Helping worshipers who are neurodivergent feel right at home
‘Around the Table’ podcast welcomes the Rev. Dr. Michelle Junkin of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Oklahoma City
LOUISVILLE — For the Rev. Dr. Michelle Junkin, the most recent guest on the Around the Table podcast, welcoming neurodiverse children to worship and helping families to feel like they belong in church “is learning how your church can walk alongside and unlock a world of sensory-friendly support within your own ministry.”
Junkin, pastor of spiritual formation at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Oklahoma City and the co-director of Big Faith Resources, was hosted on Around the Table this week by the Rev. Michelle Thomas-Bush, associate pastor for youth and their families at Myers Park Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the Rev. Cliff Haddox, pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in Dayton, Ohio. Listen to their 44-minute conversation here.
Big Faith Resources began in the fall of 2024 after receiving a $1.2 million grant to empower churches to support neurodiverse children and their families with innovative resources for worship and Christian education. It’s based at Westminster Presbyterian Church.
Ordained in 2001, Junkin said she recalls language around families having “a child who is different,” whom we would now say fits under the umbrella of neurodiversity. She also noted diagnostic tools are now more refined: in 2001, 1 in 150 children were diagnosed with autism, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By 2024, it was one child in 36.
Along with better diagnostic tools, “what changed is the awareness,” she told Haddox and Thomas-Bush. Neurodiversity is not a medical term but “a term used to describe the natural variation in brain function and development. Think about the biodiversity that’s all around us in the world,” she said. “We don’t often think about it, but that same variation exists within our brains. Neurodiversity is a term that came out of advocacy that’s used to describe all those natural variations in brain function development. It’s a way we now understand that people learn differently, that they think differently and they process information differently.”
The input and data coming in is filtered and processed differently, and it’s “a unique perspective” for each neurodivergent person. “Part of understanding neurodiversity is knowing not that the way a child or congregation member is processing sensory cues is wrong; it’s not wrong,” she said. “They just process differently. Part of the awareness of neurodiversity is helping to understand these are not deficits, but that someone’s body is part of God’s wide variety. They’re still in God’s image. There’s not just one normal way for a brain to function.”
Junkin advises congregations take baby steps to become more inclusive. “One of the first things is awareness,” she said. “That starts to shift the way we look at our Sunday school classes and the way we offer worship.” Churches can offer people headphones that reduce noise overload, which “make sounds in a noisy environment feel more comfortable to children,” she said.
At Westminster Presbyterian Church, “anything that we offer that is sensory friendly is open to all. All children can decide to be in our sensory room or not; it’s not punitive,” she said. “Some neurotypical children might start off there, and we say, ‘OK, it’s time to start our lesson.’ Some kids just stay behind” to take in that lesson in the sensory space.
“Instead of saying ‘you have to comply,’ what sensory-friendly can do is offer a lot of grace, to let parents and children, your Christian educator and pastor, have conversations to move in faith formation and say, ‘here are the resources we have,’” Junkin said.
That also allows teachers to tell parents, “‘today your child really loved the sensory room. They really came to life. Did you see that?’” she said. “We ask parents, ‘is that what you need now? If that changes, let’s be in conversation about when you want your son not to be spending so much time in the sensory-friendly room or how can we bring a teacher into that room so they’re still getting the Bible lessons and stories.’”
That’s not childcare, Junkin explained.
“There is a time and place for childcare and nursery care in churches,” she said. “But when it’s Christian faith formation time, we’re really trying to find ways to have those tools at church and at home.”
Children in families who used to think they “didn’t have a place where our child could make it through a whole service” now come home “and can articulate what they’re learning,” she said. “What might have looked like not listening in the past — a child who’s getting up and moving around, a child who’s fidgeting — now, when you give someone a fidget toy or allow them movement in worship or in education and it’s not seen as wrong, what we’re finding is, they really are focusing. They’re just focusing in a different way.”
She called Big Faith Resources “a learning lab where we share what we’re learning. We know every church will have different needs,” Junkin told the hosts. At Westminster, families can worship in a space that’s “set up like God’s living room, with comfy sofas so families can sit in pods with individual coffee tables and sensory bins that coordinate with the sermon.” This service features a longer children’s time before the sermon is piped in for families.
“There are ways to do this in a variety of ministry contexts,” she said. She encourages Presbyterians to “listen to where your church is at, know what your needs are and take some baby steps.” While “it might look very different at your church,” some things are universal, according to Junkin, including creating worship space mindfully so that children can move and engage with their senses. “Are they free to move without getting the stink eye?” she asked. “Routine is really important to those who are neurodivergent.”
Congregations can consider removing a pew or two and replacing them with rocking chairs or swivel chairs or wiggle chairs.
“It’s like making sure you’re providing handicap accessibility,” she said. A church without a ramp would be looking to construct one, Junkin said. “It’s bringing those same lenses to your worship space. It starts with awareness and understanding that when you make these changes, the possibility is that you will reach someone who’s needed a tool.” About half the people who are neurodivergent will not come to church because they don’t get the support they need, she said.
“Even if it’s one family in your church who’s not coming and you begin the conversation, you’re not just getting their child into Christian education or VBS or worship,” Junkin said. “You get the whole family. If one has to stay home, they all tend to stay home.”
As resources are developed, they’re being added to the Big Faith Resources website. Junkin finds one gospel story, Jesus healing the paralyzed man with the help of the man’s friends, as instructive.
“The crowd is becoming a hindrance. They’re blocking the way to Jesus,” she said. The crowd is not hostile, and the people don’t know they’re in the way. “The man cannot be with Jesus unhindered and needs friends” who will help him, she pointed out.
Junkin suggests churches “wonder and reflect on what is hindered and unhindered access to Jesus. What are the barriers identified in the story? What barriers are overcome? I love that story because the friends refuse to give up. They’re willing to help another who can’t do it on their own. They become advocates.”
“The crowd wasn’t hostile,” she said again. “It was just unaware.”
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