Masterpiece Alliance Church Network
Click the image to learn about this workshop that will equip and inspire your church to love friends with disabilities!
The sad reality is that people with disabilities and their families often live isolated in life’s margins. Unfortunately, this reality is also true in the Church. Families with disabilities in them participate in church at a rate far lower than the rest of the population. There are just too many barriers that prevent them from feeling as though they belong.
Masterpiece Alliance (MA) is a non-profit 501c3 dedicated to creating a new reality where people with disabilities are included, welcomed, and loved! Our first step toward that vision has been to build a community of belonging for people of ALL abilities.
But shouldn’t the Church also be a place of belonging? Jesus’s command in Luke 14 to invite to the banquet those in the margins, applies directly to His church and to friends with disabilities. When Paul wrote in 1 Cor 12:22 that the weaker parts of the body are the most indispensable, we know he was including those with disabilities.
Masterpiece Alliance believes the church has the power to change the world to look more the way God intended - like His Kingdom. So our second step toward making our vision a reality has been to create the Masterpiece Alliance Church Network (MACN). Through the MACN, Masterpiece Alliance works to support and equip the Church to create spaces of belonging and Kingdom roles for friends with disabilities and their families.
Would your church like to join us on this Kingdom mission to build a new reality where all of God’s Masterpieces are included, belong, and have purpose?
The Church must be a place of belonging for everyone, regardless of ability.
Resources for Churches
Shared at MACN Events
Resources to Assess Ourselves
These tools are designed to help you gather the data you need to make sure your church is continuously growing and improving. Don’t be afraid of what you might learn. Use it, and grow.
Note: Both resource links prompt you to make a copy of a Google Doc which you can then save to your Google Drive, edit, and make your own.
Who Goes to Your Church
Use this editable Google Sheet to analyze who in your church has disabilities and to learn about their strengths, passions, and needs, as well as what their lives are like Mon-Sa. This enables your church to intentionally become a place of belonging and to ensure people find meaningful kingdom roles.What Barriers Exist in Your Church
This editable Google Form can be used as a church survey to provide the data needed to identify potential barriers that could prevent those with disabilities from feeling they belong in your church.
Resources to Keep Us Learning
To become spaces where ALL people can belong, we need to grow in our understanding of ALL people. These resources will help churches learn more about the world of disabilities.
Data about the Church and Disability (Key Ministry)
Journal Article on Inclusive Church (Erik Carter)
Behavior & the Church (Joni & Friends)
Curriculum & Guides for Churches (Ability Ministry)
MACN Organizational Partners
The MACN works to connect the local church to organizations and individuals across the country who can help on this essential mission.
Ryan Wolfe and Ability Ministry - The go-to resource for disability ministry
Christine Boyle and Invited In Podcast - where disability and faith meet
Key Ministry - promotes meaningful connection between churches and families of kids with disabilities for the purpose of making disciples of Jesus Christ.
Young Life Capernaum - creating spaces of belonging for teens and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and sharing with them the love of Jesus
Let us know if you’d like to learn more about the MACN or to get your church involved!
More about what inspires the mission of Masterpiece Alliance:
The inspiration for Masterpiece Alliance’s vision and mission is found in Ephesians 2:10:
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
From these words we believe the following:
“For we are God’s masterpiece”
We are created by God. More specifically all of us are God’s special creations, His masterpieces. Each person is uniquely and beautifully created and loved by God just as they are.“He has created us anew in Christ Jesus”
We are fully alive when we allow Jesus to do something new in and with our lives. All of us are made whole and complete only in Jesus.“So we can do the good things”
Every person is created for a purpose. We are made whole in Jesus SO we can live into our purpose. This applies to every single one of God’s masterpieces.“He planned for us long ago”
Not only do we have a purpose, but our purpose is uniquely planned for each of us by God.
Ephesians 2:10 is the source of our name, Masterpiece Alliance, and the inspiration for what we do. We want all our friends, regardless of ability, to know they are God’s special creations, that they are made whole in Jesus, and that they have an important and planned out kingdom purpose only they can fulfill.
The Church must be intentional in its efforts to make sure that no one is left out. For the Church to be the image of God on Earth, all parts of the body must be present and valued (1 Cor 12), and as Jesus commanded in Luke 14, we must intentionally ensure that no one is left out of “the banquet.”
Does this sound like a journey of significance worthy of your church’s time and efforts? Then contact us today to see how you can become part of the Masterpiece Alliance Church Network!
