Special Needs Ministry

Adults:
The Friendship Club

North Park’s Friendship Club is a fun, safe, and interactive group that exists to share God’s love with people who have intellectual disability.
Our Mission is to share God’s love with people who have intellectual disability and to enable them to become an active part of God’s family. Society and the church often ignore the spiritual needs of people who have intellectual disabilities. At our Friendship Club, however, we believe that:

  • Everyone is created in God’s image and is deserving of love and justice—both in our society and in our churches. People who have intellectual disabilities deserve a chance to know about God and feel God’s love. They also deserve to be treated with respect, and to have friendships with others who know and love God.
  • Redemption is a gift to all. It’s a gift from God that is not dependent on a certain level of intelligence.
  • The church is complete only when it includes all of God’s children and when all people are seen as equals—in God’s eyes and in our own eyes.

Ministry Together

The purpose of the Friendship program is to nurture the spiritual growth of people with intellectual disabilities in the context of personal and meaningful relationships. Here’s how it works every Wednesday evening at 6:45 pm at North Park (September – May):

Friendship Club is not a ministry to people who have intellectual disabilities. Rather, it is a ministry with them. We refer to “friends” and “mentors” rather than students and teachers. Mentors often find that they learn as much as their friends and receive more than they give. For a more detailed picture of a “typical” Friendship group, see our video “What is a Friendship Group?” For more details contact our Friendship Club Director.