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Stephen Ministries program growing

By Suzanne Elliott 3 min read
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With more than 1,300 members, it gets a bit hard for the staff of Southminster Presbyterian Church in Mt. Lebanon to meet the emotional needs of its congregants.

Enter Beth Hosking, a long-time and active member of the Washington Road church. “Something was missing,” Hosking said. “I thought the church needed to reach out to people in pain and walk the journey with them. We only had four or five people on staff.”

What Hosking found was Stephen Ministries, an independent, nonprofit Christian education organization. The ministry, founded in 1975 and based in St. Louis, is a one-on-one lay care ministry that provides quality – and confidential – Christian-centered care to people who are hurting. The issue could be a loss of a job, a death in the family, finances, a divorce or an illness, she said.

That was back in 2008. Since then, Hosking said Southminster’s Stephen Ministry has proven invaluable to congregation members and others outside the church as well. In addition to growth at Southminster, it is also at other area churches as well – including St. Bernard Church, Westminster Presbyterian Church and Christ United Methodist Church. Overall, more than 12,000 congregations from 160 different Christian denominations in the U.S., Canada and 24 other countries have a Stephen Ministry.

Stephen was one of seven deacons appointed by the Apostles to care for believers in need. Stephen is also considered to be the first Christian martyr, according to the ministry.

“The Stephen ministers have been able to provide Christian care giving relationships with many people both inside and outside our congregation,” said Dan Merry, Southminster’s pastor. “This has really helped to improve the Christian care that Southminster Presbyterian Church provides. No longer is it just the responsibility of the professional staff. It is now a much wider circle.”

People can become a Stephen Minster by attending a week-long, 50-hour training course before meeting a care receiver. Attendees learn listening and assertiveness skills, boundaries, and basically how to empathize and integrate faith with the care receiver. Following the week-long course, Stephen Ministers keep up with their training every two weeks or so by meeting with fellow Stephen Ministers.

A Stephen Minister usually meets with his or her care receiver once a week. Men are paired with men and women work with women, said Hosking, adding that everything discussed is confidential. There is no set length of time for meetings, but both parties usually know when to bring a relationship to an end.

“We want people to know they are not alone,” said Ed Freel, a Stephen Minister and member of Southminster. “It is more of a listening ministry.”

At Southminster there are 32 Stephen Ministers, seven of whom are currently active. Program participants are asked to be active for two years and after the two years are up, they then can elect to become inactive or remain active.

The pastor of the church is most always the first point of contact for a care receiver. And the pastor is the one who usually decides which Stephen Minister will work with the individual. The meetings between the two take place where the person feels most comfortable and can take place at the church, in a home or a restaurant.

“It is always a mutually agreed upon site,” Hosking said. “The Stephen Minister usually works with one person at a time because it is a commitment. There also always seems to be a beginning and end of a relationship.”

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