Creative ways to encourage one another

If you’ve been following this series, you’ll know that I, along with a small group of autistic peers, have been reflecting on how we can best love and serve our church family. To guide us, we’ve been looking at the “one another” commands found in the Bible.

Several of these commands focus on how we communicate with each other. In Colossians 3v16 we are told, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom” (NIV), or as the NLT puts it, “teach and counsel each other". We are also instructed to “build each other up” (1 Thessalonians 5v11) and to “encourage one another daily” (Hebrews 3v13).

Teaching, admonishing, building one another up, encouraging daily… that sounds like a lot of conversations with your Christian friends!

The potential challenges of conversation

For autistic people, conversation can be particularly difficult. One of the “core characteristics” of autism is “communication and social interaction differences". [1]

The way this plays out can vary greatly from person to person. Some individuals are non-speaking and communicate through AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication, such as symbols, signing, or text-to-speech apps). Others, like myself, are hyperverbal - meaning we have a wide vocabulary, may speak rapidly or at length (especially on topics of interest), and can sometimes struggle with disorganised speech, jumping suddenly between subjects. At times I find myself juggling so many streams of thought that it feels like multiple trains trying to leave the same station at once - resulting in a verbal train crash!

The spectrum of communication differences is broad. So how can we navigate it in order to fulfil the commands to teach, admonish, encourage, and build one another up?

Accessible ways to communicate

In our group discussion, one helpful idea was the use of cards, letters, or even text messages. Written communication can be a far more accessible way to encourage one another when verbal conversation is difficult.

And for those who also find writing inaccessible, painting or drawing could be an alternative.

I often share the story of a young autistic girl I supported at a Christian festival. At the end of our time together, she gave me a painting. She explained that the colours represented a storm, and in the middle she had written three words: "Jesus loves you". She gave it to me at a time when I really needed that reminder, and I still treasure it today because it encouraged me so deeply.

It’s worth remembering that while teaching, encouraging, and building one another up often happen verbally, writing is by no means a new method of communication. In fact, the very words instructing us to do these things come to us through letters - letters that were originally written to encourage, teach, and build up their readers, and have then been canonised and make up the Bible.

I’m sure you can think of a time when you were encouraged by a note, letter, text, or picture. Some of you - if you’re sentimental like me - may even have a collection of these encouragements saved over the years.

Although we explored these written and visual forms of communication as people who sometimes find spoken conversation challenging, they are not limited to autistic people. Cards, letters, illustrations, texts, and other creative expressions are ways that anyone can encourage others - and ways through which everyone can be blessed.

1. National Autistic Society: Criteria and tools used in an autism assessment