After attending a Sunday morning service at Salt Lake City’s Missio Dei Community church for the first time, a single mom, with tears streaming down her face, told a congregant, “I’ve never gone to a church service and got to stay the whole time.”
Why? Because, with her autistic son, she often has to step out. He has trouble processing the information he receives from his senses. Sounds, lights, crowds and smells can become overwhelming, even physically painful.
But this church has a “sensory corner,” where he could use fidget tools to occupy himself, so she was able to remain and enjoy the sermon.
In fact, Missio Dei became the first church in Utah to gain sensory-inclusive certification from the nonprofit organization KultureCity, which trains staffers and makes modifications to venues to meet the sensory needs of everyone.
This mom “simply turned around to make sure [her son] was OK, and he would sign ‘I love you’ to let her know while he continued to utilize the sensory corner,” recalled Meg Raby, a KultureCity employee who helped certify the church she also attends.
Raby, too, is neurodivergent. Even though her sensory processing struggles differ from many neurodivergent kids and adults, Raby said she knows what it’s like to feel like you belong only if you fit common neurotypical ways.
“To have a church like mine become sensory inclusive tangibly sends the message to me and to the other individuals with a sensory processing disorder that we are a part of humanity, we are loved, and we are wanted,” Raby said. “That’s what the church should be doing: spreading the love of Jesus in tangible ways to those often overlooked.”
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Meg Raby, who helped the Missio Dei Community church get a sensory-inclusive certification through the nonprofit KultureCity, talks about modifications made to the church, on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023.
How prevalent are sensory symptoms?
About 1 in 6 children experience sensory processing issues such as an increased or decreased sensitivity to light, sound or touch. It’s estimated that 5% to 16.5% of the general population have sensory processing symptoms.
In 2021, Salt Lake City became the first city in the country to have all of its first responders gain KultureCity’s certification. The program is intended to give crews a better understanding of the experiences of people with a range of sensory needs and treat every encounter as one in which a person might have an invisible disability.
For the church’s certification, it costs Missio Dei $750 a year. It requires at least 50% of staffers and volunteers to take a once-a-year, 40-minute online training that explains what sensory processing difficulties are and how to “best accommodate” people with them.
The trainings are available to staffers and volunteers throughout the year, and the church has also made it open to the whole community.
Pastor Jonny Morrison said partnering with KultureCity aligns perfectly with one of the key reasons the church exists — to be “radically inclusive.”
“For too long, there has been a lot of barriers in the community for people who are neurodivergent,” Morrison said. “We want to remove every barrier, every obstacle for the community.”
How the church helps
At Missio Dei, specific modifications include clear, black-and-white signs that help direct people to find accommodations. Visualization, Raby said, is the strongest way of making things understandable to people who are neurodivergent.
It also provides “sensory bags,” which contain noise-canceling headphones, fidget tools and communication cards with emojis on them.
“We [intentionally] call them tools instead of toys,” Raby said. “There’s all this push to be sensory inclusive to kids, which is important. But I’m a neurodivergent adult, and I like that it normalizes it. These are tools, and there’s no age limit.”
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) After getting a sensory-inclusive certification from nonprofit Kulture City, Missio Dei Community church has sensory bags with fidget tools and noise-canceling headphones in them, on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023.
The sensory corner sports beanbags, sensory bags and a light wall for people who have increased or decreased sensitivity to light.
“What’s nice about the lights is it’s a way to be in control, ” Raby said. “ ... Or it’s just another way for someone anxious and panicky to trigger a different part of the brain and help them get back to a place of calmness and peace.”
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The "sensory corner" inside the auditorium of Missio Dei Community church, which is sensory-inclusive certified, on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023.
Morrison said that having these tools — and the language to discuss sensory processing difficulties openly — has been “so helpful in creating spaces of hospitality” at the weekly service, as well as activities throughout the week.
Over time, he’s noticed church volunteers and staffers think proactively about how the sounds of the service, the music or lights could affect someone with sensory processing difficulties.
“We ask ourselves, ‘How do we do these things just a little bit better so that everyone gets to belong?’” Morrison said. “I feel like all members are a part of that conversation. I think you’re seeing that [awareness] percolate throughout the entire community.”
Taking these tools to the wider community
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall said all community spaces would benefit from not only the training KultureCity provides but also from adopting the wider culture of sensory inclusion that the organization teaches.
“We want to see more of that in Salt Lake City — not only in churches and with first responders,” she said, “but I would love to see restaurants and small businesses look at becoming a part of this sensory inclusive culture.”
Raby hopes this is the first of many churches that get the sensory-inclusive certification.
“This type of inclusion, love and accommodations are for all places of worship and for getting people into a community,” Raby said. “I would love for KultureCity to be able to get into all the churches of all the denominations so that those families can feel like their children ... are truly seen and wanted here.”
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) One of the added clear, black-and-white signs that are part of the sensory-inclusive modifications made to Missio Dei Community church, on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023.
