Neurodivergent people may benefit from different ways of connecting with religion. Consider practices that connect to the community to reach people who may be avoidant of the “typical church” experience.

When a neurodivergent person thinks about going to a place of worship, they are likely to think about sitting and listening to a speaker trying to teach a lesson from the Bible. This thought can cause anxiety or unease because it is not how their brain processes information. You might think “They just find it boring” but for many neurodivergent minds (like those with ADD/ADHD or Borderline Personality Disorder), boring is more of a feeling of unease or feeling upset as the brain is searching for and trying to produce the chemicals to lighten the tension in their mind.

Organizations can offer activities or increase opportunities for increased engagement within their offerings to gain more involvement of neurodivergent individuals in their congregation. These options do not need to be extravagant in any way or cost anything to the organization. It is more about a shift in how the conversation looks (or where that conversation is held) that will reach the neurodivergent community.

Options for Involvement: Drinks in Small Groups

There is a joking trope among and about neurodivergent people and their “emotional support drinks”. My water bottle even has a sticker on it that says, “Emotional Support Water Bottle”. On a typical day of work, I walk in with my water bottle, an energy drink in my purse, and a coffee in hand. There is just something comforting about having a fixed object in your hands to curb any fidgets, and having a drink buys a moment to process before having to verbally respond to anyone in a social setting. Physically, the act of drinking has been shown to regulate the nervous system and even the temperature of a drink can even help regain stability within the nervous system.

Religious groups can use beverages in a variety of ways when engaging their members. For example, when I was in high school, our youth leaders did a rotating morning coffee stop before school for an additional Bible study/community-building moment. They hit the high schools around the church and then made specific plans with those of us who were out of that range. Besides the emotional support drink aspect, this also allowed for a fixed end time to transition to the next activity (school), reducing the anxiety of leaving a social situation and the idea of having to find a valid reason to move on.

Another thing that my church offered was a weekly Bible study group that met at a local bar. As a young college student, I loved the idea of being able to connect with my friends from church and former youth leaders in this way. Unfortunately, the group got older and moved to a coffee shop as they started having children and more rigid schedules and I was not in the same stage of life as the others when I was able to join in.

Once again, the idea of the emotional support drink stands for the group in both settings. Each week, the groups would meet and talk through devotional topics while imbibing local refreshments of their choosing. This provided the opportunity to community build outside of the church and even fostered connections for the members that have turned into lifelong relationships. Later in life, I found a similar group at a church I was working at and joined to build connections with others before we chaperoned a youth trip.

Options for Involvement: Interactive Experiences

Bringing the talk of the Bible out of the walls of the church took a lot of the pressure off me as a neurodivergent person to act a certain way. Neurodivergent people often mask, or act as those around them, in social situations that they are unfamiliar with. That masking can turn into their way of being in certain contexts. Taking the topic of religion outside of the worship space allows the neurodivergent person to access the conversation with less of a barrier to processing what is going on. Bringing that conversation and activity out of its context also serves as a low-key form of spreading the good news and as an advertisement for the congregation.

It’s not all about the opportunities to share beverages together. A great way to reach the neurodivergent group already connected to your organization is through art or special interest. Adding in a visual or auditory experience is likely to reach those who have different ways of processing, and is likely to include areas of interest that individuals have. Offering a rotating gallery of art, even made by the youth or children’s ministries in the organization, can make the physical space more welcoming to a neurodivergent member in a way that can also increase engagement from neurotypical members.

This makes me think back to what I gravitated towards in my worship spaces before I knew how my brain worked. I preferred the chapel services at camp to the worship services I got each week. It was the same message and the same person sharing it, but the difference was two-fold: 1) the camp service is 70% music while the traditional service is 30% music, and 2) the view from the chapel was more engaging than the background behind the pulpit in my sanctuary. After years of knowing I had this preference, I decided to change where I sat at church; now I sit facing the choir loft so I can see an engaging view of those creating art as opposed to a fixed background behind the speaker.

An interactive experience is more likely to engage neurodivergent people than anything else. Consider events that are open to the public or held in public spaces—non-members engaging in these activities are often pulled in by the interactive aspect and stay (or return) for the community that they found. Camps, performances, craft fairs, or garage sales that are open to non-members are more likely to increase enrollment or attendance than inviting people to worship. This is due to the hands-on community building that neurodivergent people often seek out and even provides the opportunity to engage with an area of special interest.

It’s not that these individuals do not want to attend worship, but the commitment of a perceived “sit and get” religious experience is not as engaging to their brain as an interactive experience like the ones mentioned above (Publisher note: Learn more about interactive, intergenerational worship which might help in these situations). Once the engaging experiences have been internally processed, the individual is much more likely to commit to a worship service.

Conclusion

While reaching a neurodivergent audience is not about the substitution of fun for worship, it is about engaging people in a way that interacts with the part of their brain that is connected to fun, pleasure, and comfort. By targeting activities that will light up that area of the brain, you are more likely to engage the neurodivergent audience in other faith-based activities and conversations. Activities that are outside of the walls of the ministry, are interactive in nature, or hit on some of the specialized interests of the community should increase neurodivergent engagement in worship, faith-based conversation, and other church involvement.

Warmly,

Elaine Seekon

About the Writer

Elaine is an educator by trade and passion, licensed in Special Education areas of Emotional Behavior Disorders, Specific Learning Disabilities, and Autism Spectrum Disorders, as well as Secondary Communicative Arts. Education-driven, she has previously completed a Master of Arts in Educational Leadership and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Social Psychology. She is currently working as a Behavior Specialist in a high school setting. With Spirit & Truth Publishing, Elaine is happily employed as a writer and editor.

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