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History at St .Martins The national Stephen Ministry Pages
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Stephen
Ministries were founded by Kenneth C. Haugk, a
Lutheran Pastor, in 1975, in response to three needs: (1) the church staff
was overworked, (2) people who needed quality care were not receiving it, and
(3) church members who were seeking meaningful ways to act out their
Christian calling were frustrated. In response to these needs he began
to train members to care for people in crisis or in need of general support. Other
congregations wanted help in beginning similar ministries and the movement
snowballed. If being a part of this ministry
interests you, call Father Suthers at 404-228-0758
or one our Stephen Leaders Kathy Evenson at
404-250-0174 or Jim Lynn at 404-843-0245 or Patsy Smith at 770-587-3697.
Talk to us. Don’t wait. The train is pulling out. See if
this is for you. And, say, if you need help from a Stephen Minister,
call us too. Both sides of the Stephen Minister caring relationship are
equally important! |
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We are pleased to report that we are in
a Seven-Eleven situation right now. Seven of our eleven Stephen
Ministers already have “Care Receivers.” But if you know someone (and we all
know someone at times, someone in crisis, someone needing someone to talk to,
someone to care) you can still help them. How do you do it? There are three
easy steps: (1) Listen and care for your friend in your own relationship
together. (2) Ask him or her for permission to report the need. Be
sure to tell your friend that everything will be completely confidential. (3) Report his or her need as promptly as possible. You
can do this by calling Father Suthers directly at
404-228-0758. He will talk to your friend and will see if help from a Stephen
Minister is appropriate and can be obtained. Hopefully soon
all our Stephen Ministers will be at work. We are already looking toward the
time when we will be needing more. If you have
thought about being a Stephen Minister, talk to Father Suthers
about this, too. We are planning to start a new class in October 2000. |
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A good group of people
has applied to enroll in the Stephen Minister training course, and we are in
the process of interviews. Because of schedules, we
have postponed the beginning of the course for two weeks. The first session
will now be held in the Parlor at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 2. If anyone has
been wanting to apply, but has not yet done so,
there is time to contact Father Suthers, Patsy
Smith, Jim Lynn or Kathy Evenson. Those who are not able to
commit themselves to beginning 50 hours of training this year, but are interested
in considering Stephen Ministry later, may sign up for a class beginning next
fall. |
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As Father Suthers explained in a recent sermon at the commissioning
of the Stephen Leaders, the Stephen Series is named for Stephen, whose story
is told in the sixth chapter of the book of Acts. The apostles, guided by the Holy Spirit,
commissioned a group of individuals to work with them to do acts of caring
ministry. Stephen was one of those
persons, one of the first lay people to be sent out to do caring
ministry. The Stephen Ministers are commissioned
to do acts of caring, so it seemed appropriate for this ministry to be named
in honor of Stephen. On August 29th,
there will be an opportunity to learn more about the Stephen Series and how
it equips one to be part of In closing, the
Stephen Ministries Mission Statement is as follows: The Mission
of Stephen Ministries is to proclaim through word and deed the Gospel of
Jesus Christ by nurturing, edifying, educating, and equipping the whole
people of God who are called, gifted, and sent to be more effective servants
who care for the needs of the whole person. The mission
statement above is particularly appropriate as we move into the process of
recruiting, interviewing, and the selecting of Stephen Ministers who will be
equipped through prayer and training ...“to be more effective servants who
care for the needs of the whole person.” Acts 6: 5 ..."and they chose
Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit..." or Colossians
3:17, "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name
of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him".
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Dear Members and
Friends of This year our parish decided to involve itself in a program of
lay caring ministry. To do this, we have enrolled in the Stephen Series,
a system developed by As the first step in preparation for this ministry, Kathy Evenson, Jim Lynn, Patsy Smith and I attended a seven-day
Stephen Series Leader’s Training Course in The next step is to let you all know more about Stephen Ministry
and to recruit a group of members of our congregation to undertake 50 hours
of training in Christian caring skills under our guidance. This training will
include topics that aid persons in caring for others, and will cover such
areas as how to listen effectively, how to deal with feelings, how to use the
traditional resources of Christianity in caring, how to maintain
confidentiality, how to deal with persons experiencing crises, and many other
areas of concern. The theology of caring and the whole person will be
stressed throughout the training. Upon completion of Stephen Series training, our lay Stephen
Ministers will be commissioned into active caring ministries. These Stephen
Ministers will work under supervision and will be available to care
for persons experiencing challenges in their lives such as hospitalization,
grief over the loss of a loved one, loneliness, divorce, loss of a job, birth
of a child, and many other life events for which a person could benefit from
an effective helping and caring ministry. This will be an exciting time for With God’s
blessings, Derwent A. Suthers |
