[1]AGOURA HILLS, Calif. (BP) — Joni and Friends disability ministry founder and CEO Joni Eareckson Tada has offered her ministry’s support in implementing the disability ministry recommendations messengers adopted at the 2026 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting.
“Our Joni and Friends teams across the country stand ready to provide guidance, training and disability ministry resources to help our friends in the SBC celebrate the gifts and abilities of special-needs families,” the beloved ministry leader told Baptist Press. “I am thrilled that the SBC approved the directives put forth by the Disability Ministry Task Force. This historic action sets the framework for expanding the kingdom of Christ among millions of the most forgotten and oft-neglected people in the world, those with disabilities and their families.”
Joni and Friends [2], a Christian organization Tada founded after a 1967 diving accident left her a quadriplegic, serves thousands of special needs families around the world. Tada references Luke 14:21 as the “only place in Scripture where Jesus gets specific about whom He wants in His kingdom, and the SBC disability directives will help countless churches and agencies give persons with disabilities hope, dignity, and a place in the body of Christ.
“So, I applaud the SBC for their landmark decision to honor the words of Jesus, “‘Go out quickly … and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.”
SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg welcomed Tada’s support, as did Disability Ministry Task Force leader Tom Stolle.
“We are grateful to partner with ministries like Joni and Friends, longtime leaders in the field of disability ministries, to further our shared mission of sharing the Gospel with and including all persons in our churches,” Iorg told Baptist Press. “We are grateful for the positive response the recently adopted Disability Ministries Task Force report is receiving both within the SBC and from outside organizations.”
[3]Stolle, who has partnered with Tada on other ministry outreaches to the disabled, applauded Joni and Friends as a knowledgeable, committed and enthusiastic ministry.
“Joni and Friends is a key partner in the effort to include individuals affected by disability into the life of the church. I am so thankful for their commitment to assist Southern Baptist churches across the country,” said Stolle, himself the father of a son with special needs. “Loving and serving churches impacting the lives of individuals affected by disability is what they do, and they do it with excellence.”
Stolle, executive director and CFO of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware, presented to 2026 messengers [4] the Disability Task Force report June 10 calling on Southern Baptist entities, churches and state conventions to do their part in sharing the Gospel with the disabled, which he presented as an unreached people group.
“If you took all the people on our planet with disabilities and added them together, you would have the third largest country in the world, just behind India and China,” Stolle told messengers in his report. “It is quite possible that individuals affected by disabilities are the largest lost people group on the planet. We cannot leave them behind.”
Stolle thanked Tada for her prayers and partnership.
“I believe many will experience the life-changing power of Jesus through our combined efforts to bear witness to the Gospel to individuals and families affected by disabilities,” Stolle said of Tada’s support.
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