In November of 2016, Church Council approved expenditures to develop a new kind of caring ministry for our congregation: a Stephen Ministry of trained lay caregivers.
After a year of trainings, workshops, seminars, planning, and prayer we are ready to commission our first 8 Stephen Ministers in worship on Sunday, December 3.
In this program used by more than 12,000 congregations, trained lay caregivers work alongside the pastors to provide confidential one-on-one spiritual support. Unlike pastors, Stephen Ministers work with just one person, listening, praying, caring across the weeks and months, dedicating about an hour a week to their care receiver.
Donna Abner, Delores Carpenter, Carla Gilbert, Paul Jacobs, Jennifer Melton, Ellen Mink, Alison Szewczyk, and Lisa Vaughn will have spent over 50 contact hours in training over the last 3 months. They will continue to meet twice a month to support one another as they help support all of us.
They join Stephen project Leaders, Mary Lou Wiese (Nurture and Care Board), Jeff From, and Betty Hibler who along with Rev. Kent completed another 50 hours of workshops earlier in the spring in order to be able to lead training classes.
If you, or someone you know of might need some spiritual support, the pastors will soon be working to match caregivers to care receivers with the hope of assigning SM caregivers by the end of January.
Great care is taken to get a good match for each person in need. With only 8 Stephen ministers, it might take a while to reach out to everyone we’d like. But another class is forming for the spring and we hope for even more great caregivers to join in this special support!
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