Jabez Ministries is a non-profit ministry of Grand Rapids Michigan that is directed to and about persons with disabilities
In 2010 founder and director Peter Gordon felt a calling by God to begin Jabez Ministries to address the needs of persons with disabilities by focusing on one main purpose:
Ministry Purpose:
The purpose of this ministry is to give attention to the spiritual needs and concerns of students with disabilities and to build up a community of persons with disabilities and temporally able bodied who are fully serving, fully worshipping, and fully participating in the Body of Christ finding completeness and wholeness and that body.
According to Gordon "The church today, if it considers people with disabilities at all, either views people with disabilities from a perspective of healing or as being "special people." While there is a biblical perspective of healing that needs consideration and persons with disabilities may have special needs, such an uneven focus limits our perceptions of the gifts God gives to all his children, whether they are persons with disabilities or temporarily able bodied, for the Glory of God." Peter Gordon continues that "Persons with disabilities need to not merely be included into the fellowship of the Body of Christ but be led in full discipleship, bringing their gifts, and taught and encouraged into its service to disciple others, both the persons with disabilities and temporarily able bodied."
It is from this mindset that Jabez Ministries has is committed to the following ministry plan:
Ministry Plan:
The Ministry that God has called Peter to will consist of these three aspects:
1) A campus ministry to both temporarily able bodied students and students with disabilities. This is a ministry of community. The goal is to bring together, through small groups, mission trips, service projects and Bible studies both groups of students into a Christian relationship of friendship, empathy and mentoring.
2) A pastoral care ministry to students with disabilities addressing their unique spiritual issues and challenges as they engage themselves socially in a campus environment. This is a ministry of counseling and guidance. The goal is to foster
awareness that we are all made in the image of God, given salvation through Christ, and empowered by the Holy Spirit. We are created and gifted according to the desires of God, building up the Body of Christ.
3) A Teaching Ministry on disabilities. To this end CRC Disability Concerns has agreed to use Peter as a consultant meeting with churches, church councils, Christian schools and other CRC venues, meeting small groups, church school programs, as well as writing and publishing on disabilities in the church. The goal is to raise awareness and to identify others who wish to participate in the ministry and to equip them, as students, and as congregants in churches, after they graduate and take up the roles in the kingdom to which God has called them to.
In 2010 founder and director Peter Gordon felt a calling by God to begin Jabez Ministries to address the needs of persons with disabilities by focusing on one main purpose:
Ministry Purpose:
The purpose of this ministry is to give attention to the spiritual needs and concerns of students with disabilities and to build up a community of persons with disabilities and temporally able bodied who are fully serving, fully worshipping, and fully participating in the Body of Christ finding completeness and wholeness and that body.
According to Gordon "The church today, if it considers people with disabilities at all, either views people with disabilities from a perspective of healing or as being "special people." While there is a biblical perspective of healing that needs consideration and persons with disabilities may have special needs, such an uneven focus limits our perceptions of the gifts God gives to all his children, whether they are persons with disabilities or temporarily able bodied, for the Glory of God." Peter Gordon continues that "Persons with disabilities need to not merely be included into the fellowship of the Body of Christ but be led in full discipleship, bringing their gifts, and taught and encouraged into its service to disciple others, both the persons with disabilities and temporarily able bodied."
It is from this mindset that Jabez Ministries has is committed to the following ministry plan:
Ministry Plan:
The Ministry that God has called Peter to will consist of these three aspects:
1) A campus ministry to both temporarily able bodied students and students with disabilities. This is a ministry of community. The goal is to bring together, through small groups, mission trips, service projects and Bible studies both groups of students into a Christian relationship of friendship, empathy and mentoring.
2) A pastoral care ministry to students with disabilities addressing their unique spiritual issues and challenges as they engage themselves socially in a campus environment. This is a ministry of counseling and guidance. The goal is to foster
awareness that we are all made in the image of God, given salvation through Christ, and empowered by the Holy Spirit. We are created and gifted according to the desires of God, building up the Body of Christ.
3) A Teaching Ministry on disabilities. To this end CRC Disability Concerns has agreed to use Peter as a consultant meeting with churches, church councils, Christian schools and other CRC venues, meeting small groups, church school programs, as well as writing and publishing on disabilities in the church. The goal is to raise awareness and to identify others who wish to participate in the ministry and to equip them, as students, and as congregants in churches, after they graduate and take up the roles in the kingdom to which God has called them to.