Media Fact Sheet: Release Date September 1, 2009
Stephen Ministry began in 1975 when the Rev. Kenneth C. Haugk, Ph.D., a pastor and clinical psychologist, trained nine laypeople at his congregation in St. Louis to be Stephen Ministers. They assisted him in providing distinctively Christian care to members of the congregation and community. These trained caregivers were so enthused about their ministry; they encouraged Dr. Haugk to offer Stephen Ministry to more congregations. Over the next few years, Dr. Haugk traveled to congregations and trained Stephen Ministers. This quickly proved to be inefficient, since he could visit only a limited number of congregations, and these congregations were then dependent on him to train additional caregivers. There also was little organizational structure to supervise Stephen Ministers after they were trained. So in 1978 Dr.Haugk held the first Stephen Series Leader’s Training Course and trained the first Stephen Leaders—representatives of various churches who then returned home to train and supervise their congregation’s Stephen Ministers. Since that time Stephen Ministries St. Louis has specialized in “equipping the equippers” through the Stephen Series ministry system.
Pastors, church staff, and lay leaders from a congregation attend a weeklong Leader’s Training Course, taught by the Stephen Ministries St.Louis faculty, to learn how to implement and direct the Stephen Series in their congregations. These trained Stephen Leaders then return to their congregations to set up and administer a Stephen Ministry program. Stephen Leaders recruit and select laypeople from the congregation to serve as Stephen Ministers and provide them with 50 hours of training in Christian caregiving. Some of the training topics include listening, feelings, assertiveness, confidentiality, and ministering to people in specific situations such as divorce, terminal illness, grief, and childbirth. Stephen Ministers also are trained to recognize when a care receiver’s needs go beyond the care a Stephen Minister can provide and where and how to refer the care receiver for additional care. Upon completion of the training, these laypeople are commissioned as Stephen Ministers. Stephen Leaders then link each Stephen Minister with a care receiver—a member of the congregation or community who is in need of quality Christian care. A Stephen Minister normally is assigned to only one care receiver at a time and meets with the care receiver for an average of about one hour each week. Stephen Ministers also meet twice monthly for peer supervision and continuing education. Stephen Ministers initially commit to two years of service, but after those years many recommit to serve additional years.
*Stephen Ministers are not counselors. They are trained Christian caregivers. Their role is to listen and care—not counsel or advise.
*Stephen Ministry is a supervised ministry. Stephen Ministers engage in twice-monthly supervision to ensure that they are providing the best-quality Christian care.
*Stephen Ministry is a confidential ministry. What a care receiver tells a Stephen Minister remains confidential.
*Stephen Ministers do not make cold calls. They are assigned only to people who agree to receive the care of a Stephen Minister.
More than 10,000 congregations are enrolled in the Stephen Series. These congregations represent more than 150 different Christian denominations and come from all 50 states, 10 Canadian provinces, and 23 other countries. More than 55,000 individuals (pastors, church staff, and laypeople) have been trained as Stephen Leaders at Leader’s Training Courses. These Stephen Leaders have returned to their congregations to train more than 500,000 laypeople to be Stephen Ministers. It is estimated that since 1975 Stephen Ministers have provided distinctively Christian care to more than a million people through formalized one-to-one caring relationships and have used their caregiving skills to touch the lives of millions of others in an informal way.
Copyright © 2000 by Stephen Ministries, St. Louis
