The start of a new year is when we dream. Ministry teams pull out the whiteboards, set goals, plan calendars, and ask, "Who is God calling us to reach this year?"

Before you finalize those plans, let me suggest a group that is almost certainly missing from your KidMin on Sunday morning. They don't live overseas or across town. They live within a few miles of your front door.

The Numbers We Can't Ignore

According to the CDC, 28.7% of the U.S. population reports having a disability. That's more than one in four. Yet disability ministry leaders estimate that as many as 90% of families affected by disability do not attend church. Nine out of ten.

These families aren't absent because they lack faith. In fact, research presented at Baylor University in 2026 found that nearly half of parents of children with disabilities have left at least one church because their child wasn't welcome. Others never came because they couldn't picture a place where their child would be safe, understood, and wanted.

Families affected by disability are the largest unmet people group in the United States. We rightly send teams across oceans to reach the unreached. But some of the most unreached people in America live on our own streets.

Not "Out There." Right Here.

Statistics are easy to treat as someone else's problem. A free tool makes them local: impact.soarspecialneeds.org. Here's how to use it:

1. Enter your church's name, city, and state.

2. Choose a radius: 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 miles.

3. See the total population, number of households, and number of individuals with disabilities in that area, drawn from the latest U.S. Census data.

4. Click Ministry Impact to see the difference your church could make, along with the total number of churches within that same radius.

That last number matters. When you see how many churches surround you, something hopeful comes into focus. If every church committed to welcoming families with disabilities, we could easily meet the need and see growth and revival in our communities.

Try a 3-mile radius around your building. I've watched pastors and children's ministry leaders go quiet when the number appears. It stops being a statistic. It becomes your neighbors.

Jesus Went to Them First

This isn't a new idea; it's the oldest one. When I list Jesus' miracles, 67% were done for individuals with disabilities: the lame, the blind, and the deaf. I like to say Jesus was the first Disability Pastor. He didn't wait for them to find Him. He went to them.

In Luke 14, the master of the banquet tells his servant, "Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame" (Luke 14:21, ESV). Notice the word quickly. To be like Jesus, our churches welcome individuals with disabilities and go after them first.

Take It to Your Senior Pastor

Many of you lead children's ministry, not the whole church. That's okay; in fact, you may be the most important person in this conversation. Families affected by disability often decide whether to stay at a church based on one question: Was my child welcomed? Your ministry is the front door, and you can be the one who starts the conversation with leadership.

Click the blue Leadership Report button on the impact tool, and it packages your community's numbers into a two-page document made for church leaders. Print it and bring it to your senior pastor. If your pastor believes in evangelism and reaching the community, families with disabilities must be part of that vision. They are the community.

Even better, plan what I call an Aha Dinner. Arrange for your senior pastor and spouse to have dinner with a family raising a child with a disability, with the child present on a typical evening. No script, no presentation. Just let your pastor see firsthand how beautiful, and how hard, everyday life can be for that family. The numbers inform. The Aha Dinner transforms.

Start With Who You Already Have

You don't need a new building, a big budget, or a program for every diagnosis to begin. Start with who you already have.

For the first three months, focus on the children with disabilities already attending your church. Get to know them and their families. Raise up trained buddies and build a simple plan. Then welcome the next family, and the next.

You don't have to do this alone. Find a ministry organization that understands disability ministry, and see how they can help your program grow and avoid common pitfalls along the way.

Your New Year Challenge

Before your first planning meeting of 2027, spend five minutes at impact.soarspecialneeds.org. Look at the number. Pray over it. Then ask your team one question: "Who's missing?"

They're closer than you think.

Let's become a biblical KidMin that follows Luke 14, and together let's become a church of belonging!

Stephen “Doc” Hunsley, M.D., is the Executive Director and Founder of SOAR Special Needs, based in Lenexa, Kansas. SOAR operates the nation’s largest disability day camp, consults with 800+ churches in 26 countries, and mobilizes 1,500+ volunteers annually. To learn more about bringing inclusion ministry training to your church or region, visit SOARspecialneeds.org or contact info@SOARspecialneeds.org.