What are you doing to reach me?

Research has shown that sufferers of mental illness with low or limited literacy experience significant obstacles in gaining access to and use of health care services and I wonder how many of them experience obstacles in gaining access to the Word of God?

Literacy among those with mental illness has gone relatively unnoticed throughout the years for it is often assumed that patients read adequately and thus they are almost never formally test literacy skills. Often presumption is made that the last grade of school completed accurately reflects the individual’s reading ability. This presumption is also fed by a distorted self-perception. Most patients with low literacy skills describe themselves as reading and writing English well; however, such self-estimates are highly unreliable. For example, a 44-year-old patient with schizophrenia reported that he had obtained a college degree many years ago. He confidently indicated that he read “very well.” However, testing showed that he was reading at the fourth- to sixth-grade level.( http://psychservices.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/49/1/7 )

Monthly on Mondays, we have commenced a group called Connect Café. It is time to have a cappuccino, some tasty treats and enjoy friendship. There is also time for a bible study that aims to engage with those who can read but find it tiring, effort, or unenjoyable. The way we have tried to achieve this is by using a series of studies I had previously written for you called “The Gospel According to the OC”. We watch a snippet of the OC that illustrates gospel truths. It opens up the theme and topic for discussion and complements the passage of scripture that we read through together. It also gives them confidence to talk about the ideas as it is something they have visually comprehended.

e.g. Read Ephesians 2:1-10, is accompanied by the opening pilot episode of season one of the OC, where Ryan Atwood’s vulnerability and despair is revelled as he has a whole list of crimes and disadvantages stacked against him and is at the mercy of his attorney Mr Cohen, who ends up inviting him into his home in the hills of California. Ryan goes from the trailer to a mansion. Spiritually this is our state described in Ephesians.

What are you doing to reach those who struggle with reading?
Are your churches full of Academic English or Easy English? Remove things that act as obstacles to the gospel. This is hard as we worship a God who speaks and gave us the Word, so we want words but perhaps there are some ways you could include or change an element of your services to be more friendly and accessible.