For many people with disabilities and their families, involvement in a congregation provides an important source of spiritual connections, community, and support. Yet congregations often express uncertainty about how to support meaningful participation for these members of their faith community. We used “community conversations” as a methodology for identifying potential pathways through which congregations—individually and collectively—might foster inclusion and belonging for people with disabilities and their families. We analyzed the nearly 1000 ideas generated by 175 participants representing an array of local congregations within two distinct counties in Tennessee. Their recommendations fell within 23 categories spanning five themes: disability-specific efforts, internal activities, external activities, influencers, and resources. Attendees’ impressions of their own congregation’s actions and attitudes related to including people with disabilities were quite mixed. However, they strongly affirmed this approach to community dialogue and considered it to be fruitful. We offer recommendations for future research at the intersection of faith and disability and suggest ways in which congregations might move forward in this aspect of their ministry.

Congregations have long strived to serve the communities gathering both within and beyond the boundaries of their buildings. This double posture of inward and outward attention reflects decussate desires. On the one hand, congregations actively create contexts in which their members can come together in community for worship, learning, discipleship, support, and fellowship. At the same time, they often invest substantially in meeting pressing needs in the communities that surround their congregation. People with disabilities and their families comprise core members of both communities.

Nearly one in five Americans (18.7%) identifies as having a disability (Brault 2012). Although disability can be defined in myriad ways, approximately 41.5 million people identify as having disabilities related to the physical domain (e.g., upper or lower body limitations), 16.8 million related to the mental domain (e.g., autism, intellectual disability, dementia, or developmental disabilities), and 15.7 million related to the communication domain (e.g., visual, hearing, or speech impairments). Almost two fifths (38.5%) of people with disabilities report an impact in more than one of these domains. Moreover, nearly one in three families (30.9%) has at least one relative with a disability (Wong 2005). Such metrics confirm that the communities congregations are committed to serving include substantial numbers of people with disabilities and their families.

Research at this intersection of faith and disability is still relatively new. However, findings from available studies coalesce around several key points. First, religious faith holds an important place in the lives of many people with disabilities and their families. Several qualitative studies have highlighted the salience of spirituality and congregational involvement for people with a range of disabilities (e.g., Lifshitz et al. 2009; Liu et al. 2014; Turner et al. 2004). Moreover, quantitative studies indicate an almost identical percentage of Americans with and without disabilities consider their faith to be an important aspect of their lives (e.g., National Organization on Disability 2004). For parents and caregivers of children with disabilities, the place of faith can also be prominent and provide an important source of support (e.g., Boehm et al. 2015; Poston and Turnbull 2004; Speraw 2006).

Second, involvement in congregational activities can be much more limited for people with disabilities than for people without disabilities. For example, a national survey of 1789 people with and without disabilities found that 45% of respondents who identified as having a severe disability reported attending a place of worship at least monthly compared to 57% of respondents without disabilities (Kessler Foundation 2010). In their study of 12,000 individuals with intellectual disability receiving publically funded services, Carter et al. (2015) found that more than half of the adults had not attended any type of religious service in the prior month. Barriers of awareness, attitude, architecture, and access have all emerged as factors that may hinder desired involvement (Carter 2007; Minton and Dodder 2003; Schultz 2012).

Third, the reception people with disabilities and their families receive within a faith community can be uneven. Studies exploring the congregational experiences of people with disabilities and their families illustrate both extravagant welcome and deep wounding (e.g., Jacober 2010; Richardson and Stoneman 2015). In their study of 433 parents of young people with disabilities, Carter et al. (2016c) found that 70% agreed they were very satisfied with how welcoming others at their congregation are of people with intellectual disability or autism; the rest disagreed. Likewise, Melinda Ault et al. (2013) reported that nearly one third (32%) of parents in their study indicated they had changed congregations because their son or daughter with an intellectual and developmental disability was not welcomed or included.

Fourth, congregations can be inconsistent in the supports and opportunities they offer to people with disabilities and their families. Carter et al. (2016c) further found that less than one fifth of parents indicated the following supports were available in their congregation: support for their child with a disability during religious education programs, respite care, congregation-wide disability awareness efforts, a support group for parents, or transportation to congregational activities. Melinda Ault et al. (2013) reported that more than half (55.6%) of parents had kept their children with disabilities from participating in a religious activity because support was not provided.

How might congregations—individually and in collaboration with others—move in ways that reflect a commitment to being places of welcome and belonging for people with disabilities and their families (Carter 2016)? A small but growing collection of studies has highlighted potential pathways. Most of this research has used surveys or interviews to (a) examine the perspectives of a particular stakeholder group or (b) explore selected dimensions of congregational life (e.g., religious education, youth ministry, building accessibility). For example, participants have included parents (Ault et al. 2013; Carter et al. 2016a, c; Howell and Pierson 2010; Jacober 2010; O’Hanlon 2013), individuals with disabilities (Liu et al. 2014; Shogren and Rye 2005), and clergy (LaRocque and Eigenbrood 2005; Patka and McDonald 2015). Missing from the research literature is work that integrates the perspectives of multiple stakeholders across all dimensions of faith community life.

Research in the field of pastoral psychology is marked both by its methodological diversity and its interdisciplinary approaches (Hood and Belzen 2013; VandeCreek et al. 2008). The present study applied community conversations as a novel methodological approach to understanding how congregations might move in relation to supporting people with disabilities and their families. A “community conversation” is a structured approach for engaging diverse stakeholders in generating potential solutions to a pressing issue facing a particular community (Carter et al. 2016b). Drawing upon the World Café model (Brown and Isaacs 2005), each two-hour event integrates a series of small- and large-group conversations in which the best ideas of a cross-section of community stakeholders are invited, shared, and catalogued. Extensive notes are taken to capture the breadth of solutions generated by attendees across the four rounds of discussion (see Method section below). Emerging from the fields of special education and disability studies, community conversations have been used to identify ways in which schools might enhance educational services, communities expand integrated employment, and families advocate for inclusive opportunities (e.g., Carter et al. 2012; Dutta et al. 2016; Trainor et al. 2012). In contrast with quantitative survey studies that elicit feedback on a predetermined list of possible actions, community conversations encourage new ideas to emerge and evolve through iterative conversations. And unlike qualitative interviews done individually, community conversations capitalize on the generativity that comes when multiple stakeholders dialogue with one another (Carter and Bumble in press; Trainor in press). In other words, this interpretivistic design strives to engage a large and diverse set of stakeholders in an iterative process of problem-solving aimed at an issue of pressing importance to all participants.

This study focused on fostering inclusion and belonging among people with disabilities and their families in faith communities. We hosted community conversation events in two diverse counties in Tennessee. We sought to answer three research questions. First, what strategies and themes emerge when communities intentionally dialogue about expanding inclusion and belonging for people with disabilities? Second, how do attendees view the commitment of their own congregations to support the participation of this segment of their community? Third, how do they view these community conversation events?