Overview

"This unique volume contributes a profound-autism perspective to the ongoing discussion of belonging in the church. By taking readers into two church communities, the author explores the issues of belonging from those least welcomed by the church and consider what the church should do differently. Adopting a ""we"" approach, she emphasizes the unity of different members in Christ. As one body in Christ, all believers share Christ's sonship and become children of God. The household concept invites readers to reconceptualize Christian relationships as covenantal kinship. The kinship relationship is established by God's covenantal commitment fulfilled in Christ. With or without autism, any person who obeys God's summons is incorporated into Christ's body by the Spirit to become God's child. Believers are thus siblings to one another. Viewing each person this way enables us to see beyond human differences and welcome one another as God's gifts and indispensable members of the community."

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9781725274426

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Reviews

Tam provides churches a way to move from inclusion to belonging for those with profound autism. . . . It fills an important gap, not just in welcoming individuals with autism into our church communities, but in helping us understand that a faithful Christian community rejoices over and benefits from the differences among us. --Mark Chapman, Tyndale Seminary Tam has written a sensitive and articulate book that widens our view of how persons with autism can be accepted and included in our communities of faith. Her vision that each person is needed to become the kind of spiritual communities that bear witness to God's love inspires the reader. . . . This book helps us to recalibrate our understanding of the gifts that persons with autism bring to our communities and the ways in which we can facilitate and strengthen our practices of belonging. --Phil C. Zylla, McMaster Divinity College This book is incredibly important for the local church. Cynthia Tam goes well beyond mere advocacy and leads us straight into a vitally important conversation about the nature of the local church and its mission in the world. This book not only offers practical advice but also helps the reader wrestle with the deeper theological implications of offering real belonging (kinship) in the household of God. --Jared Siebert, Cofounder, the New Leaf Network, Canada Cynthia Tam has written a well-conceived and thoughtfully researched book that adds a distinctive, case-study-based, practical theological voice to the literature on theology and disability. . . . The takeaway is compelling: belonging together as church is itself a process of ongoing discovery through which all--those with autism along with neurotypical--learn to value each other as indispensable members of the body of Christ. --Thomas Reynolds, Emmanuel College, University of Toronto

Author Information

Cynthia Tam was previously an occupational therapist and is now a pastor and the National Director of Disability Ministries with the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada. She is a founder and an active member of Village Eulogia for Families with Special Needs, an organization that serves individuals with various disabilities, including many with autism.

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