Issue 32 DisabilityBlog | What does it look like when you design a worship space entirely for people with hearing loss?
What does it look like when you design a worship space entirely for people with hearing loss?
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 23.09.22
The Deaf Church at Brentwood in Nashville has done just that and they claim to have the first church building of its kind in the world. The sound speakers for the worship band are placed face down on a specially vibrating floor so the members can feel the music right under their feet. And adjustments have been made to layout, and even the use of colours, so that the participants feel comfortable and at home
Aric Randolph who leads the Deaf Church at Brentwood is a huge blessing to me. We have travelled together to China to promote a new Deaf Bible that recognises the way that people with hearing loss prefer visual images rather than written text. It’s been a revelation.
Learning from people with disabilities has been very humbling for me. I have a mild form of disability myself which my friends and family have lovingly accepted for most of my life. And my pursuit of answers to the question ‘why?’ has taken me deeper into God than I could have ever imagined possible.
The early church mothers and fathers sought answers to the tough issue of disability just as much as we do today. Saint Augustine wrote about it extensively and has been quoted by almost every side in the debate about why we suffer and in what way God will meet us in our pain.
Jesus himself was asked ‘who sinned?’ [John 9] when confronted by a person born blind. Was it the individual or their parents? In one of the most pastoral responses that he ever gave, Jesus pointedly said ‘neither’; thus brushing aside the guilt trip that plagues so many sufferers and parents alike. It’s not your fault.
Whatever the disability and whatever the cause, the stark fact remains that we have to deal with it; to live with our own personal situation in the real world. It’s like the age-old question of predestination that has fascinated theologians down the centuries. Are these things divinely sent or are they merely permitted? The point is that, either way, we have no choice but to live with our disabilities and handle them wisely.
