Church for All Attention Spans

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Imagine creating a place of worship where everyone—regardless of their challenges with attention—can thrive and connect meaningfully. What if doodling during a sermon or taking a body break were not seen as distractions but as vital tools for engagement? Join me, Tracie Corll as I explore innovative strategies to foster an inclusive environment in church ministries, especially for those navigating ADHD or other attention-related challenges. From busy boxes filled with Legos to offering alternative seating options, we share practical ways to transform services without turning them into mere entertainment, allowing each individual to participate fully in worship.

In our journey towards inclusivity, we focus not only on children but also teens, adults, and also on the broader community, emphasizing the role of sensory tools like fidget tools in maintaining attention. Understanding behavior as an expression of individual needs is key, and we discuss creating structured, consistent, environments where stress is minimized because we have an understanding. Our commitment to inclusivity extends to making ministry opportunities accessible to all, encouraging everyone to know Christ, grow in their faith, and serve using their unique gifts. Join this enlightening discussion on transforming church ministries to be more engaging and welcoming for individuals of all abilities.

Episode Transcript

Tracie Corll (00:03):
Hi, my name is Trac 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 am Tracy Corraland I want to welcome you to

(00:56):
Indispensable People.
I am so thankful that you havejoined me and I hope that this
podcast is helpful to you.
That brings ideas,possibilities and open
perspectives towards people withdisabilities.
And today I want to talk about.

(01:23):
Focus and distractibility arebig, big issues, and here's the
thing it is issues with orwithout people diagnosed with
ADHD or sensory things orwhatever that could cause
distractibility and take awaytheir focus.

(01:44):
Whenever we are considering ourministries and the things that
we need and listen, we haveincredible messages, important
things that we need people tohear and receive.
Our goal is to disciple andgrow so that we can deploy, and
it is very difficult to do thatwhen the individuals that we are

(02:07):
serving are distracted.
And let me just point this outthis is from birth to death.
This impacts, and we again, welive in a world that instant
gratification is in front of usat all times.

(02:31):
So we have phones that keep usbusy when other people are
talking or we're engaging indifferent things.
We have tablets and we havetoys and we have depending upon
your age and stage you name it,it exists, and so we are

(02:51):
fighting those constant battleson a regular.
Then add to it the idea ofdisability.
That creates a whole notherlayer, right.
So we have come to a point ofalmost where it feels like
ministry has to be anentertainment or we lose people.

(03:15):
But let me just encourage youthat your Sunday morning service
does not have to look like arock concert.
You don't have to have 85illustrations and all of the
things.
However, we can be intentionalabout the way that we share the
message of Jesus Christ withpeople, so that it helps them to

(03:39):
engage and to focus in on thethings that we're doing, and so
I want to talk to you about somebasic strategies, and this is
going to impact more kids andteens, because obviously adults
can make choices to do thesethings.
However, if you're a buddy thatsits with an adult in a Sunday

(04:01):
morning service.
This may be helpful to you aswell, but sometimes we just need
a body break and we can offerup the opportunity to go get a
drink of water.
Some individuals do reallyreally well if they are doodling
while someone is speaking, so ajournal is really beneficial

(04:27):
and their doodling may looknothing like what is going on
and what the message that'sbeing delivered, but a lot of
times being able to doodlefunnels that distractibility and
allows that person to hear whatis being delivered through the
message.
In addition to that, having theoption to sit in a different

(04:51):
type of seat or maybe standingwhile the message is being
delivered.
I believe I've shared this storybefore of a gentleman who I did
not know had ADHD before of agentleman who I did not know had

(05:12):
ADHD and I had met him during aplay that my church was putting
on we call it the Passion Playand I was in charge of keeping a
group of individuals calm andquiet and that included lots of
kiddos, and during that timethis individual would kind of
pace the room, the space untilthey needed to go out on the
stage.
And I didn't understand and I'mtrying to keep the kids still

(05:35):
and calm and quiet.
And he explained to me howdifficult it was for him to
stand still and he said that ona Sunday morning if he were to
sit in the seats and listen tothe pastor preach he wouldn't
hear a single thing because allhe could do is focus on sitting
still and maintaining his spacein his seat.
However, he said if he juststood in the back of the

(05:57):
sanctuary and kind of shiftedhis weight from one foot to
another, that he could havegreat recall of everything that
pastor preached on thatparticular day.
And so those are incrediblestrategies that really don't
impact our Sunday mornings.
Right, these are great ways,great strategies to deal with

(06:21):
that.
I will also say we have kind ofwhat.
If you're familiar with anything, you might have been heard the
term busy box before.
So a busy box is something thatyou might take in the car to
keep a child busy while you'regoing from one space to another.
Or maybe if you're sitting inthe doctor's office or something

