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

Who is Involved?
Stephen Leaders are the ones who oversee and direct our Stephen Ministry. They recruit, select, train, organize, and supervise our Stephen Ministers, identify people in need of care, and match them with a Stephen Minister.

Stephen Ministers are the caregivers. They have been 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 covers specialized topics such as ministering to the divorced, hospitalized, bereaved and aging.

Care receivers are the recipients of the Stephen Minister’s care. They are people from our community who are experiencing divorce, grief, loss of a job, loneliness, hospitalization, terminal illness, or any of an endless list 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 from the relationship.

What Do Stephen Ministers Do?
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.

Are Stephen Ministers Counselors?
No, Stephen Ministers are not counselors. They are trained lay caregivers. Their role is to listen and care – not to 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 that they really need.

Can I Trust a Stephen Minister?
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 the strictest confidence.

Why the Name Stephen?
The name Stephen comes from St. Stephen who was the first lay person commissioned by the Apostles to provide caring ministry to those in need as recorded in Acts 6.