What is Stephen Ministry?

The Stephen Ministry core purpose can be summed up in the words of St. Paul in his 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 the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:12-13)

 

Stephen Ministry began more the a quarter century ago out of the need of a church pastor who needed help in caring for his congregation.  He saw a need in his congregation and knowing there were not enough hours in the day for him alone to help his people he trained nine people to assist him in his caring ministry.

 

Out of that humble beginning more than ten thousand pastors and lay people have been trained as Stephen Leaders to direct the Stephen Ministry in their congregations.  There are hundreds of thousands of lay Stephen Ministers reaching out with Christ’s love to hurting people.  But the biggest of all is the number of people who have been cared for by these ministers-over one million and still growing.

 

Stephen Ministry was started in our congregation in August of 2005 with Reverend Bill Mahon and Caryl McBride attending a week of Stephen Leader training.  Our first training of Stephen Ministers started in January of 2006 with five trainees and our first Commissioning Service in June of 2006.  We continued to train again in January of 2007 and January of 2008.