Invisible Mission Field Made Visible: Conferences focus on ministry to the invisible in our communities

Thursday, June 30, 2011 

By Linda Teeple

"It will change your view of missions forever," Marshall Lawrence predicted, prior to presenting "America's Invisible People," a conference at NAC 2011. Rev. Lawrence led class participants on a whirlwind, ninety-minute journey into an unseen world most people know almost nothing about. There they encountered a mission field unseen and untouched by the church—the largest unreached people group in North America and the most spiritually-neglected people on earth.

Who are these invisible people? "The Deaf community," states Marshall, "which, in America, is an estimated six million people." Less than 2 percent of Deaf people profess Christ as Savior, and fewer than 4 percent of churches offer Deaf ministries. "Do they deserve to be told of God's grace?" Marshall asked participants. "If so, why doesn't the church reach out to them?"

Lawrence, executive director of Silent Blessings, a ministry to the Deaf community, and based in Anderson, Indiana, has a passion for bringing Christ to this invisible population and the desire to open the eyes and ears of Christians to the vast and vital mission field within the Deaf community.

In "Outreach, Community, and Reconciliation: Insights from People with Disabilities," Rev. Sarah J. Blake drew on material from two chapters she contributed to Discipleship That Transforms, a 2011 publication of Warner Press. "Many people with disabilities are seekers," she explained. "This was a discussion about disability, but it was also about people skills that we learn while interacting with people who happen to have disabilities."

Blake expresses her calling in the terms "growing strong" through life experiences, including disability, believing with Paul that, "suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope" (Romans 5:3–4 niv). Blake lives out her calling via her talents in singing, composing music, writing, public speaking, and the development of her website, www.growingstrong.org.

Lawrence, who co-hosted the discussion, would like to see more people with disabilities experience positive relationships in the church. "People with disabilities need to be embraced into the full fellowship of the church," stated Lawrence, "and that requires some new tools and new vision."