Whole Community Introducing Communities of Faith to People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

The story of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities is often unknown or misunderstood by people in faith communities. Whole Community provides an introduction to the disabilitys definition and history, and an overview of current issues in ethics, cultural perceptions, and public policy. Through personal stories and often-surprising data, a new framework for relationship emergesone that reaches beyond mercy to mutuality and chooses to see disability as diversity rather than deficit.

David Morstad has steeped his book, Whole Community in years of rich experiences, relationships, and wisdom. The result is an outstanding book that takes the deep and important questions and convictions about living as one body together in Christ and turns that into practical and accessible direction for our Christian communities
Barbara J. Newman, author of Autism and Your Church and Accessible Gospel, Inclusive Worship

In Whole Community, Morstad explores the many important facets of inclusion in faith communities in a straightforward manner, with thoughtful stories and experiences interwoven between the hard questions and realities of the current state of disability inclusion in our congregations. I highly recommend this book for anyone beginning or developing disability inclusion efforts in their places of worship
Karen Jackson, executive director of Faith Inclusion Network of Hampton Roads and author of Loving Samantha

Whole Community is an excellent resource for faith leaders and congregations interested in improving access and inclusion for people with disabilities. Morstad explores a journey toward relationship through which congregations benefit from the gifts and talents people with disabilities bring to the community of faith
Curtis Ramsey-Lucas, editor, The Christian Citizen

David Morstad is a widely published writer, speaker and advocate in the disability field. For more than 38 years, he served Bethesda Lutheran Communities in roles that included educational resource development, staff training, Vice President for Communications, and was the Executive Director of the Bethesda Institute. He is a Fellow of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD), and was the 2010 recipient of the AAIDD Religion and Spirituality Divisions Henri J.M. Nouwen Award. He currently serves on the Wisconsin Governors Committee for People with Disabilities, and as an advisor to the Faith Inclusion Network of Hampton Roads and the Summer Institute on Theology and Disability.