Description
Incarnational Practices for Participating in God
Equip and empower teachers and students to be like Christ by making your church school accessible this year.
Unlock faith formation for all learners with proven patterns. These aren’t only best practices for every student to learn, but they are Incarnational patterns that help all Christians to participate in God. Based on thirty years of experience in hands-on, inclusive Christian education, these ideas can be added to your existing program starting this year, with little cost to your church budget.
Summer Kinard’s work building accessible faith practices has helped hundreds of Christian families integrate their children with disabilities into the fullness of the way of Christ. Her book, Of Such is the Kingdom: A Practical Theology of Disability, laid out the principles of teaching all students. Now, see the way to make those principles work for your church school classrooms and homeschools in this simple, practical, easy to understand introduction. You will learn how to arrange classrooms, plan lessons, integrate hands-on prayers and learning, and prepare to teach and participate in the life of learning at church. Low budget? No problem. The book includes links to free printables and explains how to use the resources you have on hand in new ways so that all students are included.
Teachers (and teaching parents) who truly long to enhance their students’ relationship with God and with each other; who are also willing to humble themselves and learn alongside/from their students; will do well to read this book and begin to apply its practices. Its pages offer inspiration, practical examples, and resources beyond the book itself that will aid to that end. This book will be an encouragement to all who read it, while also offering readily-available tools for implementing its ideas. -Kristina Wenger, Orthodox Christian Sunday School Teachers blog
About the Author
Summer Kinard, M.Div., Th.M., author of Of Such is the Kingdom: A Practical Theology of Disability (Ancient Faith, 2019) and the popular disability resource blog at SummerKinard.com, brings the wisdom and insights she has gained through decades of accessible, hands-on teaching in the church. As a diagnosed autistic & ADD author and mother of neurodiverse children, Summer has lived the faith that she teaches. She serves as Sunday School Director at her family’s home parish of St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Katy, Texas, where she has implemented the Accessible Church School model.
Becky P –
Accessible Church School is an absolutely fantastic and fast read for people looking for practical Sunday School set-ups, lessons, and activities at a variety of price points from free on up. I expected this book to be an explanation of specific ways that teachers could accommodate specific disabilities—and there are some mentions of this, like soft flooring for those who might fall—but the beauty in this book is that the concepts and practices discussed in it increase access to all children, by helping the reader consider how kids respond to different stimuli and what may help them to feel comfortable and able to learn and love God in the classroom. There are many beautiful decorating ideas and classroom procedures, as simple as having silk flowers at the door for children to place in front of an icon as they pray. There are also lots of ideas that would work well for youth group events and even church fair activities. Since the book is such a quick read (half concepts and activities, half photographs of possible layouts, social stories, and other useful visuals), and packed with useful info, I HIGHLY recommend it for the busy parent, teacher, or youth group leader.