Does Anyone Have Personal Experience With Stephen Ministry?

[Scott Sherwood]

We are looking to take a next step in our congregational care efforts. We brought a dozen of our folks who are known to be caregivers by nature to a Stephen Ministry "Caring Ministry Workshop" yesterday.

I was very impressed by the presenter, the material, the host church, and the overall philosophy of care. I would be interested to hear from any Nazarenes who have experience with Stephen Ministry. Has it been positive/negative? Is it self-sustaining? In other words, does it live off its own momentum? I'll have a ton more questions for anyone w/ Stephen Ministry experience who is willing to field them.

For others, the website is www.caringministry.org (http://www.stephenministries.org/stephenministry/default.cfm/917)

[Gina Stevenson]

What I heard of it when in AZ [first heard of it there] sounded good ... "and that's all I have to say about thay-yat." [a la Forrest Gump]

[Ann Smith]

I have understood that Kankakee First Church has a Stephen Ministry. Don't know much about it.
Ann

[David Pettigrew]

Stephen who?

[Donna B Moore]

i was administrator of an Episcopal church that implemented Stephen Ministry. It is an excellent program. I have specifics if you would like to correspond off line.
fairbanks101@yahoo.com

Donna

[Gina Stevenson]

i was administrator of an Episcopal church that implemented Stephen Ministry. It is an excellent program. I have specifics if you would like to correspond off line.
fairbanks101@yahoo.com

Donna

Interesting. Wonder if it's them that started this idea, tho' others do it, as well. Why? Simply b/c it was the same church where I first heard of it. No, I didn't attend there, but that is where we went for Bible Study Fellowship [often known as just BSF], and heard of that alongside.

[Scott Sherwood]

It does seem to be much more prevalent in the mainline denominations. I am a die-hard evangelical, but my guess is that we evangelicals have been slower to implement such ministries due to our history of "getting everything settled at the altar."

Thank you for the leads so far.

[John Rivas]

Scott - we have over 125 Stephen ministers in our church. It is a very effective ministry that meets various needs one-on-one throughout the congregation. I pulled this from our website:

Stephen Ministers are lay Christians trained a minimum of 50 hours and supervised by clergy and trained Stephen Leaders to provide effective Christian care to others in our community.

Stephen Ministers do not function as counselors, but as Christian friends with specific training in giving care. Stephen Ministers are wonderful listeners. They will pray with you, be with you, talk with you and simply spend time with you. A Stephen Minister's role is not to "cure", but to care, and care is what they do so well.

Stephen Ministers are people who:

- express God's care through their lives to others;
- receive 50 hours of initial training in important caring ministry skills and concepts;
- are commissioned as Stephen Ministers after completing their initial training;
- visit another person regularly and offer Christian support and supervision under the guidance of trained Stephen Leaders;
- are committed to preserving the confidential nature of the caring relationship, a continuous effort is made to maintain the bond of trust between the person receiving care and the caregivier;
- enter a caring relationship to focus on the unique needs of the care receiver and lasts as long as the need exists;
- serve at least two years;
- receive continuing education and skill building throughout their years of service.

If you want more information, I can connect you with the staff person in charge of this area.

John

[Billy Cox]

We are looking to take a next step in our congregational care efforts. We brought a dozen of our folks who are known to be caregivers by nature to a Stephen Ministry "Caring Ministry Workshop" yesterday.

I was very impressed by the presenter, the material, the host church, and the overall philosophy of care. I would be interested to hear from any Nazarenes who have experience with Stephen Ministry. Has it been positive/negative? Is it self-sustaining? In other words, does it live off its own momentum? I'll have a ton more questions for anyone w/ Stephen Ministry experience who is willing to field them.

For others, the website is www.caringministry.org (http://www.stephenministries.org/stephenministry/default.cfm/917)

I hear that every Stephen ministry meeting ends with everyone getting stoned. :basic05

[Gina Stevenson]

Billy, Billy, Billy! That wasn't just a smiley moment, but a real ROFLOL. He came to mind earlier, I admit, but only you'd say something like this! :laughing

[Curt Crawford]

We have an active Stephen Ministry program in our church in Frisco, Tx. We began the same way attending a half day session in our area. From there my wife (our Sr. Pastor) and another from our church attended Stephen Leader training in California.

We are a very small church right now and last year we commissioned our first group of Stephen Ministers (2 men, 3 women). It has been very benificial beyond being a fantastic Christian care-giving ministry. The training will equip a believer with tools to deal with many situations which people may think comes naturally but in reality we unintentionaly do more damage than good when we find ourselves in a sensitive situation without training. We constantly hear from our SM's in our ongoing Peer Supervision meetings how the training has helped in situations at home, church, work, etc.

Let us know if you'd like to know more.

Curt Crawford

[David Pettigrew]

Welcome to Naznet, Curt!

dp

[Curt Crawford]

Thanks :)

[Roland Hearn]

We have an active Stephen Ministry program in our church in Frisco, Tx. We began the same way attending a half day session in our area. From there my wife (our Sr. Pastor) and another from our church attended Stephen Leader training in California.

We are a very small church right now and last year we commissioned our first group of Stephen Ministers (2 men, 3 women). It has been very benificial beyond being a fantastic Christian care-giving ministry. The training will equip a believer with tools to deal with many situations which people may think comes naturally but in reality we unintentionaly do more damage than good when we find ourselves in a sensitive situation without training. We constantly hear from our SM's in our ongoing Peer Supervision meetings how the training has helped in situations at home, church, work, etc.

Let us know if you'd like to know more.

Curt Crawford

Hi Curt, I had not seen this post. Welcome to Naznet. I'm looking forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks.

[Gina Stevenson]

Stephen Ministers .........

It has been very benificial beyond being a fantastic Christian care-giving ministry. The training will equip a believer with tools to deal with many situations which people may think comes naturally but in reality we unintentionaly do more damage than good when we find ourselves in a sensitive situation without training.

Yes, it does sound like a very good program [& from what I heard while out west, it is]. That note re "unintentionally do(ing) more damage than good ... without training" is sometimes true ... recall some very hurtful things said meant in a bizarre way to be "helpful" after being widowed.

[Curt Crawford]

Yes, it does sound like a very good program [& from what I heard while out west, it is]. That note re "unintentionally do(ing) more damage than good ... without training" is sometimes true ... recall some very hurtful things said meant in a bizarre way to be "helpful" after being widowed.

I'm sorry that happened to you. I've seen it happen to others, including my wife when she lost her mother. Part of the training is to actually review "knee jerk" answers Christians have said over time. Some are funny and you can't believe someone said it. But others are things we find ourselves saying on a regular basis because we don't know what else to say. Some key learnings are that it's OK to say nothing. One of the foundations of Stephen Ministry is that we are the "care givers" while God is the "cure giver". In the training we actually spend time practicing not giving advice but instead use reflective listening to help people process their feelings (which are never wrong or right - just feelings). That skill is one that seems to apply in most areas of our lives.

Curt

[Gina Stevenson]

In the training we actually spend time practicing not giving advice but instead use reflective listening to help people process their feelings (which are never wrong or right - just feelings). That skill is one that seems to apply in most areas of our lives.

Curt


Yes, it certainly does ... don't think there's one of us, capable of talking, who has not had the experience of sticking our foot --- or both feet ! --- in our mouth, at one time or another. ;)