Welcome to St. Paul's United Methodist Church - Houston, Texas

Stephen Ministry

The Stephen Ministry is

• a one-to-one caring lay ministry through which one trained, caring Christian reaches out to another in a time of need.
• a distinctively Christian system of organizing, training, and supervising a ministry named after one of the first deacons in the early church, St. Stephen. It was he whom the Apostles commissioned to care for the community's needs.
• a commitment to caring and supporting one another toward building a Christ-centered, sharing community; a good stewardship program in that we use more fully the many gifts, talents and generosity within our church family.

A Stephen Minister is

• a caring and sharing person who reaches out a supporting hand to others in need.
• a trained person who has learned skills and developed gifts for bringing Christ's healing love to others who are in need;
• a dedicated person who makes a significant commitment of time to attend a period of intensive training, provide a consistent, timely relationship with another in need and participate in continuing education and supervision on an ongoing basis;
• a person who, after training, has been commissioned by our church to provide confidential caring within our church family.

• an ordained minister
• a professional counselor or psychologist
• a provider of sitting, meal or transportation services
• a visitor "touching base" with people now and then