In fall of 2022, with support from the Templeton Foundation and a grant through Fuller Theological Seminary, Michael Paul Cartledge, Erin Raffety and the Institute for Youth Ministry of the Princeton Theological Seminary launched Cultivating God’s Brainforest, an online learning module for youth workers that centers and celebrates neurodiversity among young people. In this article, Raffety, an ethnographic researcher at Princeton Theological Seminary and Presbyterian pastor, joins Ellen White, a neurodivergent director of children, youth and family ministry at Pennington Presbyterian Church, to discuss what the “brainforest” is, who is in it and how neurodivergent youth are reshaping youth ministry in innovative, faithful ways.
Erin: Michael Paul Cartledge and I received a grant from Fuller Theological Seminary in 2021 to create curriculum that would support and engage neurodivergent youth — youth with ADHD, autism and other emotional and behavioral conditions. But before we made anything, we decided to listen. First, we gathered a group of youth workers, Princeton Theological Seminary community members and neurodivergent youth at the Farminary for an afternoon of exploration, conversation and connection in November 2021. We began with a farm tour, and then we did a few activities, scattering wildflower seeds, turning compost and getting eggs from the chicken coop.
“Before we made anything, we decided to listen.”
We actually did one of the activities that ended up in the curriculum at the opening retreat, too: a photo scavenger hunt where you take photos of beauty, things that remind you of being made in God’s image. And I remember youth who (at first) seemed quite nervous and unsure of being there, confidently wandering around the farm and liking each other’s posts as they trickled onto an online platform that displayed them. The activity really broke the ice and also connected creation in nature and human creations, technology, in a way that didn’t pressure people or force them to engage but was open to their own creativity.
I’ll never forget when we sat around the table and had lunch, right before a blustery storm rolled in, the deep pain we heard from parents, youth and youth workers about what it felt like for neurodivergent youth to not fit well into congregational life. It hurt that what they needed and what the church was providing did not align: neurodivergent youth and their families were lacking connection and resources. But that hurt also felt holy. It felt like something we needed to fundamentally address.
Ellen: I brought a few of my youth that day. I can picture them grabbing shovels and turning over compost. It strikes me now to think of the holy darkness in rich compost, darkness from which slowly color and variety and goodness are growing. It gives me hope that even after the deep pain that was shared on the farm, good things can grow.
Erin: We joke that it seems a little ironic to put together an online curriculum that celebrates nature. But even from that initial gathering, the message that God’s goodness is reflected in the variety of creation, in a metaphorical “brainforest,” was really clear.
“It hurt that what they needed and what the church was providing did not align: neurodivergent youth and their families were lacking connection and resources. But that hurt also felt holy.”
Ellen: Erin, what the heck is a brainforest?
Erin: The concept of the brainforest was coined by an activist in the neurodiversity movement, a grassroots movement of autistic people who see brain differences, like other differences, as naturally occurring in creation. So neurodiversity encompasses both people who are neurodivergent and neurotypical, but our society is set up with the assumption that most people’s brains work – or should work – the same way. But eye contact, for instance, is uncomfortable for some autistic people, so they may avoid eye contact in order to focus better on what you’re saying. Or movement may be helpful for people with ADHD, but so often we’re told to sit still in order to demonstrate respect. So this reinterpretation of disability as diversity is so crucial because often neurodivergent people are made to feel like a problem.
Ellen: I could see how clearly this project was demonstrating “both/and” thinking in moving toward greater understanding: both trying to make space for grief among neurodivergent youth and youth leaders who have struggled in church contexts and [to] celebrate the gifts they have for the church. So as someone who is neurodivergent, it made it possible for me to embrace who I am but also not feel as though my hurt didn’t matter or would just go away. It takes time to process and internalize that God calls all creation good, that diversity is intentional and vital and meant to be celebrated. And we can hold that to be true alongside the reality of pain and grief.
Farminary in 2021. Photo courtesy of Erin Raffety.
Erin: So after the retreat, in 2022, Michael Paul and I pulled in some of [the] leaders – including you, Jessica Clarke and Denise Carrell – over Zoom, hired students Elyse Horn and Jesse Hershberger and started building the curriculum. We were able to showcase our work in progress with a special series of classes on the Brainforest [curriculum] at the Forum on Youth Ministry at Princeton Seminary in May 2022, and then the curriculum went live with an online launch party that fall.
What’s cool to think about is how the [Cultivating God’s] Brainforest curriculum changed the forum. For instance, we had these red, yellow and green buttons that we teach about in the curriculum that they used at the forum (and continue to use) to indicate eagerness to engage socially. We created sensory spaces, and they’ve carried on that tradition of including rest in their programming. As with any adaptation to curriculum, when it makes sense for a particular group of people as an adaptation, it often ends up accommodating everybody better, and I hope that’s what the Brainforest does.
Ellen: I remember one of the sessions at the forum started with “A Prayer for Seeking Your Neurodivergence,” by Amanda Diekman. We then asked youth workers to write down the name of one young person who may be neurodivergent and marginalized in their church. For some, it was a youth they worked with, a beloved sibling or even their younger self. We stuck those names to the walls around our room and prayed for each other and these people.
Erin: As we continued to develop the course, it became not “how do we fit neurodiversity into the youth ministry box that we already have?” but “how do neurodivergent youth call us to accountability to shift and reinterpret the practices of prayer, worship and love that we may not realize are a bit narrow or too exclusive?”
