Kirjahaku

Moving beyond traditional human developmental theories, pastor and Christian education theorist Brett Webb-Mitchell uses stories and analysis to walk with readers on a road toward rediscovering an ancient Christian custom that may ultimately lead to new roads in Christian education. This important work encapsulates a new understanding of faith development in the context of pilgrimage and examines how traditional human developmental theories have been used to categorize individuals instead of celebrating their unique characteristics, which reflect their creation in the image of God. Webb-Mitchell puts forth a challenge to the church to work toward a broader educational mission to be a community of Christ's pilgrim people, in which change and growth are discussed in the rhetoric and practice of pilgrimage.

A church has built an accessibility ramp and perhaps refitted its restrooms to accommodate a wheelchair. Now what? This new resource by a noted author of several books on people with disabilities offers a theological and practical approach for congregations, with clear, targeted strategies for full inclusion of all members, recognizing and using the gifts that each member brings to the congregations life together.

""Dancing with Disabilities is about the ever-changing relationship between two groups...locked like dancers in either a passionate embrace or a dance of separareness, trying to move to the rhythm of the music that one or the other hears."" - from the Introduction Imagine what a church could be if those who are ""disabled"" and those who are ""able-bodied"" were to understand them-selves to be equal partners in the faith community. Writing personally and passionately on this compelling subject, Brett Webb-Mitchell relates the struggles and triumphs, frustrations and joys, of the children and adults with disabilities whom he has met through his ministry. It is these persons who put a genuinely human face to ""disabilities"" - and those presence challenges the church to welcome all God's children to their rightful place in the Christian community. BRETT WEBB-MITCHELL teaches at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. He is the author of God Plays Piano Too: The Spiritual Lives of Disabled Children and Unexpected Guests at God's Banquet: Welcoming People with Disabilities into the Church.