Stephen Ministry Basics

What Is Stephen Ministry?

Stephen Ministry is the one-to-one lay caring ministry that takes place in the parish that uses the Stephen Series system. Stephen Ministry equips and empowers lay caregivers, called Stephen Ministers, to provide high-quality, confidential, Christ-centered care to people who are hurting.

What Is a Stephen Minister?

Stephen Ministers are Christian men and women trained to provide one-to-one care to people experiencing a difficult time in life, such as grief, divorce, job loss, chronic or terminal illness, relocation, or separation due to military deployment.

Stephen Leaders:

• recruit, train, and commission Stephen Ministers
• identify care receivers and link them to Stephen Ministers
• meet regularly with care receivers
• receive supervision and continuing education
• continue an ongoing cycle to recruit and train new Stephen Leaders and Stephen Ministers.

Who is helped by Stephen Ministers?

Stephen Ministers are the "after" people: After a job loss, after a divorce, after a serious illness, after a death in the family, after moving to a nursing home, after any life circumstance or crisis that becomes difficult to deal with alone.

Get More Information

Learn more about Stephen Ministry from the Stephen Ministry Organization website.