Neurodiverse Church
Helping the church to grow in love
We are passionate about helping the Church to connect with neurodivergent people, because we know that the Church can only fulfil its calling to be the Body of Christ when it includes all the different parts of that body and uses their gifts and skills – trying to do church without neurodiversity is like trying to be a body without kidneys – it might look ok for a while, but it isn’t healthy.
We also know from our own experience that church can too often be somewhere that feels like it excludes neurodivergent people, so we want to help neurodivergent people connect with the Church as well.
Quite a few of the people who are involved are neurodivergent ourselves.
If you’d like to write for us, or even to join the team, please get in touch.
We Aren’t a Church
Neurodiverse Church is not a church. “Neurodiverse” is a word that should describe all healthy churches, of whatever flavour or location. Nor are we a movement, organisation or political party that takes a label that should apply to all churches like “catholic” or “Bible-believing” and then includes some churches but not others under that banner.
We try to help the Church, of whatever type and wherever it is, to get better at being what it should already be, by including neurodivergent people.
John allister
John Allister is the founder of Neurodiverse Church.
He started life as a maths geek, before becoming a secondary school Physics teacher and then training for ordination in the Church of England, picking up degrees in Experimental & Theoretical Physics and Theology as well as postgrad qualifications in education and ministry.
He has been the vicar of St Jude’s Mapperley, in Nottingham, England, since 2012, and was Area Dean of Gedling until 2024, when he stepped back to focus on his work on neurodiversity.
He enjoys quizzes, spending time with his wife and kids, taking long walks in the country, and is trying to teach his Golden Retriever to do the Couch to 5k. He is also autistic.
