Katie Wetherbee and Jolene Philo's Every Child Welcome: A Ministry Handbook for Including Kids with Special Needs is one of the most important resources for churches and pastors. It distills information for church leaders and for church ministries with special needs children, by educators who have spent their careers with children with disabilities.Every Child Welcome is filled with extremely practical ideas and strategies for including children with all levels of intellectual, physical, developmental and emotional disability into the environments and activities in which we help them to grow to know and love God.
What sets this book apart when compared to other excellent special needs ministry resources is that practical wisdom Wetherbee and Philo share from their years of classroom experience in special education. They offer a plethora of ideas and strategies for teaching kids with extraordinarily diverse learning styles and ability. Many books and websites (including Every Child Welcome) have helpful information for managing problematic behaviors. Two complete chapters in the heart of the book discuss strategies for teaching biblical concepts when kids struggle with reading, the ability to grasp abstract concepts or learning in group situations.
Wetherbee and Philo also give us resources for practical strategies to share effective and sensitive communication with parents of kids with special needs and the emphasis they place on offering all children -- including children with special needs -- opportunities to serve in and with the Church is particularly helpful. They give us an entire chapter on teaching children how to serve; that chapter alone makes this book an invaluable resource.
This isn't a book you'll read once and place on your shelf. Every Child Welcome is a resource to which children's ministry leaders will turn again and again. It also offers wisdom for parents who attend to the spiritual lives of their children.
This is a book that fills a void, and will be a real gift to the Church for a long, long time.
__________________
I received a free copy of this book from Kregel Ministry in exchange for my honest review here.