Beyond Ramps: Rethinking Disability In The Church

A number can be loud: around 70,000 Nairobians live with disabilities, yet that reality rarely shows up in church pews. We wanted to understand why, so we traced the barriers from doorstep to doxology—broken pavements, inaccessible buildings, sensory overload—and then named the subtler walls built by curiosity and theology. The casual “What happened to you?” can reopen wounds, while miracle‑centric expectations reduce disabled believers to projects in need of fixing. We talk honestly about how that culture erodes dignity and turns worship into a test of faith.

To rebuild, we draw on richer biblical stories. Moses leads with a stammer and a promise of presence, not a guarantee of cure. Mephibosheth moves from Lodibar to a table that must have been readied for real bodies, not metaphors. Those pictures push us to design church life that removes physical, attitudinal, and communication barriers: predictable services, quiet spaces for sensory needs, captions, accessible seating and aisles, and roles that recognise calling rather than perfection. Inclusion also means leadership access—placing disabled voices on microphones, teams, and boards where wisdom is needed most.

We also open space for lament alongside joy. Acquired disability and caregiving can carry deep grief, and forced positivity only isolates. Scripture gives language for sorrow and solidarity; we can offer prayer with consent, practical help without performance, and community that welcomes both strength and exhaustion, sometimes on the same day. If you’re longing for a church that chooses belonging over spectacle and presence over presumption, you’ll find tools, language, and hope here.

If this conversation moves you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review with one concrete barrier your community will remove next.

Chapters

• 0:00 Naming The Gap In Church Attendance
• 0:39 Infrastructure And Sensory Accessibility
• 1:29 Attitudinal Barriers And Harmful Questions
• 3:10 Miracles, Faith, And Misplaced Assumptions
• 5:59 Moses And Calling Without Cure
• 7:48 Feasts, Margins, And True Inclusion
• 10:38 Making Space For Grief And Lament
• 12:58 Held In Tension: Empowerment And Distress
• 15:02 Closing Hopes For A Wiser Church

