Stephen Ministry

Stephen Ministry is an outreach of the pastoral care offered at Woodhaven to people experiencing times of transition and crisis in their lives.  Stephen Ministers are laypeople who have been equipped and trained to provide confidential, one-to-one, distinctively Christian care.

• Laypeople: Stephen Ministers are trained and supervised lay volunteers, not professional counselors or therapists, pastors, or physicians.
• Confidential: Stephen Ministers observe strict standards of confidentiality in their relationships with their care-receivers, whose identity and personal circumstances are very closely protected.
• One-to-one: Stephen Ministers meet privately with one care receiver of the same gender.

• Distinctly Christian:  Stephen Ministers are Christians who care in the name of Christ.  They are equipped and willing to talk about spiritual issues as their care-receivers may desire, but they fully respect their care-receivers autonomy, and never insist upon their own point of view on any issue.
• Care:  Stephen Ministers care by listening, supporting and encouraging, praying, being dependable and trustworthy, and maintaining confidentiality in their caregiving.  Stephen Ministers provide the care, but it is God who provides the cure.