(06:42):
like that, where they have anactivity to do while they're
waiting, where they have anactivity to do while they're
waiting, and it may soundcounterintuitive to say that a
busy box for a child who isdistracted easily may actually
benefit them as they arelistening, and this can go with

(07:03):
teens and all the way throughadults.
That busy box just might lookdifferent and what it's full of
because of the age group, butthat is incredibly beneficial to
those people because messageand to the point at which
they're still able to interact,and I've seen this take place

(07:34):
with one of the kids that weserved.
At one point.
He needed that busy box to keephim busy while he was in the
space because otherwise he wouldhave been up moving, walking
the room, getting into otherthings that might distract the
other kids and things like that,and so we offered him that box

(07:54):
and in that box at one point Ithink we had some Legos.
Another time we had you knowdifferent things whatever
watching and listening to himwhile the children's pastor was
preaching and hear him interactand answer her questions while
he was playing in his busy box.
It really gave his bodysomething to do so that he could

(08:16):
listen.
It wasn't having something todo and he didn't listen.
It really provided that openaccess to be able to listen and
hear, and so that was reallyvery, very helpful.
Also, if you want to considersome other options within that.

(08:37):
They're really endless andthey're really very dependent
upon each individual.
You may have fidgets, eachindividual you may have fidgets.
They're called toys, fidgettoys, but they're actually tools
that give the body something todo while they are engaging and

(08:58):
listening.
There are also some great waysto take sensory breaks where
kiddos can disengage for amoment or two, Maybe.
Where they can.
A great option is like astuffed animal that has sequence
on it or a pillow that hassequence on it.

(09:19):
They could even do that whilethey're sitting or listening.
They could sit on an exerciseball.
Sit on an exercise ball.
They could play with some waterbeads.
That could also be in a busybox.
They could have a squeeze toylike a stress ball, a sensory
block, those kinds of things.

(09:41):
And a great sensory break awayfrom things is a few jumps on an
exercise trampoline.
Using pipe cleaners to fiddlewith while listening to a story
is a great opportunity to kindof switch up that body, give it
that sensory break that it needsso that it can fully listen.

(10:20):
No-transcript, to maintain focusand have optimal engagement.
Now there are some things thatare outside of the individual's
control that you can put intoplace.
That would be incrediblyhelpful and we say and have said
many, many times that routines,consistency, will add to that

(10:46):
and make it beneficial.
You can also createmulti-sensory experiences within
the environment that you're in.
Also, when you remove the bigpossibilities for stress and
anxiety, that will also help achild maintain being engaged

(11:09):
with whatever you're doing.
Also, whether it's a teen oradult as well, that stress and
anxiety really plays big intothe distractibility because they
are focused on that stress andeven to an extent, to become
hyper-focused.

(11:29):
In addition to that, you cancreate the activities, the
information that you'redelivering into games or
challenges.
Those that focus and attentionare difficult, that focus and
attention are difficult.
They seek that experience thatbrings fun and joy and

(11:52):
accomplishment and when youprovide opportunities for them
to reach into the possibility toachieve those things, the
engagement goes up exponentially.
Things the engagement goes upexponentially and all of those
strategies are really tools thatreally benefit every person in

(12:14):
the room.
Those kinds of things, theconsistency, the kind of
enlightened environment whereit's not full of stress, the
creation of ways to engage,create all types of
opportunities for people tomaintain engagement, to retain

(12:35):
the information that you'veprovided and to put it to use,
and that's what we want.
That's a disciple right.
A disciple is learning, it'staking in that information, it's
putting to use, which opens thedoor to serve.
And those are our goals, as weshare with people.
Once they have chosen to acceptJesus as their savior, they get

(12:57):
to grow in him and they get toserve him.
And those are incredibleopportunities, incredible
opportunities.
And I just want to remind youthat disengagement from what
you're doing is not an offenseto you.
It is not laziness in the personthat you experience.

(13:18):
So we want to make sure thatwe're breaking down some of
those stereotypical barriers ofwhat we believe of people know
that there's always a storybehind the behavior and there
are different ways that we canengage and reach out to people
so that they are not left behind, so they are not forgotten, and

(13:38):
so that we make ourenvironments not only physically
accessible but spiritually andsocially accessible for each
individual that we encounter,Because the gospel is a message
no one should be without, andwhen we can input strategies and

(14:00):
we can find ways to make surethat that message is delivered,
then we have effectively beenthe body of Christ.
We have gone beyond the ease ofjust delivering a message in
which way that works for us, butwe have considered those who

(14:21):
are receiving it and have takenall the steps to make sure that
the opportunities are big andwide and available to everyone,
regardless of the need that theyhave.
Do I know everything aboutdisability ministry?
Do I have all the answers?
Have I done everythingperfectly?
I have absolutely not, but weare going to continue this

(14:45):
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.
You.