Preach Magazine Issue 1 - Creativity and innovation in preaching | Page 26

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FEATURE

Lynn MCCann
is part of the leadership team
of The Good News group in
Leyland, Lancashire – a church
congregation for adults with
learning disabilities.
‘Our challenge is really just to teach
the Bible and preach the gospel in a
very accessible way.
‘There are a lot of communication
barriers because people in the group
have a wide range of needs. Some
have very little verbal language
and find it hard to process a lot of
language and others have more
moderate learning difficulties but they
find the content of complex religious
language too much to take on board.
‘We have tools that help us. First
of all we have to really gather all
our knowledge of communication.
Some of the team have worked
with deaf people. I’ve worked with
autistic children. We also speak to the
members themselves and their carers
about what helps them understand
things. So over the years we’ve
developed quite an eclectic way of
communicating. We quite often use a
lot of repetition and visual pictures.
We use symbols and signs. We’ve all
learnt to use Makaton sign language.

I’VE WORKED WITH AUTISTIC
CHILDREN. WE ALSO SPEAK TO
THE MEMBERS THEMSELVES
AND THEIR CARERS
ABOUT WHAT HELPS THEM
UNDERSTAND THINGS. SO OVER
THE YEARS WE’VE DEVELOPED
QUITE AN ECLECTIC WAY OF
COMMUNICATING.

LWPT8173 - Preach Magazine - Issue 1 v3.indd 26

Mike Collyer
‘We always start with a Bible
passage and we tend to use the
easy English version which you can
get on Bible Gateway as a starting
point. We might shorten sentences
because that pause when you get
to a full stop can really help people
cope with each sentence.
‘We look at particular words –
religious or complicated words –
and we will still use them, but then
we’ll explain what they mean.
‘When we’ve got that as our basis
we’ll then decide on what pictures
we need to support this, what signs
in Makaton might we use and then
try and make it interactive using
drama and puppets – sensory
things to try as well.
‘We don’t shy away from certain
subjects. Some of the more
figurative things in the Bible have
been difficult so we’ve not tackled
Revelation yet: maybe one day. But
we do find that there’s so much we
can draw from – our people learn
really well through story and the
Bible is rich with it.’
For more information and to
contact Lynn McCann, visit her blog
includedbygrace.wordpress.com.

worked for the Church Army’s
Research Unit exploring
evangelism, spiritual needs
and fresh expressions for
church among older people.
He facilitates the senior action
team at Sheffield Cathedral and
preaches at his local church.
‘I think any preacher should start where
peopl H\