Ministries

Meeting Time:

Monday evenings

Location:

1880 Lakeshore Rd. West, Mississauga

What Exactly Is Stephen Ministry?

 Stephen Ministry is a ministry in our congregation in which trained and supervised lay persons, called Stephen Ministers, will provide one-to-one Christian care to individuals facing life challenges or difficulties.

Stephen Leaders are the individuals who oversee and direct our Stephen Ministry. They recruit, select, train, organize, identify people in need of care, and match them with a Stephen Minister. We have two Stephen Leaders: Gwen Rupp and Vera Guider. Stephen Ministers are the caregivers. They will go through 50 hours of training in Christian care giving, including general topics such as listening, feelings, boundaries, assertiveness, and using Christian resources in care giving. In addition, their training will cover specialized topics such as ministering to the divorced, hospitalized, bereaved, and aging.Care Receivers are the recipients of Stephen Ministers’ care. They are people from our church or community who are experiencing divorce, grief, loss of a job, loneliness, hospitalization, terminal illness, or any of an endless number of other life difficulties. Stephen Ministers usually meet with their care receivers once a week for about an hour for as long as the care receiver will benefit by the relationship.

Stephen Ministers are caring Christian friends who listen, understand, accept, and pray for and with care receivers who are working through a crisis or a tough time.

Stephen Ministers are not counselors; they are trained lay caregivers. Their role is to listen and care–not give advice or counsel. Stephen Ministers are also trained to recognize when a care receiver’s need exceeds what they can provide. When that happens, they work with care receivers to help them receive the level of care they really need.

Trust is essential to a caring relationship, and Stephen Ministers are people you can trust. Confidentiality is one of the most important principles of Stephen Ministry, and what a care receiver tells his or her Stephen Minister is kept in strictest confidence.

The name Stephen comes from St. Stephen, who was the first lay person commissioned by the apostles to provide caring ministries to those in need as recorded in Acts 6.

Pastors will always be the primary caregivers, but there is no way pastors can meet all the needs for care. God has called all of us, not just pastors, to minister to one another. Stephen Ministry multiplies ministry by turning pastors into equippers, so they can enable lay people to provide caring ministry as well.

Stephen Ministry has been around since 1975, when Kenneth Haugk, a pastor and clinical psychologist, began it to multiply the care giving in his congregation in St. Louis, Missouri. We are one of more than 7,000 Stephen Ministry congregations from more than 90 denominations.

Gwen Rupp is our Stephen Leader who coordinates referrals. If you or someone you know could benefit from the care of a Stephen Minister, you can talk to her, to one of the pastors, or to our other Stephen Leader, Vera Guider. If you want to talk about Stephen Ministry for someone else, make sure you get his or her permission first.

Stephen Ministry is a care giving ministry available to our members and community free of charge.

Begin by talking to one of our Stephen Leaders; they can tell you more. We plan to train a new class of Stephen Ministers once year, beginning in October. Stephen Ministers make a two-year commitment to train and serve.

The Stephen Series logo consists of a cross and circle together with a broken person and a whole person. The broken person behind the cross symbolizes the brokenness in our lives. The whole person stands in front of the cross because it is through the cross of Jesus that we are made whole. The circle symbolizes both the wholeness we receive through Christ and God’s unending love for us.

To inquire about this ministry or volunteer your time contact Corrine Bridger at 905.855.5001 ext. 21 or clarkson@chartwellchurch.org.