Silver Light Ministry aims to serve as a beacon
Gospel Light Baptist Church is offering an alternative worship experience for people with dementia and other conditions that make it difficult to tolerate a traditional service.
The Silver Light Adult Care Ministry program, which began June 23, is led by Tamara Gray, who works at Bright Star Care and is a certified nursing assistant, certified dementia practitioner and certified activity director. She has also taken on the role as teacher and program leader of Silver Light.
The program’s pamphlet describes it as “an interactive service aimed to help individuals feel a connection with God. Anyone with Alzheimer’s, dementia, mental issues or disabilities that have a hard time tolerating a traditional worship service due to the noise, the crowd, the time sitting still, the walking, will benefit from this person-centered service. The service will allow these individuals to be able to enjoy praise and worship in a more accommodating environment.”
“No other church is doing it. About two or three months ago, I did a luncheon for area pastors just to kind of give them guidelines on how to help them connect with that lost portion of their flock that have Alzheimer’s or dementia, because it can be very challenging. A very small portion of all of the pastors that were invited showed up,” Gray said.
During the luncheon, she posed the question of why there was such a lack of adult care during services for adults with disabilities such as Tourette’s syndrome, anxiety, noise sensitivity, Alzheimer’s, dementia, PTSD, or other physical or mental disabilities.
“You try to be as accommodating as possible, but the churches were failing
because the adults had just gotten lost,” she said.
“Our pastors here at Gospel Light, which are Pastor Capaci and Pastor Robinson, heard that and said ‘No. How can we fix this? What can we do?’ And Silver Light was born.”
In Head Pastor Eric Capaci’s
27 years of preaching “all over,” he said that he has never heard of something like Silver Light.
“Obviously children are incredibly important and we have to have things for them. But it’s like out of sight, out of mind, it’s somebody else’s problem with these adults,” he said.
The services are held every Sunday from 8:30-10:30 a.m. in the church’s cafeteria, at 600 Garland Ave., with a drop off and pick up point directly in front of the cafeteria door.
Silver Light begins with coffee and doughnuts from 8:309 a.m., and continues with a hymn singalong with a physical book from 9-9:15 a.m., an interactive Bible discussion and lesson from 9:15-9:45 a.m., a seated, full-body exercise set to gospel and praise music referred to as “praisercise” from 9:45-10 a.m., Bible games and trivia from 1010:15 a.m. and pick up from 10:1510:30 a.m.
Gray feels that the facilities that Silver Light is held in are ideal for the congregants who attend, since it is in a different, quieter, uncrowded building of the church’s campus rather than where the main worship services are held, is handicap accessible, all on ground-level, has bathrooms very nearby and very few twists and turns.
Currently, the program has nine volunteers. Three of these are professional caregivers. All volunteers are church members, but that is not a requirement to volunteer, said Gray. She encouraged any and all who are interested in helping to contact her.
Upon arrival, greeters are waiting at the church’s cafeteria doors to meet the congregants at their cars and assist them inside. Once inside, another volunteer helps them get refreshments, then sits with those attending. This is a crucial component of the service, Gray said.
“They’re immediately engaged. They’re being talked to. Not just left sitting in a chair, lost in this giant room. We ask direct questions. I’m constantly pulling them in, and that’s where my experience as an activity director comes in because if you’re not interacting with them, asking them questions, you’re going to lose them. That’s where it’s hard. Because as great as pastors do on Sunday mornings, they’re talking to a mass crowd. You don’t have time to connect with one person and then pull this one in and that one in. You can’t do that from a pulpit. We have that opportunity in here with them.”
The lessons are nondenominational, according to Gray, and aim to make those in attendance “feel empowered, and like they still matter.”
Supplies on-site include adult diapers in case of incontinence, gait belts, a wheelchair, and blood pressure cuffs so that the volunteers “can pretty much accommodate for any type of emergency or anything while they’re in here with us,” Gray said.
Following the conclusion of the service, volunteers escort congregants back to theirs or a family’s member car once they arrive to pick them up.
Silver Light’s first week saw three people attend, and six in its second.
“Being two weeks old as a ministry, we’re just getting started,” said Capaci.
“Right now, it’s a matter of getting the word out. People are always really skeptical when something is new. This is different. People aren’t going to look at you like you’re different. There is no judgment,” said Gray.
“We’re talking about lifelong Christians that have went to church their entire lives that are suddenly not allowed to go to church because they’re no longer ‘appropriate’ for church. That’s messed up. It is seriously, seriously messed up,” said Gray.
Both Capaci and Gray said that they are very open to partnering with other churches to establish similar ministries.
“This is not about Gospel Light. It’s about the people,” Capaci said.
“It is very sad to me that this is the only church doing it. I hope more step up,” Gray said. “What really matters is that this group of people are not forgotten.”
For information regarding Silver Light or volunteering, call Gray at 501-547-0123 or email her at tamara.gray@ brightstarcare.com.