Stephen Ministry at Alps Road Presbyterian Church

“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” Romans 12:15

Stephen Ministry began in the mid-1970s with a vision for creating healing ministries within the church for hurting people. It was founded by Dr. Stephen Haugk out of his experience in his first congregation. In his own words, he says:

Fresh out of seminary and graduate school in clinical psychology, I had high hopes for providing pastoral care to people in my congregation and community. That’s where my gifts were. That’s why I felt called to the pastoral ministry—to bring Christ’s love to hurting people.

But reality quickly set in. There were so many needs and only one of me, and not nearly enough hours in a day. I had a church full of needs, but also a church full of people who could help. So the solution became clear: “equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12 NRSV). Stephen Ministry was born.

I trained nine lay caregivers in that first class, all with very different backgrounds. A secretary. A teacher. An insurance agent. A businesswoman. A student. An executive. A homemaker. A beautician. A retiree. I was immediately impressed by the dedication all nine of them put into their training, as well as their enthusiasm for the opportunity to be involved in hands-on ministry.

After I assigned each of them to a care receiver, I was even more impressed by the care they provided—and their joy as they saw Christ working through them to bring hope and healing to another person.

The experiment by this young pastor was so successful that people began to urge him to find a way to share it with others. In 1975, Dr. Stephen Haugk started Stephen Ministries with his wife, who was a registered nurse. They began to travel to congregations, training people to extend Christ’s care to others. Soon it became evident that the need was larger than could be met through their travels. In 1978 they held their first Stephen Ministry Training Course in St. Louis, Missouri.

Today more than 13,000 congregations and other organization have enrolled in Stephen Ministry in 190 Christian denominations. These congregations are in all 50 states, Canada, and 30 other countries. Over 75,000 people have been trained as Stephen Leaders. They have trained over 600,000 laypersons as Stephen Ministers.

Today we are pleased to commission eleven Stephen Ministers to serve in one-to-one Christian care. They have received fifty hours of training and will serve as Christian caregivers for our congregation and the community. I am very excited about the possibilities for healing that Christ will bring to our church and community through this ministry.