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Stephen Ministry Uplifts, Encourages Those Experiencing Sorrow and Loss

Lay People Provide Caring Ministry under Direction of Pastor, Parish Leaders

By Mary E. Manley
Denver Catholic Register
Denver, Colorado

February 19, 2003

The care receiver mentioned in this story approached the writer and was not sought out nor was her name provided from Stephen Ministry. Her statements are used with her permission and there has been no breach of confidentiality.

With the new year underway, many people are assessing their lives and taking stock of useful resources to improve them. One possibility is Stephen Ministry, a pastoral resource that may be one of the best-kept secrets in the Archdiocese of Denver.

Stephen Ministry first was established locally in 1985 at St. Mary Parish in Littleton. There are now 11 other parishes in the Denver area that also offer it, said Joel P. Bretscher, director of communications for Stephen Ministries' St. Louis headquarters. Bretscher said there are 30 Roman Catholic parishes statewide that offer the free ministry, including St. Dominic and St. Rose of Lima, both in Denver; St. Joan of Arc and Spirit of Christ, both in Arvada; Nativity of Our Lord, Broomfield; Holy Cross, Thornton; St. Mark, Westminster; Sacred Heart of Mary, Boulder; St. Louis, Louisville; St. Peter Catholic Church, Monument; and Light of the World, Littleton.

What is Stephen Ministry? According to its founder, Rev. Kenneth C. Haugk, Lutheran pastor and clinical psychologist, "It is a great way for a parish to reach in and reach out to more and more hurting people through a team of well-equipped, well-supervised lay caregivers. God calls all his people to love and care for one another, not just the clergy and other religious."

Ministry literature relates that concerns caregivers address include loneliness, loss of a spouse, unemployment, childbirth, hospitalization, separation or divorce, grief and terminal illness.

Dr. Haugk, Stephen Ministries' executive director, founded the not-for-profit, transdenominational organization in 1975 in his own congregation. The first participants commissioned under his training were known as Stephen Ministers, in honor of St. Stephen, the first layperson authorized by the apostles to provide caring ministry to others. The Stephen Ministries Web site reports the ministry succeeded so well there that others wanted to implement it. Dr. Haugk established the Stephen Ministries organization and developed the Stephen Series, a one-on-one lay caring ministry system, to train and organize lay people in and around their congregations. Bretscher reported that the Stephen Series has now been utilized in more than 9,000 congregations representing more than 100 Christian denominations from all 50 states, nine Canadian provinces, and 21 other countries. More than a million care receivers have now been ministered to by more than 450,000 commissioned laypersons.

The series is implemented in a participating congregation first with interested pastors, church staff, and lay leaders undertaking the one-week Leader's Training Course, followed by recruitment and selection of lay people to serve as ministers.

After undergoing the 50-hour training in Christian caregiving and commissioning, ministers are matched with care receivers. A minister normally is assigned only one care receiver at a time and meets with a care receiver for an average of about an hour each week. They initially commit to two years of service, but many recommit to serve longer.

Vital to note about Stephen Ministry are these tenets:

• Ministers are not counselors, but trained caregivers. Their role is to listen and to care--not to counsel or advise. They are trained to make professional referrals when caregiver needs go beyond the scope of their ministry.
• The ministry is a supervised ministry. Ministers meet twice monthly for peer supervision and continuing education.
• It is confidential ministry. Even in supervision, the names of care receivers and specific details are never discussed.
• Ministers do not make cold calls. They are assigned only to care receivers who agree to receive the care of a minister.

Light of the World, serving 3,000 families, is one parish that finds Stephen Ministry to be an invaluable lay ministry since it was established there over 15 years ago.

"Being the only priest here, I am glad to have the ministry here as an extension of what I do as a priest in the counseling arena," said Father Jerome Rohr, Light of the World pastor. "These ministers are very helpful to me. . . . Of course, they know that I am always present to take over as necessary if a situation becomes more than they can handle."

Although confidentiality is top priority in the ministry, one Light of the World parishioner wanted to be known as a current beneficiary. Janette Snedeker, a Catholic convert, had this to say: "Despite the tragedies and traumas that occur in one's life, there are people offering friendship, conversation, support and guidance. It has been an uplifting and encouraging experience for me."

Reprinted by permission of "Denver Catholic Register".

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