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hi, my name is Mumbi, and this is my wheelchair. Her name is Noel, and today we'll be talking to you about disability as we continue to spread awareness around the International Day for Persons with Disability. I'll start with some statistics. From the 2019 census, there were around 70,000 people in Nairobi who live with disabilities. And when we look at the churches in Nairobi, we do not see that number, that the 70,000 people reflected in church attendance. And I think it's time we ask ourselves why. You know, some of the reasons are infrastructure related. For example, like just for someone to get from their house to church can be very difficult for persons with disabilities. But also in the churches themselves, there is an issue with the infrastructure that's needed for persons with disabilities to be well accommodated in the services. But also when we think about our churches, they're not built with persons with disabilities in mind. And it's not just when we talk about persons with disabilities, you know, it's not just about the ramps or, you know, the accessible toilet. It's also about things like, you know, people who experience sensory overload. How do we accommodate them in church? But also one of the other things that keeps persons with disabilities away from church is attitudinal barriers, which I think is what I'll focus more on today. For example, every persons with visible disabilities get asked a lot, oh, what happened to you? And it might seem like a very innocent question, but for the person with the disability, it could actually be your traumatizing them. For example, when people like to ask, you know, especially persons who use wheelchairs or people on crutches, like what happened to you? And it seems like a very innocent question, but it's it can actually be a very harmful question. For example, like someone could have been in an accident where they lost their family members and they were the only survivor. So asking them what happened to them is making them relive a very traumatic experience. Or sometimes someone could have mobility issues that are unexplained. So asking them what happened just puts them in a very difficult situation. And also, I think it's just rude. For example, if someone, if people kept asking you all the time, oh, kwaniniu kwanamaski ondoko, by the time the fifth person asks you that, you'll be very angry. And that's that's one of the reasons that people with disabilities are not like in places like church. Another attitudinal barrier that keeps persons with disabilities away from church is the issue of miracles and faith. First is the perception from a lot of people who do not have disabilities that the number one need of persons with disabilities in church is to get healed, which is actually not true. And there's also the perspective that persons with disabilities have their disabilities because they do not have faith. And that keeps a lot of persons with disabilities away from church because it's um it actually makes people with disabilities feel lesser than. You know, even for people who are comfortable talking about their disability, you know, they don't want to talk about their disability all the time. Sometimes you just want to come to church and pray, worship, listen to the sermon. You know, experience fellowship with other believers, not just talk about your disability. So that's, you know, being constantly being asked about what happened to you about your disability is one of the barriers that keeps people from church. Another one is the question of miracles. Most cuts we do not discount the place of miracles in the Christian faith. But miracles are not the foundation of our faith. And even when like healing miracles are not the only miracles that Jesus performed. No, like we do not say you cannot be in church or you do not have faith because you have not multiplied slopes and fish to feed 5,000 people. So there's there's context. I think there's context to the miracles of Jesus. And there's more about disabilities in the Bible than just miracles. There are different perspectives in the Bible about disability but go beyond the miracle perspective, and today we'll just look at a few of them as we continue to create awareness. First up, we have the story of Moses. You know, God calls him to lead the Israelites, and Moses expresses doubt. One of the things he says is that he stammers, and yes, stammering is considered a disability, including including under Kenyan law. And you know, God does not say to Moses, I'll heal you, then I'll send you. He actually gets angry and asks Moses, like, who decides that? Who decides that some people speak and do not speak, some people hear and do not hear? And the Lord says that it is him who decides that. And then he tells Moses that, you know, go, I am sending you, like I will be with you. And this this is a very interesting perspective. You know, God acknowledges that persons with disabilities are created by him. But also we see that he doesn't see persons with disabilities as lesser than, like just you know how humans generally see persons with disabilities as lesser than. God does not see persons with disabilities as lesser than, he sees them as able to accomplish his purposes. Initially, we see Moses addressing Pharaoh through his brother Aaron, but as the scriptures progress, we see Moses addressing Pharaoh and addressing the Israelites alone. There's no indication that he's healed when he's doing this, but he does it, and he does it very well. So this is, I think, one of the perspectives the church should adopt that persons with disabilities are able to fulfill God's purposes, their disabilities notwithstanding. I also find it interesting that you know God called Moses to lead all the Israelites. He did not just call him to lead the Israelites with disabilities. So like people with disabilities can actually occupy places of leadership in the church, in society, and lead other people, including people who do not have disabilities. Yeah, the second biblical perspective is from 2 Samuel chapter 9, the story of Mephibosheth, with an analogous story in Luke chapter 14, the parable of the feast as told by Jesus. In both of these stories, we see persons with disabilities who are invited to a feast. And these people, before they're invited to a feast, they exist on the margins. Mephibosheth is living in a place called Lodibar, a very lowly place. And in the parable of the feast, the people, when Jesus says go get the crippled, the blind and the lame from the streets and bring them to the feasts, they do not have economic and social engagements. They're just, he says, go get them from the streets and the alleys. And this is very, this is reflective of our society today. A lot of strides have been made in terms of disability inclusion, but a lot of people with disabilities in our society, especially in Africa, live on the margins. They are excluded from education, from access to health care, from social life, from church. You know, Mephi Boshe and the people who are invited to the feast are not metaphorically disabled. They have actual disabilities. So I believe the feast, and you know, David's table with regards to Mephi Boshe, they were made accessible for these people, but the physical attitudinal communication barriers were removed to enable these people to be at their feast. I think this is a brilliant perspective for the church to adopt, you know, instead of, you know, insisting on miracles or, you know, saying that people do not have faith, I think removing physical communication and attitudinal barriers will have more persons with disabilities coming and being included in the feast that is the kingdom of God. As I conclude, I'd like to flip the coin a bit. You know, living with a disability or caring for a loved one who has a disability can be immensely difficult. And sometimes, actually, most of the time, there's a lack of understanding from society about that difficulty. And also there's the push from society to always be positive, and that actually isolates a lot of persons with disabilities and caregivers for persons with disabilities. For example, one of the things that, you know, persons who sorry, people who acquire disabilities later in life experience is a deep sense of grief because you have lost what you thought would be your life. And also parents of children born with disabilities also experience that kind of very intense grief. And often in society, in church, there's no space to express that kind of grief, to express that, you know, the isolation that comes with going through the difficulty that comes with, you know, living with a disability or caring for a loved one with a disability. I believe there are several ways that the church can help, you know, persons with disabilities and caregivers who are experiencing difficulty. You know, first of all, you know, there's prayer. You can always pray for someone with their permission. You know, just find out how you can pray for them. Secondly, you can offer practical help, like, you know, take someone out for lunch or help someone with their laundry or, you know, help someone care for their child for an afternoon. Yeah, but there's I think the third thing I'd say is that the church can also offer a safe space for people to express lament. It's in the society we live in, it's a bit countercultural because lament is seen like uh you're not you're being negative or uh you do not appreciate what you have or such things. But I believe we have lots of lessons from the Bible about lament, you know, from Elijah to Jeremiah to David and to Jesus, you know, like we see Jesus knew that he'd die on the cross and he talked about it. He also knew that he'd rise from the dead and he also talked about it. But as the crucifixion neared, he experienced very deep distress. In Matthew and Mark, he said that he felt so distressed that he felt like he was dying from the sorrow itself. You know, in Luke it says he was utterly exhausted by the grief. But it also says that an angel ministered to him. You know, as a person living with a disability or as a person caring for someone with a disability, you know, it's possible to feel empowered, included, but also to feel like intense grief, but all at the same time, sometimes in the same day. And I think I'd say it's okay. And that God can meet you at all those points. Disability is nuanced, but you can experience empowerment like Moses, you can experience inclusion like um Mephibosh and the people who are invited to the feast. But you can also be experiencing very deep distress. Sometimes you can experience all those things in a single day, and I believe God is able to meet you in every position, and as believers we should be willing to express God in that way. That's it from me today. I hope your perspective about disability in the church has been enriched. I hope that you're more aware about disability issues.