Starting something new for adults with learning disabilities

Nicky Earl-Pickup shares the journey that led her to starting services for adults with learning disabilities.

“It began a few years ago,” she writes, “before I could imagine where it would lead.”

“During my theology degree, something happened that I still struggle to fully put into words. I had a Spirit experience, unexpected, gentle, but unmistakably real. When I shared it with a friend, he said something that stayed with me, something that made me look again at who God might be calling me to notice. Not long after, one of my tutors echoed a similar thought, almost as if God was underlining the same sentence twice.”

“So when it came time to choose a dissertation topic, the direction felt less like a decision and more like a response: What approaches to Christian discipleship seems most applicable to people with learning disabilities?”

“It wasn’t just research. It felt like a calling. A seed God planted quietly, patiently, waiting for the right season.”

“As I studied, listened, and prayed, I came across a charity called Count Everyone In. Their mission is to ‘inspire and equip God’s church to be welcoming and accessible to all, especially those who are often marginalised by society and even the church because of a learning disability.’This stuck something deep in me. It gave language to what I was sensing; it showed me that this calling wasn’t just an idea; it was possible. Others were already walking this path, and their work helped shape my own.”

“That seed stayed with me. During the last year of my degree, I approached a council-run group for adults with learning disabilities, a group where most of the people, and most of the staff, didn’t go to church. I asked: ‘Would you like me to come and share the Nativity story with you?’”

“They said yes. So I went. No big plan. No programme.”

“Just the story of Jesus’ birth, told in ways that were simple, sensory, joyful, and accessible.”

“When Easter came, I returned to share that story too. And from those two visits, something began to grow. The group welcomed me back, and now I go to them once a month, where a gentle rhythm has formed: conversations, questions, laughter, prayer, and a growing sense that God is quietly at work.”

“And slowly, it became clear: God was doing something. Not loud. Not dramatic. But steady. Faithful. Real.”

“From those early visits, a new possibility emerged, one I hadn’t imagined when I first wrote that dissertation: a service at my church (Dawley Baptist Church).”

“A gathering, a service especially shaped for adults with learning disabilities and for the carers who support them. A place where people who don’t usually go to church, or do but don’t really understand the service, can belong, participate, and meet Jesus in ways that make sense to them.”

“And so, on 29th March 2026, we held our very first service. It wasn’t polished. It wasn’t perfect. But it was full of life, full of welcome, full of joy, full of God’s presence moving in ways that felt unmistakably right.”

“And now, from that first service, I pray a new rhythm has begun: Praying together once a month, a gentle heartbeat of community, discipleship, and belonging.”

“What started as a Spirit-promoted moment has become a ministry. What began as a seed has become a living, growing thing. And the story is still unfolding.”