This is a starting point; my first post to the Power Ministries Blog…to any “blog” for that matter. In the coming months, I’ll introduce you to people who are disabled…to issues that are critical to people with disabilities their families, to Churches providing an outreach to those people…and Churches venturing into that outreach, to advances in disabilities services, and stories about disabled people who have overcome tremendous adversity.
As an introduction for those with the question in mind, “What is Power Ministries?” or for those who might have the more specific question in mind, “Who is this guy?” Well, let me first give a brief introduction to the mission & ministry. “Power Ministries” is a number of things (dependent upon the way one would look at it); a “Faith-Based Non-Profit Organization” (chartered as a government-sanctioned 501(C)3 not-for-profit organization in 1983)…an “Independent Christian Mission”…a “Disability Ministry.” The latter is the identification that I most use to introduce Power Ministries. Our mission statement attempts to clarify what we do in a few words, “Helping people with disabilities find new purpose in life through Gods People.” Power Ministries is an outreach to people…fulfilling Christ’s “Great Commission”…you know, the one that starts out, “Go then, to all peoples everywhere…” (GNT). If you’re reading this publication, you’ve surely read or heard that biblical reference from the Gospel of Matthew. And so it is that we will continue to go…wherever God leads. And, our purpose will be to innovate and implement programs that meet the spiritual needs of people with disabilities, and their families. And further, providing educational experiences, we will train Christian Workers to meet those needs in the future.
The staff of Power Ministries is, and will remain quite small. As the (Executive) Director of the Ministry, I am the only full-time paid staff member. At the “Power House” (our headquarters), there is one other essential part-time staff member, my wife (and partner in ministry) Nancy, the Ministry Coordinator. Our Director of Resource Development, Ann Tolbert, works as a part-time staff member as well, developing curricular, promotional, and informational materials, maintaining our website and providing consultation on disability-related issues. One other full-time position, the Director of Outreach Programs, is currently vacant. That staff member provides direction & oversight of the various direct outreach programs of the ministry; the “New Purpose Retreats” program (Christian Camping), HIS Time (a local, but expanding monthly program), and the College Intern program. We hope/pray that we will be able to have that Director on board soon…very soon. As the Director of the ministry for nearly fourteen years, my training was in Psychology, Sociology & Education, with most of my service in the field of disabilities; first as a teacher in Special Education (In Jefferson County KY schools), then as an administrator in a treatment center for children with severe disabilities. I left that career to pursue full-time ministry in 1996.
To learn more about the worldwide outreach of Power Ministries, take a look at our website, www.PowerMinistries.Org. If you’d like to request specific information, you can do that by contacting us through e-mail at, Info@PowerMinistries.Org.
Why “Power” Ministries you might ask. Does that sound like a peculiar identification for a ministry whose focus is on people who are handicapped? I could cite the origination of that name by the founder of the ministry. But, I’d rather share an observation by a minister and long-time friend of Power Ministries. Here is a writing that he shared with me several years ago: Some might find “Power Ministries” an ironic name for a ministry that serves those who are handicapped; some virtually powerless when measured from the perspective of our power-loving culture.
Our culture exalts physical power, political power, financial power. We admire the power of a man over a woman (and vice versa), we search for the power over illnesses, work for the power over nature, and dream of the power someday over death itself. We drive power cars pumping out power music while gulping down the remainder of our power drinks after our power lunches. Weakness we scorn. Yet weakness is also very powerful. If you’ve ever worked with someone who is “handicapped”, you know how strong an attraction they can be to us. Their weakness, their vulnerability, allows us to open our hearts because they do not threaten us. We can lower our defenses, receive their gentle, accepting love and return it knowing it will be received without judgment.
Add to this the presence of Christ and you have a combination of love and weakness that can be the most powerful thing in the world. In a truly spiritual community it is not power, but weakness that allows for and deepens relationships. The folks served by Power Ministries remind us of that. They teach us dependence on Christ that leads to the strength to shed the world’s shallow, grasping, temporary, and decaying veneer of power to go deeper into Christ, into each other. One of the most well-known (most powerful?) apostles exalted in his weakness, not in his strength: “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak…then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 2:9-10) What better endorsement of weakness for the sake of true power can there be? True power…power to lose self for the sake of others; power to even lose the need to know that we are losing ourselves. Power to overcome evil with love. Power to overcome death with faith. Power to let go of what keeps us from being powerful for Christ’s sake. Oh Lord, let us be weak, so that we can be strong!
Thanks, once again, to my friend who gets to the core and purpose of what Power Ministries aspires to be.
In my next post, I’ll approach the topic, “That Which Separates,” looking at the deepest need of people with disabilities…and of those of us who are non-disabled as well.
The Righteous Insanity Curtain Speech
6 years ago
