A 2018 study shows that families like mine that have a child with autism are 84 percent less likely to attend church than a typical family. When you consider that 1 in 31 of the 8-year-old children in the United States has been diagnosed with autism, you realize the number of families missing from our churches is significant.
The number of families affected by disability is bigger than just those with a member with autism, though. Of the 79.6 million households in the United States in 2019, 25.7 percent included at least one family member with a disability. To make that number more personal, I reached out to an administrator in my suburban school district, and she said that around 1 in 4 students in our district has some sort of accommodation plan.
Many churches aren’t seeing this portion of the population represented. They’re an unreached people group in our midst.
Keep reading this article on The Gospel Coalition.