“How do neurodivergent youth call us to accountability to shift and reinterpret the practices of prayer, worship and love that we may not realize are a bit narrow or too exclusive?”
Ellen: One thing I really like about the online curriculum is how flexible and multimodal it is: you can do it in small chunks, with a group or by yourself, and move at your own pace; but it also draws you into so many different formats (prayers, videos, transcripts, handouts, coloring sheets, audio clips) and features a real chorus of neurodivergent youth workers and youth voices.
Erin: The curriculum is organized in five lessons: Lesson 1: Exploring God’s Brainforest; Lesson 2: Prayer and Attention; Lesson 3: Worship and Senses; Lesson 4: Love and Expression; and Lesson 5: Flourishing in God’s Brainforest. Each lesson has prayer and introductory video, Scripture for contemplation, a sermonette video, personal journal reflection prompts, activities for young people and congregation, a congregational connection activity, prompts for online sharing and audio clips from neurodivergent youth reflecting on each theme. The fifth lesson veers from the format to include testimonies from neurodivergent youth workers, kind of an “it gets better” look for neurodivergent youth.
Ellen, you did both a sermonette and testimony for the curriculum, and I love that in your sermonette, you described some of the neurodivergent youth who work the live-streaming video controls during worship as “essential members of the tech team” who, by using their gifts, invite people to worship even when they can’t be in the same building. You pointed out that some of them may have a hard time paying attention during traditional worship, so they participate by doing something active and tactile, working the soundboard, operating cameras, advancing slides, which is such a good way to experience worship with the congregation! That speaks to something I learned from neurodivergent youth and especially during the pandemic: we don’t all need to be doing the same thing at the same time or even the same space for it to be faithful worship.
“As a youth worker who is also neurodivergent, I think this course is a treasure trove for fellow workers, for pastors and volunteers, but it is also an extension of grace to myself.”
Ellen: As a youth worker who is also neurodivergent, I think this course is a treasure trove for fellow workers, for pastors and volunteers, but it is also an extension of grace to myself. My diagnosis of ADHD is relatively new, and while I am learning to love and appreciate the way my brain works differently from others, sometimes it’s hard not to feel frustrated with myself, especially with the messages the world often sends to people who are different.
Erin: Representation is important and powerful. There are established neurodivergent leaders preaching and teaching in the curriculum, like you and Lamar Hardwick, the self-dubbed “autism pastor” with quite the Twitter [now X] following; but there’s also Mo Clarke, a high school youth advocate, and voices of youth reflecting on their experiences with prayer, worship and love. When people work through the curriculum, hearing the youth voices is often one of the most impactful experiences. For instance, Milo, a young person with Tourette’s, shares, “I like being able to listen to music and being able to sing along with it. That can be pretty engaging, but I don’t like standing in church. It’s an odd thing, but it makes me have to focus on standing way more than focus on what we’re actually doing or talking about.”
Just getting young people’s perspectives and the orientation to listening well to young people, receiving their insights as a gift, is something that I’m so proud of and grateful for. I also love the coloring sheets that a neurodivergent artist, Amanda Ellis, created especially for the curriculum, that reinterpret the Bible stories through the lens of neurodiversity. One shows little children hanging on Jesus, playing alongside him or stimming — and again, representation really makes you think. Another aspect of the curriculum, the congregational connection, gives ideas for how youth workers can make sure what’s happening in this learning doesn’t stay confined to youth spaces but offers insights to church councils, sessions and pastoral leadership.
Ellen: I want everyone to take Cultivating God’s Brainforest and then go and make more copious and widespread programs, curriculum and resources that keep neurodiversity in mind. This course really feels like it is blooming. It’s a beautiful collaboration of voices, offering something productive, positive, celebratory … look what God has done!
Erin: This is really just the beginning, in terms of equipping our leaders and even making people aware: it’s not just youth who need this, it’s all of us. As an educator, it’s changed the way I teach. Now I see that [having] various learning options supports more people. I’ve moved away from the idea of accommodating individuals to adapting all the curriculum, outputs and environments to support a wide variety of learners. Can you imagine if that was the way we did church?
Ellen: Oh my gosh, yes! This all reminds me of the Kingdom of God. “The Kingdom of God is among you,” and it’s not coming in the way we were expecting.
“’The Kingdom of God is among you,’ and it’s not coming in the way we were expecting.”
Erin: Like, we think we know what faithfulness looks like, but Jesus is always trying to get us to see it not through our own eyes, but the eyes of others.
Ellen: We pray the words of Jesus, that God’s Kingdom would come, God’s will be done, “on earth as it is in heaven.” God has a vision for the world, a beautiful design in creation. We mess up a lot. People hurt people. That’s where the pain and grief come in. But even in our confessions, we rest in this awesome assurance of God’s grace. That is where the bloom and celebration come in. From that place of grace, we get to be on the team that makes the world closer to the way God intends, a little each day.
Erin: I’m grateful for the insights you and others brought to this course, for Fuller and Princeton Seminary’s support and for the Institute for Youth Ministry. Another thing that’s been cool is hearing from groups who have made use of the curriculum from a variety of denominations, including Quakers, Methodists and African Methodist Episcopals. We love to hear from people who are using it and learn about how it’s being adapted to different worshiping communities. Feel free to email iym@ptsem.edu for group discounts or just to let us know how you’re using it!
