Some are grieving the loss of a loved one. Others could be facing a job or spiritual crisis.
Still others may be struggling in their marriage.
Stephen Ministry can help all of them find help and hope. And some of the local leaders of the worldwide, nondenominational Christian care-giving program, which trains Christian congregational members to come alongside the struggling and hurting, want to spread the word about it.
So they have scheduled an informational overview from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 27 at First Christian Church, 531 Fifth St. in Columbus. Several churches already have signed up, according to organizers.
“Stephen Ministry is simply bringing Christ’s healing love to hurting people,” said Donna Rosenberg, a trained Stephen Leader at First Christian.
Granted, bringing that love to people in complex situations can be anything but simple. But the 11 people currently trained at First Christian, plus those who have led it for several years at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, undergo 50 hours of structured, supervised training.
Some of the ministry’s promotional materials refer to Stephen Ministers as “the after people.” As in, after the funeral. After the relationship falls apart. After the baby arrives and requires more care than a family thought possible.
A Stephen Minister usually provides care confidentially 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.
Dan Boyer, a retired clinical social worker, an elder and a Stephen Leader at First Christian, mentioned that there are clear guidelines and boundaries about the relationships.
“You’re not there to fix anyone,” Boyer said. “You’re not there to tell them what to do. This is the other person’s life, not yours. But you can be there with them and for them.”
Stephen Ministers also have been trained “not to respond to a person’s situation in relation to my own stuff,” as Boyer put it. In essence, a Stephen Minister can’t react irritated to someone’s depression if it touches a trigger point from a situation of their own past.
Plus, for Christians and others who may be accustomed to a senior pastor doing all of a church’s care giving, Nancy Lewis, First Christian’s connections minister and a Stephen Leader, offered a reminder from the book of Acts about the work of the early church.
“It’s clear that care is to come from all sides (of a congregation), not just from the top down,” Lewis said.
The local leaders also point out that Scripture is clear in admonishments from passages such as Galatians 6:2 that believers are to bear one another’s burdens. In Stephen Ministry, care receivers may be in that role for as short a time as maybe two months to perhaps as long as two years.
“Ironically, we are told that it is often harder to find care receivers than it is to find care givers (to train),” Lewis said. “It really takes a lot of prayer and a lot of asking God to show us who might need this.”
Boyer pointed out that pastors at churches where a Stephen Ministry is implemented generally have been very pleased with the impact. And he said he can understand why even from a basic perspective.
“Even if a pastor or an eldership worked 24 hours per day, seven days per week, they couldn’t handle everything (of a congregation’s problems and challenges),” Boyer said.
Lewis was careful to highlight that churches generally will use many tools to care for a congregation, and Stephen Ministry, which First Christian actively began using in January, is merely one aspect of ministering.
“It’s another proven program to help us all do care well,” she said. “And we realize that nobody gets care perfect but Christ.”
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What: A public meeting for area Christian churches to get involved in Stephen Ministry by launching their own church’s program. In essence, Stephen Ministry trains and equips a congregation’s own believers to come alongside the struggling or hurting.
When: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 27.
Where: First Christian Church, 531 Fifth St. in Columbus.
Why: To educate churches about the purpose and impact of Stephen Ministry.
Cost: $15 per person per congregation up to four people; and beyond that number in a congregation, a flat $50 fee.
Information and registration: stephenministry.org/workshop (look for the First Christian listing under the green tag "schedule of upcoming workshops").
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