Thinking of Starting a Neurodiversity Church

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Greetings everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster here

I have been going to a Lutheran church for many, many years now. Mostly because my parents go to church there (my Dad plays in the band), but I always feel awkward around most of the people there. Especially during the "Welcome" portion, where everyone in the church turns around to shake hands and greet each other, and somehow I always manage to feel awkward since no one turns to me until they're out of other options. Every single time this happens, I just try my best to not look awkward, and I hate doing that. A couple weekends ago, the sermon they had basically said "life is about taking risks, not playing it safe." Something sparked an idea that I've been thinking about ever since, and I'm starting to take this seriously.

I don't know if the timing is right, but I'm strongly considering starting a "Neurodiversity" church that caters to autism and becoming an activist for those on the spectrum. I was diagnosed with ASD when I was 3.5 years old, so this is a very important cause to me. Anyone would be welcome, although it would be geared more for those who have autism, as well as family members/friends/coworkers/etc. of those that have autism. I've done extensive googling, and have yet to find anything other than a few relevant bible verses, as well as one or two pastors diagnosed with ASD and some churches with "special needs" outreach programs. None of this is enough in my mind, and it doesn't seem like anyone's actively trying to give a home to those of us Aspies who have faith, but rather simply accommodating us with the rest of their congregations. I feel like they're missing the point -- we're wired different, we comprehend things differently, that's just part of being an Aspie. I personally want something that caters to that, and I've always been of the mindset that "if it doesn't exist, and you want it, make it so!"

That's where I need help, in the "making it so" part. I have a full-time job that I absolutely love and want to keep, but I feel like this is a calling. Being a web developer, I can put together a website for it with streaming video of the services (that way anyone in the world with internet access can attend), but I'm absolutely at a loss for how to put this all together. I should have no problem putting together sermons, but there are so many questions I have that remain unanswered -- do I try to find a dedicated building for this, or just start off small? Should I talk to other churches to see if they're interested in sponsoring all of this, or do I just go solo? I'm not in it for the money (I have a job for that, and really don't want to leave it), but if I need to raise funds for the church itself, how do I go about doing that? Do I need to be officially ordained as a pastor first, or can I just start my own church without needing to do that? Should I even do this at all, or is it a moot point to entertain the thought? I can't seem to figure any of this out, so I was hoping to get some input from the rest of the Aspie community to figure out if there's enough interest to make this worthwhile. If there is, I will gladly proceed with this, it's just a matter of figuring out the basics before getting in too deep.

Is anyone interested in this? Any ideas, thoughts, constructive criticism, etc. anyone can provide would be massively appreciated!

Interesting, would've thought there'd be at least one or two replies by now. Either way, I've added a poll to gauge opinion -- feel free to vote!

While there are some Christians on this site they seem to be in the minority, with most Aspies being either atheists or agnostics.
I remember someone setting up an online all-denomination Christian church a few years ago, totally unrelated to this site, don't know what became of it. It even had a virtual church where people could use an avatar to "walk around" and converse with other believers if they wanted to.

Personally I'm atheist / Zen Buddhist.

Sounds interesting! I've seen a few sites like that, but nothing for churches. Well, I haven't given up hope quite yet, my fiancee's an Aspie herself and is also a Christian (although raised Catholic, which partially led to the idea), and both of our families are mostly that way as well. Maybe I should be gearing this towards families of autistics rather than autistics themselves then. Still have a lot of thinking to do.

It seems I neglected to mention one important fact that the last line in your post reminded me of: I'm not looking to convert anyone's religion, but rather provide more of a home for those that believe the same thing I do. Being an American, I believe freedom of religion is hugely important, and do not like to "push" my religion onto others. If someone is willing to discuss their religion with me, I'm more than happy to do so, but only if prompted.

Either way, thanks for the input! It is greatly appreciated

No offense, but it sounds like some weird cult. However accomodating for disabled folk in a church is okay, but this gives off scientology vibes to me.

Completely understandable. I'm hoping to distance myself from other cults by not trying to run it like a business and instead run it as more of an "on the side" hobby-type thing, but it's bound to stir up some negative reaction like that. Better now than after it's all set up and done I say! Thanks for the input!

