Begun in 1980, the program helped focus Mennonite church congregation's attention on the needs of people with disabilities and the issues they dealt with. During those years accessibility to church buildings was a major issue. Many churches did build ramps so people could enter the building using wheelchairs.

During the mid-1980's a group of mental health professionals approached MCC Canada about a mental health program because they saw that issues of mental illness and mental health were not always well understood in the churches. This program, too, was an educational program and a resource to congregations.

The Mental Health Program and Disability Concerns Programs were amalgamated into the Mental Health and Disabilities Program in 1992. The advisory committees of the two programs developed a new mission statement and the prime mandate of education within the church continues on a smaller scale.