Because of the mentions at desiringGod.org and twentytwowords.com (thank you, John Piper and Abraham Piper), we've had quite a few more readers this week.  We are glad for you to join us! 

We exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things FOR THE JOY of all peoples through Jesus Christ.  And, we joyfully live with a hard and glorious truth: God purposes disability in his creation for his glory and for our good.

I thought a brief introduction might be helpful on why we exist and how we do things. 

1) We want to make much of Jesus.  From the beginning we've longed for the disability ministry (and this blog) to be about more than programs and advocacy and accessibility - as vitally important as they are.  We know if we get ourselves untethered from our King Jesus and his word, it will be worse than if we had done nothing.

2) This blog is not officially monitored or sanctioned by Bethlehem; it was created and is managed by volunteers.  While it is unlikely we will ever speak in a contrary way to what is preached and taught at Bethlehem, please do not assume we speak for Bethlehem's leadership.  All the contributors to this blog, as covenant members of Bethlehem Baptist Church, joyfully submit to the godly leadership of Bethlehem's elders. 

For more information on what we believe, you can click on these links: church membership covenant, Congregational Affirmation of Faith, the Elder Affirmation of Faith, and the document the elders blessed to launch Bethlehem's Disability Ministry in 2004.  You can also find information at the special needs page on Bethlehem's site.

3) We leave the comments section open to all and hope your feel free to participate.  We do reserve the right to remove comments, but thus far that has not been necessary.  Sometimes we can respond to comments; sometimes we can't.

4)  We highly recommend using RSS to follow this blog.  Some weeks we blog almost daily; other times it might be several days between posts.  RSS works really well in following blogs like ours.  If you aren't familiar with RSS and its benefits, Abraham Piper created a helpful guide that I recommend.

5) We love other ministries that feel the same way we do about our great and glorious God and are grateful to learn from them.  You will see many references to Grace Church and Joni and Friends here, for example.  If you know of other like-minded ministries, we would enjoy learning about and from them as well.

6)  Most of the time, we're not exactly sure what to do next in this ministry at Bethlehem.  The issues that accompany disability are frequently overwhelming and can crush us - unless God intervenes.  We depend on God for help; prayerful dependence is a core value at Desiring God and for this ministry. We join Jehoshaphat in praying, "we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you." 2 Chronicles 20:12b

We look forward to making much of God together with you in the coming days.