Growing Inclusive Churches of Belonging for Families Living with Autism in the Ontario Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Problem An assessment of the 181 congregations in the Ontario Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church revealed that there were no churches, companies, or groups working towards the inclusion of families living with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The lack of education, resources and ministry for ASD children and individuals isolates them from the life and ministry of the church community. In addition, there are no accommodations or supports available that are required for the wide range of developmental disabilities that ASD children have. Tools, education, training, and a resource guide are necessary to equip leaders and churches to grow inclusive churches of belonging. Method The intervention used a survey to assess the current understanding of ASD in two churches before and after ASD education presentations, workshops, and the resource guide. Autism Spectrum Disorder parents were also interviewed with qualitative and quantitative questions about their church experiences and needs for inclusion. This valuable insight was used to create the church resource guide which was made available to all churches in the Ontario Conference and uploaded online as a resource for others to utilize. Results The data collected from surveys and interviews revealed significant issues related to autism awareness and education in participating churches. Although inclusion was lacking, participants showed a positive attitude toward a ministry with ASD families. They also believed that their churches could benefit from extra workshops, resources, and strategies to establish such a ministry. This suggests the potential for positive change through leadership and a cultural transformation that promotes inclusion and a sense of belonging for ASD individuals within these churches. After the intervention, one of the two participating churches started a formal ministry to and with ASD and other neurodiverse families. Upon the release of the church resource guide, one other church in the Ontario Conference began the process of establishing a ministry to and with ASD families and individuals. Conclusions The intervention brought attention to the forgotten parts of the body of Christ as it relates to ASD families and individuals. The interviews uncovered significant hurt that ASD parents and children have experienced at church, often making attendance a burden. Families living with autism are looking to be seen, heard, and embraced in the life and ministry of their church. In conclusion, churches within the Ontario Conference and worldwide should begin and sustain education for inclusion and belonging, ensuring that ASD families and other neurodiverse individuals have equal opportunities and access to lead, serve, and worship. Utilizing the resource guide will support churches with the tools and training necessary for leaders and volunteers to be equipped to support ASD families.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".