Program
Stephen Ministry is a lay care giving ministry that supplements pastoral care. The program teaches laypersons to provide one-on-one care for individuals who request support. The confidential care-giver and care-receiver relationship, usually conducted by weekly visits, may continue for months or years. Reasons for requesting a Stephen Minister’s visits may range from grieving the loss of a loved one, experiencing a major illness, going through a divorce, job loss, struggling with substance abuse, or other life difficulties. [3]
SM curriculum provides a formal, structured introduction to human psychology and peer-to-peer counseling. Curriculum materials, which draw on literature from pastoral counselors, Biblical scripture, theologians, and psychologists, cover such issues as assertiveness and honesty, healthy boundaries, confidentiality, and ways to proceed with referral to mental health professionals when appropriate. [4]
The central offices of Stephen Ministry are located in St. Louis, Missouri. Congregations which choose to participate in Stephen Ministry programming pay a fee to the central organization to cover the cost of intensive on-site training of lay leaders. These lay leaders then become instructors for the 50 hours of training for small groups of Stephen Ministers. [5] After this initial training is completed, Stephen Ministers participate in twice-monthly peer-to-peer supervision meetings. Supervision groups, which may be led by a pastor, are an essential component of support for and guidance to lay ministers. [1]
More than 12,000 congregations from 160 Christian denominations are now involved, and are located in the U.S., Canada, and 24 other countries. [4]
In addition to the Stephen Series, Stephen Ministries St. Louis also offers many other resources, such as adult education courses and books on assertiveness, grief, spiritual gifts discovery, and more.
The Stephen Ministries staff consists of a team of 40 people—pastors and laity—from a variety of denominational backgrounds. [6]
The mission of the Stephen Ministries organization is summed up in St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. “To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12–13).
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In Christianity, ministry is an activity carried out by Christians to express or spread their faith, the prototype being the Great Commission. The Encyclopedia of Christianity defines it as "carrying forth Christ's mission in the world", indicating that it is "conferred on each Christian in baptism." It is performed by most Christians. This is distinguished from the "office of minister", to which specific individuals who feel a certain vocation. It can signify this activity as a whole, or specific activities, or organizations within a church dedicated to specific activities. Some ministries are identified formally as such, and some are not; some ministry is directed towards members of the church, and some towards non-members. See also Apostolates.
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In Christianity, an elder is a person who is valued for wisdom and holds a position of responsibility and authority in a Christian group. In some Christian traditions an elder is an ordained person who serves a local church or churches and who has been ordained to a ministry of word, sacrament and order, filling the preaching and pastoral offices. In other Christian traditions, an elder may be a lay person serving as an administrator in a local congregation, or be ordained and serving in preaching or pastoral roles. There is a distinction between ordained elders and lay elders. The two concepts may be conflated in everyday conversation. In non-Christian world cultures the term elder refers to age and experience, and the Christian sense of elder is partly related to this.
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Granger E Westberg was a Lutheran clergyman and professor best known for his book, Good Grief, and for creating the parish nurse program, now an international movement called faith community nursing. Westberg was a pioneer in exploring and encouraging the interrelationship of religion and medicine and in fostering holistic health care. He held the first joint appointment in medicine and religion at a major university.
Jeffery Tribble is an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and a professor of ministry with research interests in Practical Theology, Congregational Studies and Leadership, Ethnography, Evangelism and Church Planting, Black Church Studies, and Urban Church Ministry. Academics and professionals in these fields consider him a renowned thought leader. Tribble's experience in pastoral ministry allows for his work to bridge the gap between academic research and practical church leadership.
