What are the obstacles for gospel ministry to the Deaf?
Rob Myers with DOOR International shares three misconceptions or challenges that make Deaf-led churches rare today.
"Some of it has to do with the lens that we use to view the Deaf community. Many times when we talk about Deaf ministry, people put on the viewpoint of special needs ministry," Myers says.
Instead, Deaf communities should be viewed as minority languages, people groups with their own distinct cultures.
"In some places where we’ve recognized Deaf communities as minority languages, then the way that we approach Deaf ministry is the way that we approach ministry in other minority languages," Myers says.
"We want to train up leaders to reach their own communities, we want to do Bible translation."
A second challenge facing Deaf believers is often access to information.
"If [Deaf communities] don’t have Bible translation in their particular sign language of that country, then many of the people in that church are going to be cut off — the ones particularly who don’t have access to written language."
Myers says that creating Bible translations turns into a situation like the age-old question, "Which came first, the chicken, or the egg?"
"In order to do Bible translation, we want to find Deaf churches [to help translate into their language]. But in order for Deaf churches to really grow and thrive, they need Bible translation," Myers says.
A third challenge is the stigma that surrounds Deaf people in many cultures, even within church communities.
"It’s only been within the past few years that we’ve really seen the Church begin to embrace the idea of Deaf people being able to be missionaries," says Myers, "[overcoming] that barrier [concept] of Deafness being somehow preventative of people using the spiritual gifts God’s given them."
People interested in learning the facts about gospel ministry to the Deaf can visit doorinternational.org to help empower Deaf leaders around the world.
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This story originally appeared at Mission Network News and is republished here with permission.