Healing and Wholeness in the Bible and in Our Church

Slides for the presentation are available at this link: https://qrco.de/bdB6cO

This inaugural event for the Center for Disability and Ministry featured Drs Bethany McKinney Fox and L. S. Carlos Thompson.

Dr. McKinney Fox and Dr. Thompson reengaged the biblical texts related to healing, to reimagine disability, and to think through the implications of both for our life together in the church.

Dr. Bethany McKinney Fox is a speaker, author, and pastor at Beloved Everybody Church, a church where people with and without intellectual disabilities lead and participate together.  Her most recent book, Disability in the Way of Jesus, explores how the narratives of Jesus’ healing in the Gospels can offer pathways for congregations to be true places of healing, particularly for people with disabilities.

Dr. L. S. Carlos was born on the Caribbean Sea in the Latin American port city of Cartagena, Colombia. After being adopted with two of his siblings, Carlos was raised in Fargo, North Dakota. As an Afro-Latino, Charismatic-Reformed, pastoral theologian, Carlos understands his work to be grounded within a Christocentric reading of Scripture. He aims to take tradition seriously whilst grappling humbly with contemporary circumstances in a way that invites Christians to grow in faithfulness to Christ, for the good of the world and the glory of God. Carlos received his PhD in Divinity from the University of Aberdeen, Kings College, in the United Kingdom. His areas of study include Disability Theology, Theologies of Suffering, Healing, Community, Pastoral Formation, and Christian Discipleship. His favorite activity is visiting the beach. Every trip to the water feels like a homecoming. Carlos, his wife Charis, and their youngest daughter, happily reside near the water in picturesque Holland, Michigan. Carlos is passionate about equipping all Christians—(temporarily) able-bodied and disabled alike—to faithfully live into their vocation. He loves playing the piano and spending time with family and his friends who call the Friendship House Community home.