{"id":6044,"date":"2011-06-10T17:05:13","date_gmt":"2011-06-10T21:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/?p=6044"},"modified":"2013-05-10T15:14:49","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T19:14:49","slug":"april-9-2010-stephen-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2011\/06\/10\/april-9-2010-stephen-ministry\/6044\/","title":{"rendered":" Stephen Ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>ELIZABETH<\/strong> (speaking in Stephen Ministry training session): I just don\u2019t know what to do.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DEBORAH POTTER<\/strong>, correspondent: Sometimes you just need someone to listen.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ELIZABETH<\/strong>: I just don\u2019t know how to resolve this in my head. I\u2019m just really upset. I can\u2019t forgive myself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: Sometimes you need something more\u2014a hand to hold, and maybe a prayer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>PAMELA<\/strong> (praying with Elizabeth): Dear Lord, Thank you for watching over all of us today. In your name we pray.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ELIZABETH<\/strong>: Amen. Thank you. I feel so much better.<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: At Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, parishioners are training to become caregivers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>STEPHEN MINISTRY TRAINEE<\/strong>: The key thing that I saw is you leaned into her. You engaged her and told her, \u201cI\u2019m listening to you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-6050\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2010\/04\/post03-stephenministries.jpg\" alt=\"post03-stephenministries\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" \/><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: They\u2019re learning to be Stephen ministers, named for Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr who cared for the poor. Parishioners are recruited and interviewed by the pastor, then trained to offer one-to-one care to people in and around their congregation. They commit to be available as needed for two years, but many serve longer. Pam Montgomery has been involved for two decades, balancing Stephen Ministry with responsibilities at home. But sometimes the caregiver is the one who needs care.<\/p>\n<p><strong>PAM MONTGOMERY<\/strong> (Stephen Minister): This is my dad and my mom.<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: Seven years ago, Pam\u2019s father died of cancer. Just two weeks later she lost her grandmother. As she grappled with her grief, a friend surprised her with a suggestion: What if Pam herself asked for a Stephen minister?<\/p>\n<p><strong>MONTGOMERY<\/strong>: When you\u2019re so close to it I didn\u2019t even think about me having one, and that Stephen minister was the best gift I could have given myself. She came week after week after week when other people, even my wonderful neighbors, even my wonderful friends, stopped asking, \u201cYou doing okay?\u201d She came and she prayed for me, just for me, and that\u2019s really powerful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>REV. KENNETH HAUGK<\/strong> (Founder, Stephen Ministries): When a person allows you into their life and shares their feelings and their hurts with you, they are giving you a fantastic gift, and I think when you listen to them and when you accept their feelings and when you love, share Christ\u2019s love to them, you are giving them a similarly powerful gift.<\/p>\n<div class=\"captionLeft\">\n<table border=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6051\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2010\/04\/post04-stephenministries.jpg\" alt=\"post04-stephenministries\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>Rev. Kenneth Haugk<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: Kenneth Haugk started Stephen Ministries in 1975, when as pastor of a church in St. Louis he found he just couldn\u2019t do it all. So drawing on his background as a clinical psychologist, he enlisted and trained a handful of lay people to offer confidential care to their fellow parishioners. And then it spread, becoming a nonprofit juggernaut.<\/p>\n<p>Good Shepherd is one of 10,000 congregations around the world where parishioners serve as Stephen ministers. More than 150 Christian denominations have adopted the program.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HAUGK<\/strong>: Christianity is not a spectator sport. It was never intended to be a spectator sport. God gave to the church apostles, evangelists, and pastors and teachers whose job is to equip the saints for ministry.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MONTGOMERY<\/strong> (speaking to trainees): How did it feel to have your confession treated in that way?<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: Stephen ministers go through 50 hours of instruction and practice, learning to help care receivers express their feelings, to listen without judging, and how to bring faith and the Bible into the conversation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALLAN<\/strong> (speaking in training session): Can we pray? Dear God, give Rene the absolute confidence of his forgiveness\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: They also study specific situations, like dealing with grief and divorce. But Stephen ministers are not counselors, so they also learn when to call in professional help from a pastor or therapist. Their work is supervised at the parish level, and if a care-giving relationship doesn\u2019t work out, which does happen sometimes, either party can be reassigned.