{"id":3005,"date":"2012-08-20T16:14:53","date_gmt":"2012-08-20T20:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=3005"},"modified":"2012-08-20T16:14:53","modified_gmt":"2012-08-20T20:14:53","slug":"whats-in-your-tool-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/08\/whats-in-your-tool-box.html","title":{"rendered":"What’s in your tool box?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Of course, there are many differences between men and women; but one of the biggest differences is the attitude toward tools.\u00a0 Men love tools and love inventing tools.\u00a0 There is a tool for every job a man has to do.\u00a0 Did you know there is a special wrench used exclusively for adjusting spark plugs?\u00a0 Another one for adjusting the carburetor on your car?\u00a0 There is even a widget that is only needed to replace the screens of your house.<\/p>\n

Women on the other hand love to work with whatever is available.\u00a0 Give a woman a metal nail file, a butcher knife and a pair of scissors; and she\u00a0will attempt to\u00a0conquer the world.<\/p>\n

At times those of us in specialized ministries are told how\u00a0special<\/em>\u00a0we are because we do what we do.\u00a0 Usually, we smile and thank the person.\u00a0 However, we know that this is actually not the truth.\u00a0 At The Special Gathering, we work with people who are mentally challenged.\u00a0 Our members are more like other adults than they are different.\u00a0 Even though we do have different tools in our tool box\u00a0from those used in the normal\u00a0congregational\u00a0setting.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>First, we must insure that our members are safe.\u00a0 I jokingly say, \u201cI\u2019m the only pastor in South Brevard or Indian River County who carries rubber gloves in my suit pockets.\u201d\u00a0 But rubber gloves are merely the beginning.\u00a0 We must check our members when they arrive and when they leave.\u00a0 We must insure that they are safe about each half hour by doing a visual check on many of our members.<\/p>\n

Second, we need some training in how to teach.\u00a0 Our members learn on a third to fourth grade level but socially they are kind of stuck in junior high.\u00a0\u00a0Nevertheless, they have all the concerns and worries of any other adult.\u00a0 Combining those skills while understanding that our members must be treated with the dignity of any other adult, does take some fine tuning of your teaching skill set.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Third, we have transporatation issues.\u00a0 Today, I\u2019m minus a van to pick up my members because the church that lends us their vans needs to use it.\u00a0 I have to rearrange my transportation schedule.\u00a0\u00a0Our members don\u2019t drive.\u00a0\u00a0If we don\u2019t pick them up, they probably won\u2019t get there, no matter how much they want to attend.\u00a0 We have learned, that if we pick people up, the attendance rate is\u00a080 to 90 percent.\u00a0 If we depend on others, that is,\u00a0support staff to provide the transportation,\u00a0their attendance drops to 30 to 40 percent.\u00a0 And the longer support staff is used, the greater the decrease in attendance.<\/p>\n

Of course, there are other issues that face us.\u00a0\u00a0On the other hand,\u00a0there are some pretty important things that we don\u2019t face.\u00a0 Our members are extremely grateful for anything we do for them.\u00a0 We often say that we are the only pastors in town who are loved by all of our members.\u00a0 Part of our tool box doesn\u2019t have to be a way to pacify our parishioners.<\/p>\n

If you look at statistics, our\u00a0congregations\u00a0<\/em>are fairly large.\u00a0 But no matter how successful we become, we don\u2019t have to be concerned about anyone else wanting to take our jobs.\u00a0 In the years, I held positions in the local church, there was always\u00a0someone\u00a0aspiring to\u00a0take\u00a0my position or wanting to tell me how to do the job I was doing.\u00a0 At Special Gathering, we have no sandpaper attachment needed to smooth over the feelings of people who want to take our positions.<\/p>\n

Also, our members are pretty stable emotionally.\u00a0 There are some members who have a dual-diagnosis but they are definitely in the minority.\u00a0 When I first ventured in to this ministry, I was warned by my pastor to beware of this population because they are draining.\u00a0 Then I explained that I would be working with people who are mentally challenged and that they are surprisingly emotionally stable. \u201cOh,\u201d he said with a grin.\u00a0 \u201cThen\u00a0you\u2019ll be working with people who are less draining than I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yep, those of us who are on staff and volunteer at Special Gathering believe that we have the best positions in the Church.\u00a0 We are working with people who are grateful, helpful and pretty stable.\u00a0 Weighing the pros and cons, I\u2019ll keep my tool chest.<\/p>\n

What are some of the ways your church is different from the members of The Special Gathering or other special needs ministries?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of course, there are many differences between men and women; but one of the biggest differences is the attitude toward tools.\u00a0 Men love tools and love inventing tools.\u00a0 There is a tool for every job a man has to do.\u00a0 Did you know there is a special wrench used exclusively for adjusting spark plugs?\u00a0 Another…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5,20,3,182,40,186,49,16,8,85,263,4,17],"tags":[690,21,688,7,699,715,701,694,689,474,6,700,475],"class_list":["post-3005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autism-spectrum","category-christianity","category-church","category-developmental-disabilities","category-disability","category-faith","category-hope","category-inspiration","category-intellectual-disability","category-mentally-challenged-community","category-prayer-2","category-redemption","category-simple-truths","category-teaching","tag-autism-spectrum","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-developmental-disabilities-2","tag-faith","tag-hope","tag-inspiration","tag-intellectual-disability","tag-mentally-challenged-community","tag-ministry-tools","tag-simple-scriptural-truths","tag-spirituality","tag-tool-box"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat's in your tool box? - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/08\/whats-in-your-tool-box.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What's in your tool box? - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Of course, there are many differences between men and women; but one of the biggest differences is the attitude toward tools.\u00a0 Men love tools and love inventing tools.\u00a0 There is a tool for every job a man has to do.\u00a0 Did you know there is a special wrench used exclusively for adjusting spark plugs?\u00a0 Another…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/08\/whats-in-your-tool-box.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-20T20:14:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/specialgathering.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/08\/tools.jpg?w=128&h=193\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. Howard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What's in your tool box? - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/08\/whats-in-your-tool-box.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What's in your tool box? - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","og_description":"Of course, there are many differences between men and women; but one of the biggest differences is the attitude toward tools.\u00a0 Men love tools and love inventing tools.\u00a0 There is a tool for every job a man has to do.\u00a0 Did you know there is a special wrench used exclusively for adjusting spark plugs?\u00a0 Another…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/08\/whats-in-your-tool-box.html","og_site_name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","article_published_time":"2012-08-20T20:14:53+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/specialgathering.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/08\/tools.jpg?w=128&h=193"}],"author":"Linda G. 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