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Journal Gazette | 02/24/2007 | Local congregation pumps up the volume
It may be hard to believe, but at a church that ministers to deaf and hearing-impaired people in Fort Wayne, the most important piece of equipment is a sound system. It plays music through powerful speakers.
“We turn them up really loud,” says Pastor Trent J. Netherton of Assembly of God Deaf Chapel, who has full hearing. “I say ‘Ow!’ They say, ‘Cool!’ ”
People with partial hearing can hear the music through the speakers, and people who have no hearing can feel vibrations through their feet, he explains. “They love it.”
It’s that kind of experience that has helped grow the congregation that meets at First Assembly of God Christian Center, 3301 Coliseum Blvd. E. It’s increased from about a dozen people to 40 in 14 years.
Netherton calls it “a church within a church.” He notes that in addition to 10:45 a.m. Sunday services, the congregation sponsors a volleyball night the first Friday of every month.
It consistently draws about 150 to 175 people, he says. Participants come from Indianapolis, Michigan, the Chicago area, and from throughout northeast Indiana. He attributes the attendance to a dearth of recreational opportunities for the deaf.
Known as Pastor T.J. to his congregants, Netherton uses a method known as total communication during the services. “That means I voice and sign at the same time,” he says. His sign language of choice is American Sign Language.
Other Fort Wayne churches also offer services for the deaf.
At Southern Heights Baptist Church, 4001 S. Anthony Blvd., Jim Jackson, 60, has been interpreting sermons and Bible readings for a small group of deaf people since the late 1980s.
The father of a deaf son, Jackson continued his work even after his son, Kenny, 43, married and moved to Washington state.
“We have about four people right now,” says Jackson of the church’s deaf participants. “The number goes up and down.”
Jackson says he is creating a game room at the church as a social center for deaf congregation members. “They don’t drive … so they don’t get to socialize very much except when they come to church,” he says.
Blackhawk Ministries on East State Boulevard has an interpreter for the deaf during its 10:45 a.m. Sunday service, according to pastoral associate Andi Stevens.
Val Gualdoni of Fort Wayne, a speech therapist, signs in SEE, or Signing in Exact English. It’s a newer signing method than ASL and is often used to interpret in schools, Stevens says.
The church also includes closed captioning for the deaf for its televised “Blackhawk Bible Hour” programs at 8:30 a.m. Sundays on WPTA-TV, Channel 21.
Concordia Lutheran Seminary in Fort Wayne offers a summer program to train church interpreters for the deaf, public relations officer Jayne Sheafer said. The dates this year are July 22 to 28. More information is available by calling 616-634-1100.
Netherton says he first felt a calling to minister to the deaf when he was 7 years old – even though he didn’t know any deaf people at the time.
But after that, “God kept putting them in my path,” the 40-year-old pastor says. He met a boy about his age at a wrestling camp, and then the brother of one of his best friends went deaf.
By the time he was in college, his path was sealed, he says, and he has since gone on to minister to the deaf in Thailand and at a school in Nicaragua.
Deaf ministry is important, says Netherton, because so few Christian materials are available in sign language. Until recently, he notes, even Christian television didn’t have closed captioning.
“A hearing person has hundreds of churches to choose from in Fort Wayne,” he says. “A deaf person doesn’t.”
It may be hard to believe, but at a church that ministers to deaf and hearing-impaired people in Fort Wayne, the most important piece of equipment is a sound system. It plays music through powerful speakers.
“We turn them up really loud,” says Pastor Trent J. Netherton of Assembly of God Deaf Chapel, who has full hearing. “I say ‘Ow!’ They say, ‘Cool!’ ”
People with partial hearing can hear the music through the speakers, and people who have no hearing can feel vibrations through their feet, he explains. “They love it.”
It’s that kind of experience that has helped grow the congregation that meets at First Assembly of God Christian Center, 3301 Coliseum Blvd. E. It’s increased from about a dozen people to 40 in 14 years.
Netherton calls it “a church within a church.” He notes that in addition to 10:45 a.m. Sunday services, the congregation sponsors a volleyball night the first Friday of every month.
It consistently draws about 150 to 175 people, he says. Participants come from Indianapolis, Michigan, the Chicago area, and from throughout northeast Indiana. He attributes the attendance to a dearth of recreational opportunities for the deaf.
Known as Pastor T.J. to his congregants, Netherton uses a method known as total communication during the services. “That means I voice and sign at the same time,” he says. His sign language of choice is American Sign Language.
Other Fort Wayne churches also offer services for the deaf.
At Southern Heights Baptist Church, 4001 S. Anthony Blvd., Jim Jackson, 60, has been interpreting sermons and Bible readings for a small group of deaf people since the late 1980s.
The father of a deaf son, Jackson continued his work even after his son, Kenny, 43, married and moved to Washington state.
“We have about four people right now,” says Jackson of the church’s deaf participants. “The number goes up and down.”
Jackson says he is creating a game room at the church as a social center for deaf congregation members. “They don’t drive … so they don’t get to socialize very much except when they come to church,” he says.
Blackhawk Ministries on East State Boulevard has an interpreter for the deaf during its 10:45 a.m. Sunday service, according to pastoral associate Andi Stevens.
Val Gualdoni of Fort Wayne, a speech therapist, signs in SEE, or Signing in Exact English. It’s a newer signing method than ASL and is often used to interpret in schools, Stevens says.
The church also includes closed captioning for the deaf for its televised “Blackhawk Bible Hour” programs at 8:30 a.m. Sundays on WPTA-TV, Channel 21.
Concordia Lutheran Seminary in Fort Wayne offers a summer program to train church interpreters for the deaf, public relations officer Jayne Sheafer said. The dates this year are July 22 to 28. More information is available by calling 616-634-1100.
Netherton says he first felt a calling to minister to the deaf when he was 7 years old – even though he didn’t know any deaf people at the time.
But after that, “God kept putting them in my path,” the 40-year-old pastor says. He met a boy about his age at a wrestling camp, and then the brother of one of his best friends went deaf.
By the time he was in college, his path was sealed, he says, and he has since gone on to minister to the deaf in Thailand and at a school in Nicaragua.
Deaf ministry is important, says Netherton, because so few Christian materials are available in sign language. Until recently, he notes, even Christian television didn’t have closed captioning.
“A hearing person has hundreds of churches to choose from in Fort Wayne,” he says. “A deaf person doesn’t.”