There were three workers labouring at a construction site. As a man passed by, he asked the first worker what the worker was doing.

“I’m digging a drain,” came the reply.

The man then asked the second worker the same question.

“Earning my living,” the second man said.

Finally, the man turned to the third worker and asked: “What are you doing?”

The third worker said with a smile: “I am laying the foundation of a Greek cathedral where Man may worship the Almighty God.”

Rev Leow Wen Pin shared this story in his keynote address to the 420 who attended the Special Needs Ministry Conference 2025 on 31 May.

The one-day event was jointly organised by the Board of Family Life under the Chinese Annual Conference (CAC) of The Methodist Church in Singapore (MCS), Koinonia Inclusion Network (KIN), and the Methodist School of Music to inspire and equip church leaders, lay people and those interested in exploring disability inclusion in the church.

Rev Leow is a pastor-theologian who is the Associate Pastor of Bethany Evangelical Free Church. He is also the founder and board chairman of KIN, a mission organisation that enables churches to include and disciple people with special needs.

Rev Leow advocated a shift from seeing those with disabilities as problems to seeing them as fellow disciples. Photo courtesy of the Board of Family Life under the Chinese Annual Conference of The Methodist Church in Singapore.

“Which of these three workers do you think did his job with the most joy, with the most creativity and with the most diligence? Which did his job the best?

“The answer is obvious: It is the third worker because our ‘why’ shapes our heart. The reason why we do something greatly affects how we go about doing it,” said Rev Leow.

With that, he began his session on the real reason churches should include people with special needs.

“I want to help us think about the reasons why we include people with special needs in order to see how we should include them.”

Because it is pastoral

In his decade-long work with churches, many have told Rev Leow that including those with special needs was part of pastoral care.

“They want to include people with special needs to help them, support them, to give them assistance. It is a noble goal. It reflects God’s call for all of us to love our neighbour.”

But if that is the only reason, then those with special needs may eventually be seen as a problem.

“We will see them as needy. We will see them not just as disabled, but unable. This perspective can have rather negative effects.

“This sometimes plays itself out in Sunday School where they ask me, ‘Why should I assign a teaching aide to that one child with special needs when I have 99 other mainstream children to take care of?’ I think to myself: Well, that sounds a little bit like a parable.

“They sometimes hint to me that while caring for people with special needs is a good thing, it is a distraction from the mission of the church to make disciples of all peoples. Leave the care of people with special needs to the secular authorities, to the schools, to the social service agencies.”

This results in half-hearted attempts at inclusion.

It should be missional

Yet those with special needs cannot be ignored. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a sixth of the human population or 1.3 billion people have significant disability.

“This is roughly the entire population of China,” said Rev Leow.

“No wonder mission experts have called people with special needs the largest minority group in the world.”

Singapore recognises this has had been building special education schools, including Pathlight School, AWWA School, Rainbow Centre and the MINDS schools. The Methodist Church in Singapore recently established ACS Academy for children with autism.

It is not just the young who require care. The aged do, too. By 2031, one in four in Singapore will be over 65. As people age, their rate of disability increases.

“If we do not recognise that disability inclusion is missional for our churches, if we do not engage with people with disabilities now, our churches will become irrelevant to the world that God has sent us to disciple.”

Making disability inclusion a missional care issue is then a key way of stewarding our God-given mission to make disciples of all peoples, said Rev Leow.

“Remember, my friends, the church is called in the Great Commission to go forth and make disciples of all peoples. We are not called to make disciples of some nations, of some peoples. The Great Commission is fundamentally inclusive.”

In fact, inclusion is at the very heart of the church’s mission. In Ephesians 2:12-16, Paul reminds us that we who were once separated from Christ, excluded, foreigners to the covenant are now included as people of God.

Not beneficiaries but disciples

This perspective of inclusion as missional will then impact how we do our special needs ministry by affecting “how we see people with special needs”. A “care only perspective” sees those with special needs as beneficiaries who are passive recipients of care. Seeing disability inclusion as additional sees those with special needs as fellow disciples.

The Special Needs Ministry Conference brought together those interested in starting a special needs ministry in their churches, as well as those already serving in the ministry. Photo courtesy of the Board of Family Life under the Chinese Annual Conference of The Methodist Church in Singapore.

“The language reflects a profound change in mindset, which then has ripple effects that can cause a 180-degree shift in the way that we work and minister alongside people with special needs.

“When you call a person with special needs a disciple, you are affirming that they can grow spiritually. You affirm that God can work in their hearts and that they can grow in the fruit of the Spirit.

“This is already a very incredible change. People often assume people with special needs are not very spiritual. If you start looking past their disability to see their potential, to see them as whole people, you see them as people who can change, just like you.”

With that comes a focus on their abilities and talents, and the question of service opportunities for those with special needs.

“When you start thinking about them as partners, as co-workers, co-labourers, you change the way you relate to them.

“It is no longer you above reaching down to help them. You realise you are in it together. They don’t look so different from you anymore. They are truly your brothers and sisters in Christ.”

Along with this is a posture of teachability, the willingness to listen and learn from them. Perhaps they have something to teach others from their challenging life circumstances.

“Sometimes the blind sees God more clearly than we, the lame walk with God more faithfully and people with intellectual disabilities know God better than all the wisdom of this world.

“I have seen this time and time and time again where people with special needs serve in their own way to advance the Gospel wherever they are. It is at that moment that you realise that people with special needs do not disable the church. Rather, the church is disabled without them.”

Not an option but a priority

When we realise that disability inclusion is missional, we will also realise that it is not optional but a priority.

If caring for those with special needs is a priority, then equipping people to be carers must also be a priority, said Rev Leow. Photo courtesy of the Board of Family Life under the Chinese Annual Conference of The Methodist Church in Singapore.

“If we prioritise it, then we must invest in it. I’m not advocating for some kind of nationalism. But what I am pointing out is there is an imbalance when only 5% of churches in Singapore have ministries to people with special needs. We must invest more as a church.”

This then means a willingness to invest in training in disability inclusion as well as the determination to persevere in it.

“The needs are plenty and the challenges are complex. I’ve seen my ministry volunteers get injured by people with special needs, church leaders hurt emotionally, sometimes by the very special families and special people that they try to help. I’ve seen ministry leaders burn out mentally, physically exhausted by the demands of disability ministry. I myself have burnt out before.

“But this is why we must know that disability inclusion is missional because when the going gets tough, that is when doubts will creep into your head. It is at that moment that you must know that this is missional and just like Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem, towards the cross, you too must not falter.

“If disability inclusion is God’s mission, then God Himself will equip us, empower us, and energise us.”

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