What Is Stephen Ministry?
Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2, NRSV).
Stephen Ministry is the one-to-one lay caring ministry that takes place in congregations that use the Stephen Series system.
Stephen Ministry congregations equip and empower lay caregivers—called Stephen Ministers—to provide high-quality, confidential, Christ-centered care to people who are hurting.
How Stephen Ministry Works
The best way to understand how Stephen Ministry works is to learn about three groups of people involved in this ministry: Stephen Leaders, Stephen Ministers, and care receivers.

Stephen Leaders

Stephen Leaders establish and direct Stephen Ministry in a congregation. They—
•build awareness of Stephen Ministry within the congregation and community
•recruit and train Stephen Ministers
•meet with potential care receivers to assess their needs
•match care receivers with Stephen Ministers
•provide Stephen Ministers with ongoing supervision and continuing education

Stephen Ministers

Stephen Ministers are congregation members trained by Stephen Leaders to offer high-quality, one-to-one Christian care to people going through tough times. A Stephen Minister usually provides care to one person at a time, meeting with that person once a week for about an hour. Twice a month, Stephen Ministers gather with their Stephen Leaders for supervision and continuing education.

Care Receivers

Care receivers are people—congregation members and others in the community—who receive care from a Stephen Minister. These are people struggling through a difficult time in life—experiencing grief, divorce, job loss, chronic or terminal illness, or some other life crisis.
Some important guidelines for this caring relationship protect both the care receiver and the Stephen Minister:
•The relationship between a care receiver and a Stephen Minister is confidential.
•Men are matched with men; women with women.
•When a care receiver’s needs exceed what a Stephen Minister can provide, the Stephen Ministry team makes a referral to an appropriate mental health professional or other community resources.
For more information about Stephen Ministry, in general, go to stephenministries.com

First Methodist Trussville’s Program
We have three church members who have been trained as Stephen Leaders by the staff of Stephen Ministry out of St. Louis, They are Stuart Garner, Will Northern and Martha Cusimano. They are also Stephen Ministers.

We currently have eight additional Stephen Ministers. They are Curtis Garner, Linda Hester, Garey Morrison, Teri Freeman, Bob Murray, Betty Frankl and Kim Cooper.

In addition to ministering to individuals, the Stephen Ministers also currently serve communion after church service on Sundays when there is no churchwide communion and are available to pray for individuals who request prayer during that time.
Please be in prayer for our Leaders and Ministers. Also, pray for those who could benefit from this one-on-one caring ministry as well as your own potential participation in the ministry.

For more information about our church’s involvement in Stephen Ministry contact:
Martha Cusimano at mmcusimano@centurytel.net or any of our other Leaders.