Dr. Kevin Pettit serves as a congregational consultant for Faith4All. Kevin is especially concerned with the faithful inclusion of people who, like him, live with invisible disabilities. He felt a call to this service after feeling unwelcome in various faith communities following his 1998 severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Kevin considers significant his accomplishments of being commission as a minister by the Metropolitan Denver Association of the United Church of Christ, attaining a Masters of Arts in Specialized Ministry from the Iliff School of Theology in 2010, working as a physics professor at Carleton College both before and after acquiring his TBI and consequent disabilities, attaining a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana in 1996, and (most especially) raising his son Andrew — an accomplishment of which he is most proud!

Dr. Pettit has chosen to understand the reason for his incredible recovery to be so that he can help people living with disabilities by helping institutions learn to better invite, embrace, include, and empower people with disabilities into active faith community life.

The origin and impetus of the organization Faith4All was Dr. Kevin Pettit’s experience in churches in Colorado and in Minnesota following the severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) he survived on October 27th, 1998. Although his family and the family of his in-laws received a full measure of support from their churches while Kevin was in a coma and though he was given an adequate level of spiritual support while he was an inpatient at Craig Rehabilitation Hospital, his experiences at churches following his injury showed him how people with disabilities are often subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) made to feel unwelcome in houses of worship. This surprised him because, like most everyone, he presumed that churches are a helpful place for people in dire straits, difficult life situations, and even disability. Though most churches offer considerable support and prayers for a family experiencing a broad range of difficulties in life, these institutions wrestle with welcoming people who live for a long time or permanently with disabilities. Perhaps, it is for this reason that the several studies have determined that people with disabilities are considerably less likely to attend religious services than those people who live without disabilities.

When Dr. Pettit’s disabilities were more apparent than they are today, he found that people avoided speaking with him in the fellowship time after church. Conversations with friends who live with disabilities have evidenced that this situation is rather common: people with disabilities are often subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) made to feel uncomfortable and sometimes even unwelcome to worship with faith communities of every religion.

Originally funded by a grant from the First Congregational Church of Boulder, CO, Dr. Pettit was able to file the appropriate documentation and register Articles of Incorporation for a Nonprofit Corporation with the State of Colorado. This application was approved in 2013 and an Employer Identification Number was attained at that time, as well. Amended foundational documents for this organization were signed in 2014 and are available for any viewing requested. In 2016 Faith4All was determined by the Internal Revenue Service to be a 509(a)(3) public charity that is tax exempt under section 501(c)(3).

Supporters and sponsors of Faith4All include:

• First Congregational UCC Church of Boulder
• Community United Church of Christ of Boulder