Breaking Down Labels

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What happens when we reduce someone to a label? We miss the fullness of who they are. Tracie Corll tackles this crucial conversation, revealing why the church must move beyond disability diagnoses to truly welcome everyone.

Through personal stories about her son Noah, Tracie illustrates how environment and comfort level dramatically affect how someone presents. A child who's hilarious and creative at home might appear completely different in an unfamiliar church setting. This reality underscores why quick judgments based on diagnostic labels fail to capture someone's true essence. As Tracy puts it, "A label is not defining. A label is a piece."

The conversation extends into the tensions between person-first and identity-first language, with Tracie advocating for approaches that honor each individual's personhood first and foremost. She reminds us that ministry fundamentally rests on scripture and relationships – not on our ability to categorize people.

Ready to transform how your church welcomes people of all abilities? Visit indispensablepeople.com or find Tracy's books on Amazon to continue this vital journey. Together, we can create churches where everyone has the opportunity to know Christ, grow in Him, and serve with their God-given gifts.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi, my name is Tracy Correll and welcome to
Indispensable People.
I'm a wife, mom, teacher,pastor and missionary and I
believe that every person shouldhave the opportunity to know
Christ, grow in Him and serveHim with the gifts that he has
given, no matter their ability.
Over 65 million Americans havea disability.
That's 25% of the population.

(00:26):
However, over 80% of them arenot inside the walls of our
church.
Let's dive into those hardtopics biblical foundations,
perceptions and welcome to thisepisode of Indispensable People.

(00:54):
Thank you for joining me.
I am so excited to continue thisjourney with you on learning
about individuals with differentabilities, disabilities,
special needs.
The terms and the explanationscould go on and on, and really
it just determines who you'respeaking to and where their

(01:19):
thoughts are on this place.
For example, I have done somany trainings where I talk
about labels and understandingthat a label cannot define you,
and it is not necessarily in theempowering sense of saying that

(01:43):
, right, a label can't defineyou.
You aren't what you blah, blah,blah, whatever, but here's what
I mean.
So if I were to hand everysingle person a sheet of paper
and I here's a pencil and writedown one word that describes you
, almost every single personwould struggle.

(02:04):
Why?
Because one thing doesn'tdescribe all of you and if you
consider, okay, you in differentfacets of life, okay, you at
work, you at school, you withyour children, you at home, and
not that you're different people, but different parts of you are

(02:24):
activated based on the placeyou are in life, the age you are
in life, the expectations thatare on you in that stage of life
, right.
So one label is never anall-defining, all-encompassing
thing and I can tell you thatthe relationships that I have

(02:48):
with different people, you knowI am more relaxed with you know
my family and in my home, asopposed to you know, when I'm
standing and speaking on stageon a Sunday morning, speaking on
stage on a Sunday morning, andI'll tell you that where I was
10 years ago, standing andspeaking on stage, I am a

(03:10):
hundred times more comfortableand more myself than I've ever
been.
But it really it just issituational and environmental
and has a lot to do with allkinds of things.
I have spoken extensively aboutmy son, noah, and I can tell you

(03:32):
that his personality, first ofall, he's hilarious, he's smart,
he is a problem solver, he issuper creative, but not
everybody gets to see that partof him.
Why?
Because he struggles withanxiety and his anxiety around
people that he doesn't know, inunfamiliar spaces kind of, he

(03:56):
stiffens up so his funny partsdon't come out when he's talking
if he's going to talk at alland all of those different
things and different places anddifferent experiences really
show him differently.
But also, I say all of that tosay that a label doesn't define

(04:28):
someone, but getting to knowthem and having that experience,
building a relationship,changes everything.
And it's so important, first ofall, to understand that
ministry is built on scriptureand relationships.
Right, it's built on the wordof God and the people who are

(04:51):
delivering it, sharing it,teaching it, participating it
and living it out.
And we do that through thoseestablished relationships.
And when you know someone on thesurface, you see something very
different than when you get toknow someone.
And so when you might have achild, a teenager, an adult who

(05:15):
comes into your church andparents or caregiver or guardian
or whoever is going to say youknow something like, I just need
you to know that they'rediagnosed with autism or they
have a Down syndrome diagnosisor they have ADHD or whatever it
is, whatever that list comesfrom, and immediately your

(05:38):
brain's going to start tocompute an understanding of this
individual.
You have to fight that.
You have to fight against it,because the stereotypes of what
you know of those individualsare not the defining,
determining factor.
First of all, we have a creatorthat is so creative that no

(06:01):
individual is exactly alike.
Right, you have billions ofpeople, and we can be identified
by the lines on our fingers,our fingerprints.
That's how different we are andthat's on the outside of us,
the things that we can see, thethings on the inside, which are

(06:23):
even more complex and moreintricate and more creatively
made.
We cannot be defined in thosefirst meet types of things.
There's so much depth to us,and so I just want to warn you
against labels.

(06:44):
A label is not defining.
A label is a piece.
A label might be helping you tounderstand, to build compassion
, to understand, considerstrategies that might help break
down barriers, accommodationsthat might help that person feel

(07:06):
more comfortable and be a partof it.
Might help you to figure outhow to make your church more
accessible to individuals thatare generally known to have
whatever disability.
Might be reported, however andI say be reported, which is
funny, because sometimes wedon't know and we're not told,

(07:27):
and sometimes that's almostbetter because we have to take
the time to get to know someone,invest in them and then grow to
know them and learn about themand experience them in the most
natural way.
And so knowing and learning andunderstanding that labels do

(07:51):
not define, labels do not give afull explanation.
Labels are not going to tellyou every strategy and every
accommodation you're going toneed.
Labels are not going to makeyour church accessible.
Labels are primarily formedical coding and things like

(08:12):
IEPs and assigning certain goalsand tasks and things because of
that.
So in the church, setting alabel is even more unimportant
because we're talking about theperson.
We need to consider the personas a whole and, yes, we are

(08:37):
working in a world that identityfirst is becoming a highly
sought after way of speaking ofpeople with disabilities, where
in the past we have had theperson first verbiage and I

(08:58):
would say person first is stillgoing to be most of important.
Why?
Because you're a person,because you're a creation,
because you're made in the imageof God, and that is our focus,
that is our main concern, mainconsideration, because Jesus was
concerned with those that hefearfully and wonderfully made,
those that were created toglorify him, made with a purpose

(09:20):
, all of those kinds of thingsand, yes, their disability
diagnosis is a part of thatstory.
That helps to shape them, ithelps them, it develops their
personalities and theircharacter traits and
perseverance and all differentkinds of things that we could
list that have come from thatdisability diagnosis.

(09:45):
But that diagnosis is not whothey are.
It is a part of them.
So we need to know that, we needto understand that, that a
label will lead to a stereotypeand we need to be cautious and
careful.
But we need to invest in thepeople.
And when we can invest in thepeople, that's when we know that
every person will have theopportunity to know Christ, to

(10:08):
grow in Him and to serve Him.
No-transcript.

(13:52):
No-transcript.

(17:49):
Do I have all the answers?
Have I done everythingperfectly?
I have absolutely not, but weare going to continue this
conversation so that people ofall abilities can have the
opportunity to know Christ, growin Him and serve Him with the
gifts that he has given them.
For deeper dives into thesetopics and more, check out

(18:12):
indispensablepeoplecom and visitAmazon to purchase the books
the indispensable kid and gospel, accessibility and the
indispensable people.