Bread of Life became a Stephen Ministry congregation in the spring of 2018. We are excited to offer the training and provide this support for people in our congregation and community. We recognize that we are all broken people in need of God’s healing, comfort and love. Our first team of Stephen Ministers is in the process of being trained and we are looking forward to providing this caring ministry to individuals by June 2019.
Stephen Ministry is:
- A Christian program sponsored by many denominations in the US and around the world.
- A program of specific training and supervision through which God’s love is conveyed in a variety of situations.
- A way to walk beside and support individuals during difficult times.
- An effective way to build up the body of Christ by equipping and empowering Christians to provide confidential, compassionate and Christ-centered care to those who are hurting.
Who is involved:
- The Pastor supports the Stephen Ministry within the church through encouragement, communication and connecting people within the congregation to the ministry.
- Stephen Leaders attend a one-week training course. They are responsible for building awareness, recruiting Stephen Ministers, matching care receivers with Stephen Ministers and providing initial training and ongoing supervision and continuing education.
- Stephen Ministers are dedicated Christians who go through 50 hours of training and continuing supervision which equips them to provide one-to-one Christ-centered care to people going through difficult times. Stephen Ministers:
- Listen to you without judgement or criticism
- Allow you to talk about your loss freely and often
- Keep you and the discussions confidential
- Bring God’s words of hope to you
- Pray for you
- Are compassionate, full of faith, skilled and trustworthy
- Care Receivers are assigned to a Stephen Minister to receive one-on-one confidential care. They are people who need someone to walk beside them as they go through a difficult time. Examples include:
- Those in crisis such as hospitalization, terminal illness, divorce, death of a loved one, unemployment, a natural disaster, fire, retirement, stress of moving, being a victim and many more.
- Those needing follow up care in recovering from a major life crisis.
- A person needing chronic care which is a long-term problem, as, disabled, aged, in a nursing home, homebound, chronic pain, living with a degenerative disease.
- Preventive care helps people anticipate and prepare for potentially difficult upcoming events, such as, first child, approaching retirement, marriage, college, military, etc.
- Supportive care such as caring for the caregiver. A man caring for his dying wife, a woman considering placing her elderly parents in a long-term care facility, parent of a special needs child, support through a death or funeral, support during a divorce and many more.
MEETINGS: Held on the last Tuesday of each month, at 7 P.M.
If you are interested in being a part of this ministry at the Bread of Life Lutheran Church, please contact Char Williams at charwilliams77@gmail.com .
Once we have trained Stephen Ministers information on how to access this ministry as a Care Receiver will be added to this page. For more info go to the following links:
- Description of Stephens Ministry on the Stephen Ministry web page:
- YouTube video from a Care Receiver’s perspective:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnRVZtrz-AI
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu1W7JC36L0
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SkStSphAT8&t=0s&list=PLPs3gzB_civLz4r1E9yBiyyneWU6sxHh4&index=5
- YouTube video from a Stephen Minister’s perspective:
To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12–13).