Stephen Ministry Training Class 2006-2007

Summary of each Module

Module
T-1	This module introduces the members of our class to each other, to the Stephen Leaders, to the resources you will be using, and to the topic of caregiving. You will be introduced to the Caregiver’s Compass, which the defines the character of a caregiver and will help guide your learning and caring
T-2	A big part of your Stephen Minister caregiving is concerned with helping care receivers recognize, accept, and express their feelings, and then trust God to give them healing and wholeness. You will learn the benefits of expressing feelings and the harm that can come when feelings remain unexpressed. The famous Stephen Series mud hole diagram teaches a model for the understanding good and bad ways to relate to the feelings of another: sympathy, over identification, and sympathy. You will be taught to create a “Safe House” for care receivers, founded on a grace-based acceptance, and structured around listening, empathy, trust, and confidentiality.
T-3	Listening is how Stephen Ministers go about finding out what feelings are in the action in you’re their care receivers. You will learn to distinguish between the open and closed questions and why it was better to rely on open ended questions in care giving. You will learn and practice the skill of reflecting as a valuable listening tool and respond to a listening quiz as a way of exploring many facets of this skill. Talking about their own experiences helps to sharpen your understanding of when listening is effective and when it feels fake or makes you or your care receivers feel uncomfortable.
T-4 (Parts 1 and 2)	Stephen Ministry caregiving is distinctively  Christian in character and warrants this intense emphasis on the tools of faith in caring for one another. The book Christian Care giving – a Way of Life provides the preclass reading material for the first session and the substance of both sessions’ training emphasis. The second session includes another pre-class reading “Resources of Biblical Stories and Promises”.
T-5	If there was a time for Stephen Minister trainees to say “Aha!” this is the module that would do it. The key understanding for me is that you will understand that you do not have to (and indeed can not) “fix” whatever problem that your care receivers face. “God is the Curegiver” and “You are the Care giver” The establishment of roles is what makes Stephen Ministry possible. This concept runs counter to notions of present day society, which is very results-oriented. But as you will see in caregiving, the more you push for results in another, the faster and farther you care receivers will flee.
T-6 (Parts 1 and 2) T-7 T-8 T-9 T-10	Assertiveness has gained a bad name for itself in some circles of the church. It often means one  “getting their own way”. This is not true! In fact assertiveness is about to relating to others gently and firmly. This two session module takes Jesus as the model for assertiveness throughout. You will learn assertiveness skills, practice them in our class, and to urge you between classes to use your new found skills at least once in a “real setting”. I will ask you to report back on your results during the second session. This training will amaze you about how assertive you can really be. The importance of maintaining boundaries is emphasized to protect Stephen Ministers from manipulation and to guard them against their own controlling impulses. The Stephen Ministers will learn the signs indicating problems with maintaining appropriate boundaries and the consequences of boundary infringements. You will briefly explore the difference between servanthood and servitude. Crises affect every area of a person’s life, and their certainty is what makes Stephen Ministry necessary. Stephen Ministers learn the effects of crisis on people’s faith and learn the course that a crisis can take. The key image of the caregiver is presented as being a “triangle tipper”, to move the care receiver toward wholeness. You will identify what needs the people have in crisis have, and learn appropriate ways to care for those needs. Stephen Ministry works because Stephen Ministers take confidentiality with utmost seriousness If congregation members were not utterly convinced that their needs for care were kept confidential, few would ever agree to accept the care of a Stephen Minister. You will learn some of the rules that cover most of the situations they will run into you will run into in the caring relationship, in Supervision, with well meaning friends and family, and elsewhere. Caregiving by telephone it is not as good as caregiving in person, but it is not that bad either, provided you have learned some of the basic differences in techniques. You will typically visit with their care receivers about an hour a week in person, but this is not the limit of their contacts. You fill some of the other spaces over the phone.