Stephen Ministry: Lay Care-giving to Hurting People

(ROCKWALL, TX – August 22, 2015) “The sun is going to keep coming up.”

That’s a healthy perspective shared by Carolyn K. these days. The RockwallCounty resident wasn’t always so sure. She experienced a series of sad events that began around 15 years ago with the death of her mother. On the heels of this first loss came a bigger and more unexpected one. Her husband took his own life.

Someone told Carolyn about Stephen Ministry, which provides one-to-one care to individuals with a special need due to a death, illness, divorce, job loss, teen pregnancy, or other kind of life crisis. Her church at that time, First United Methodist Church of Rockwall, offered this ministry. Soon she had a new friend, a fellow church member who was trained to provide compassionate, confidential, Christ-centered care.

The assigned caregiver met with her once each week to offer reassurance as Carolyn shared things that helped her to work through phases of anger. “She also gave me books on suicide and guided me to a suicide crisis center for eight weeks of counseling,” Carolyn said. “Stephen Ministry provides a good sounding board, making sure you don’t get too far out there.”

Though her sorrows continued for several years, including the loss of her father, Carolyn is in a much better place in her emotions now and credits Stephen Ministry. “It’s a very positive thing,” she says, “but you have to reach out for it—accept the help instead of wallowing in self-pity.”

Bearing one another’s burdens

Stephen Ministries is named for the first Christian martyr, who was earlier commissioned by the apostles to help care for believers in need (Acts 6:1-6). The ministry began in St. Louis in 1975, when Rev. Kenneth Haugk (a pastor and clinical psychologist) trained nine members of his congregation to provide Christian care to members and others in the community who needed encouragement. Within a few years the non-profit organization began to offer itself to other churches by “training the trainers” who enroll in their ministry system.

Galatians 6:2 instructs the church to: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (ESV). StephenMinistries, from their St. Louis headquarters, helps Christians do this by providing support for more than 12,000 congregations worldwide that represent 172 denominations. More than 70,000 pastors and laypeople have been trained as Stephen Leaders who, in turn, have trained more than 600,000 church members to become Stephen Ministers. In the forty years of this organization, more than 1.5 million people have received personal ministry.

Trained to listen and care, not counsel

Cherry Conner is a long-time member of First United Methodist of Heath and a former school psychologist. While her career background made her a good candidate to get involved in Stephen Ministry, it also made her skeptical. “But I was surprised at the training,” she says. “This ministry is supervised, documented, and confidential.”

Now, six years later, Ms. Conner is a Stephen Leader. She helps coordinate the care-giving ministry at three local Methodist churches—in Rockwall, Heath, andRoyceCity. She and two other leaders work with 23 Stephen Ministers who she matches to “care receivers” based on their need.

“I’m impressed with how professional and skilled the ministers are,” she says. “But we need more.”

Stephen Leaders, like Ms. Conner, recruit members of their congregation to serve as Stephen Ministers and then provide them with 50 hours of training. These ministers are not counselors, and they are assigned (man to man and woman to woman) only to those who agree to receive care.

Local opportunities

Last April, the Stephen Ministry network of local Methodist churches reached out to encourage other area churches to offer this ministry. Their team helped put on an introductory workshop held at FUMC of Rockwall. The 65 people who attended the event represented 19 different churches.

Cherry Conner says that several other churches around Rockwall currently offer Stephen Ministry. But anyone who desires this care through her church network can contact her at 214-244-6962.

A first step for any church interested in starting this ministry is to call the St. Louis headquarters at 314-428-2600 to request a free information packet. Stephen Ministries Communications Assistant Lori Kem says, “We’re committed to a real human being answering the phone.”

That’s a good sign of a ministry that offers one-to-one care. Find out more by visiting: stephenministries.org.

By Blue Ribbon News contributing writer Patti Richter of Heath.