Who knows, perhaps you could avoid paying taxes by making your home the actual place of sermon since that's were your computer is running, lol.

Dude same. My church has a "shake and howdy" and no one approaches me and if they do I smile back but if they touch me (handshake, etc...) then i kinda freak out...

My accountant parents would kill me if I actually tried that

If I wind up starting this church, that part would be skipped entirely. Although whenever I touch anyone's bare skin besides my fiancee's, I have to wipe the part of my body that touched it with fabric or fur (like my pants). Otherwise the feeling just lingers and it gets uncomfortable.

The poll results look very encouraging so far! It wouldn't let me see the results without voting myself, so I chose the "I'd contribute" option. It wasn't until I voted that I realized that could be taken the wrong way -- it's supposed to mean contribute in non-financial ways, but a little late for that now. Live and learn I suppose.

Still though, not including myself, the current tally is 30% not interested, 70% for it! I'll definitely ask my fiancee's friends what they think tomorrow, I'm not sure if they're on here or not, but I believe they're on the spectrum as well, and could potentially benefit from this too.

Fascinating how much interest there is already! Keep voting, let your voices be heard!

what religeon woud it be based on?

am actualy in the long process of joining judaism and find the liberal/reform synagogues more accomodating of disability than christianity ever was.
a online church is interesting,though it woudnt be possible for self as am on a highly restricted bandwith level-a one gb dongle.

It would be Lutheran-based (Christian, but not the Catholic type).

I'm actually very glad you mentioned that point, I can take a YouTube-type approach where based on your bandwidth, the quality and/or size of the video will change, so those with unlimited bandwidth can get full HD, whereas those on a more restricted bandwidth such as yourself can select a smaller video, which would significantly cut down on bandwidth. Definitely a key part of any setup this may have, and one that hadn't even crossed my mind until I read your post.

Saw your post in wozeree's planning for the future thread.

Building space: It would be foolish to rent a dedicated building w/o a congregation and donations to support it. Do as other small churches do and rent a school gymnasium for one evening/week or Sat/Sun morning or whenever to hold your meetings in. Or see if an actual church, perhaps even yours, is willing to rent (or donate?) their space to you for one eve/week.

That actually gives me an idea. The senior pastor at my current church is retiring in a few months. I'll get in touch with him and see what he thinks of all of this. They've started a few church "plants" over the years, maybe this could be the newest!

The church I attend [rarely] is a Unitarian church. All beliefs are welcome. All people are welcome. There are traditional Christians, pagans, jews, members of LGBT community, all sorts of activists, etc. Our church works with the homeless, Habitat for Humanity, and so many other things. I wonder if a Unitarian church might be able to help you to start a new church. Or, being Unitarianism is about working together to make the world a better place, you could actually start a program within a Unitarian church and be able to count on the church itself for support in different areas. That is one thing I hope to do, but I have to wait until I can find a little bit more room on my plate without toppling everything else already piled on it.

I think that's a great idea. I would watch online. I quit going to church as a teenager, mainly because of sensory issues. I hated the welcome portion, except I wished people would ignore me. It's awkward to hug strangers! I also hated how loud the whole thing was, especially the music portion. When I could get away with it, I would hide out in the bathroom until they finished that part. Once I was able to stop going, I never planned to go back but your idea sounds really nice!

A lot of small and new churches use school cafeterias here, others use storefronts in shopping areas. One actually uses an existing church and has their services after the main church finishes theirs.

I'm not sure if you have to be ordained or not, it seems likely that you would need to be if you want to start a specific denomination of church but maybe not if it's interfaith. I don't really know. I don't think it's too hard to get ordained if you do need to be, I know my grandfather did some kind of correspondence course that took a few months and he was able to have a church thing for prisoners. I actually think he might have had an ASD himself, and religion was his special interest. He had quite a few traits.

It would probably be good to talk to other churches about how to get funding and stuff. A lot of them work together closely in my town, even ones from entirely different faiths. Part of it would be from the members donating, although probably not all of it in this case since a lot of people with ASDs don't have jobs.

Good luck with this project!