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-6052\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2010\/04\/post01-stephenministries.jpg\" alt=\"post01-stephenministries\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" \/>Good Shepherd\u2019s senior pastor, David Sloop, introduced the program here in 1987.<\/p>\n<p><strong>REVEREND DAVID SLOOP<\/strong> (Senior Pastor, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Raleigh, NC): It took a while for people to say, instead of \u201cI need to speak to the pastor,\u201d to also say, \u201cOr can I have a Stephen minister?\u201d And that\u2019s a cultural shift, but it did occur, and we\u2019re grateful it did. That old Lutheran concept of the priesthood of all believers\u2014Stephen Ministry helps you live that out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MONTGOMERY<\/strong> (speaking to trainees): Consider your stewardship of a precious resource: God\u2019s gifted people\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: To enroll in the program, parishes pay a one-time fee of about $1700, giving them access to materials and leadership sessions like this one in Orlando, Florida, where experienced Stephen ministers and pastors learn how to train more care givers back home.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JACLYN HICKS<\/strong>: I was a care receiver, and I tell everybody, even before I became a Stephen minister, about my experience.<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: Jaclyn Hicks and her husband were struggling with infertility when her pastor at Church of the Savior United Methodist in Cincinnati suggested a Stephen minister.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HICKS<\/strong>: It changed my life. It changed my life just having somebody be there for you, supporting you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: After becoming pregnant and having a daughter, Hicks became a Stephen minister herself.<\/p>\n<div class=\"captionRight\">\n<table border=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6053\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2010\/04\/post05-stephenministries.jpg\" alt=\"post05-stephenministries\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>Jaclyn Hicks<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>HICKS<\/strong>: It\u2019s huge to be on the flip side, to be able to just care for someone during their time of need. It\u2019s been a tremendous blessing, and I get, as a Stephen minister, just as much out of it as I feel my care receivers do.<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: Care-giving relationships are always same-gender, and the program tends to attract more women than men. Rene Anctil of Good Shepherd wasn\u2019t sure at first that he was cut out to be a Stephen minister.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RENE ANCTIL<\/strong>: I tended to rely on myself a lot, and throughout this process I\u2019ve kind of learned that I\u2019m truly the care giver. I\u2019m not the cure giver, and that\u2019s God\u2019s part.<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: While Stephen Ministry relationships are strictly confidential, Anctil\u2019s care receiver, Ed, said we could sit in on one of their weekly sessions. They started meeting more than a year ago, after Ed\u2019s wife died.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ANCTIL<\/strong>: You mentioned that your daughter mentioned to you that she thought you were depressed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ED<\/strong>: Yeah, oh yeah.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ANCTIL<\/strong>: How did that make you feel?<\/p>\n<p><strong>ED<\/strong>: I don\u2019t think I\u2019m depressed, but you get moody once in a while. Your body wears out when you get old. You always want to do something that you can\u2019t do. That\u2019s the hardest part.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ANCTIL<\/strong>: I think I recognize God in my life a lot more than I had in the past, and a lot of it is because of Stephen Ministry. I see God working not only with my care receiver but with me, which I never saw before.<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: In the 35 years since the program started, half a million people have been trained as Stephen ministers, each one touching at least one other person\u2014and being touched in return.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ANCTIL<\/strong>: I\u2019m not going to go away. I\u2019m going to be there as long as he needs me. I don\u2019t know where the end\u2019s going to be, but we\u2019re going to do it together.<\/p>\n<p>For Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly, I\u2019m Deborah Potter in Raleigh, North Carolina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;That old Lutheran concept of the priesthood of all believers\u2014Stephen Ministry helps you live that out,\u201d says Rev. David Sloop. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2011\/06\/10\/april-9-2010-stephen-ministry\/6044\/\" class=\"more\">More <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":16990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6569],"tags":[1312,5025,5805,3786,7692,7693,985,7686],"class_list":["post-6044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-videocast","tag-caregivers","tag-community","tag-congregations","tag-grief","tag-lay-ministry","tag-pastoral-care","tag-prayer","tag-stephen-ministry","topics-faith-and-spirituality","faith-christian"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>April 9, 2010 ~ Stephen Ministry | June 10, 2011 | Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&quot;That old Lutheran concept of the priesthood of all believers\u2014Stephen Ministry helps you live that out,\u201d says Rev. 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