The PBS "Religion and Ethics" news program recently aired an eight-minute feature on Stephen Ministry that vividly describes the life-changing ministry happening in thousands of congregations. Click here to view the feature and watch other videos on Stephen Ministry, including a nine-minute interview with Stephen Ministries' founder and executive director, Kenneth C. Haugk.
Stephen Ministry
One-to-One Christian Caregiving
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”2 Corinthians 1:3-4
LaurelHeightsUnitedMethodistChurch enrolled in the Stephen Series in 2003.The Stephen Series is a complete system for training and organizing lay persons to provide one-to-one Christian care in and around their congregations.StephenMinistry is the supervised confidential lay, Christian caring ministry provided by Stephen Ministers, who are laypersons who have completed 50 hours of training and continue to attend twice monthly continuing education and supervision sessions.
Five classes of Stephen Ministers have been trained and commissioned at LaurelHeights since its inception.Each commissioned Stephen Minister covenants to serve for a period of at least 2 years. We now have 15 active commissioned Stephen Ministers. Ten other lay members of this congregation have been trained as Stephen Ministers, but are currently serving God in other capacities, and three more have moved on to other churches.
Stephen Leaders are persons who have been trained to oversee and direct our StephenMinistry.Although it is not required, all of our Stephen Leaders are also Stephen Ministers.If you, or someone you know, could benefit from the care of a Stephen Minister, if you are interested in possibly becoming a Stephen Minister, or if you have any other questions about StephenMinistry, contact one of our Stephen Leaders:
Leader: Ellen Evans (210) 733-0078 Referrals: Barb Nardi Kurtz(210) 637-6658
To visit the Stephen Ministries home office website, click here.
Open hearts. Open minds. Open Doors. The people of The United Methodist Church®
