, also known as the "Autism Pastor," often shares about his experience living with autism and his perspective on disability. He has actually written a few books on the subject and is a widely sought-after speaker. At the conference, he delivered two very powerful talks. The second one, which closed out the conference, was especially feisty (my favorite kind of talk.) And he pointed out the need not just for compassion, but for justice for the disability community. How, for too long, much of the church has ignored the realities that people with disabilities face and continues to do things the same old way because that is the way they have always been done. How not just wheelchair-inaccessible stages need to be torn down, but also policies and procedures that ignore the needs of individuals with disabilities need to be torn up (I told you this guy could preach!).

During his sermon, the crowd began to get loud with agreement as he spoke about how people with disabilities, who already have more on their plate than everyone else, are also responsible for advocating for themselves just to get their basic needs met, and this is because most systems are designed for neurotypical and physically able people only. At this, Leah and I joined in the clapping crowd, completely unaware that only hours later we would see this unfold in real life.

After the conference ended, Leah, Lamar, and I shared an Uber to the airport and feasted on some really tasty Kansas City BBQ (photo above). Then Leah and I got on one plane, and Lamar got on another. Our plane was scheduled to land in TN for a really quick turnover to our connecting flight home. Leah had been a little nervous about this because it was a really tight turnaround, and she was afraid we might miss it. But I figured we would be fine. However, when we landed, we found out that our gate had changed, and now our really quick turnaround connecting flight was all the way across the airport. WHAT?

And this is when we sprang into action. As soon as the seatbelt signs went off, we leapt from our seats, grabbed our bags, and pushed our way towards the front of the line in a way that I hadn't moved since Grateful Dead concerts back in the 90s. We then loaded ourselves up with luggage like two pack mules and booked it across the airport, weaving in and out of leisurely passengers with reasonable connecting flight times. After what felt like forever, we finally made it to the gate with minutes to spare and breathlessly (me) collapsed into our seats on the plane.

It was then that Leah turned to me and said, "This was what Lamar was talking about. If we had a disability, we would have missed our flight." Boom. There it is.

She was right. If we were wheelchair users, we would have had to wait till everyone else was off the flight before even getting started. If we had a physical disability that required us to move at a slower pace, we would have never made it to the gate on time. If we had autism and needed time to adjust to changes and crowded environments, we would not have had the time to acclimate to the unexpected rush. It was only because we don't have a disability that we were able to succeed in a system that is not designed for everyone. And that hit us hard.

But what hit me even harder was this. If I had not just listened to Pastor Hardwick's sermon about how the first step in justice is noticing that it is even needed, I probably wouldn't have thought about it. Even though I had just feistily given a talk about inclusive policies, myself, earlier in the day.

And so this is what I learned (and you should too.) The more we talk about the hidden things that make life harder for people with disabilities the more we notice them all around us. And this is how change happens. This is why I am so grateful for conferences, like the NTS Preachers Conference, where voices like Pastor Lamar Hardwick's are heard. Why I am grateful for advocates like our WW Talks guest, Dan Vander Plaats, who remind us that culture change starts in the mirror. And why I am grateful for each of you who support our mission at Wonderful Works Ministry to help equip churches to support families affected by disability. Because every step forward in the accessibility movement is a step forward for all.

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Our WW Talks Podcast episode with Dan Vander Plaats will be available October 1st.

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To learn more about Pastor Lamar Hardwick and his work visit his website - https://autismpastor.com

To download the Talking Points from our talk on "Disability Policies"

WW Preacher's Conference Handouts.pdf

Download PDF • 468KB

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