History:
Stephen Ministry began in 1975 when the Rev. Kenneth C. Haugk, Ph.D., a pastor and clinical psychologist, trained nine lay people at his congregation in St. Louis to be Stephen Ministers. They assisted him in providing distinctively Christian care to members of the congregation and community. These trained caregivers were so enthused about their ministry, they encouraged Dr. Haugk to offer Stephen Ministry to more congregations.
Over the next few years, Dr. Haugk traveled to congregations and trained Stephen Minis- ters. This quickly proved to be inefficient, since he could visit only a limited number of congregations, and these congregations were then dependent on him to train additional caregivers. There also was little organi zational structure to supervise Stephen Ministers after they were trained. So in 1978 Dr. Haugk held the first Stephen Series Leader’s Training Course and trained the first Stephen Leaders—representatives of various churches who then returned home to train and supervise their congregation’s Stephen Ministers. Since that time Stephen Ministries St. Louis has specialized in “equipping the equippers” through the Stephen Series ministry system.
Definition of the Stephen Series:
The Stephen Series is a complete system for training and organizing lay people to provide one-to-one Christian care to hurting people in and around your congregation.
The Organization:
Stephen Ministries St. Louis is a not-for-profit, trans denominational, religious and educational organization founded in 1975. The St. Louis-based staff of 45 includes five pastors. Dr. Haugk, who is also a mental health professional, serves as the executive director.
The Name:
The name Stephen comes from St. Stephen, who was the first layperson commissioned by the Apostles to provide caring ministry to those in need (Acts 6).
Statistics:
These statistics are updated annually on September 1. If these figures are more than a year old, up-to-date statistics can be obtained by contacting Stephen Ministries St. Louis (314-428-2600) or by accessing www.stephenministries.org on the World Wide Web.
Congregations: More than 10,000 congregations are enrolled in the Stephen Series. These congregations represent more than 150 different Christian denominations and come from all 50 states, 10 Canadian provinces, and 24 other countries.
People: More than 55,000 individuals (pastors, church staff, and lay persons) have been trained as Stephen Leaders at Leader’s Training Courses. These Stephen Leaders have returned to their congregations to train more than 500,000 lay people to be Stephen Ministers. It is estimated that since 1975 Stephen Ministers have provided distinctively Christian care to more than a million people through formalized one-to-one caring relationships and have used their caregiving skills to touch the lives of millions of others in an informal way.
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