Care Ministry

Why do we do what we do? What is important to us?

Core Values of Stephen Ministry at First United Presbyterian Church

  • God does not want any of us to suffer alone, but wants us to love,
    encourage, and care for one another.

  • We want our church to be a place where hurting people can receive compassion,
    care, and Christ’s healing love.

  • All God’s people have been blessed with spiritual gifts and God calls us all to active ministry.

We value…

  • High-quality, distinctively Christian lay ministry. We demonstrate this value by equipping people through Stephen Ministry.

  • People. We want them to experience the love of Christ, especially when they are hurting, troubled, or in need. We demonstrate this value by ministering to people through Stephen Ministry.

Stephen Minister Training is underway. We are privileged to have six Stephen Minister Trainees, as well as three Deacons and an Elder. This month we learned about: “The Person of the Caregiver”, “Feelings: Yours, Mine and Ours”, “The Art of Listening”, and “Distinctively Christian Caring”. The New Stephen Ministers will be commissioned in March. Your prayers for the trainees, their future care receivers, and the Stephen Ministry Leaders are appreciated.

Our Vision

A vision is a descriptive picture of the future based on what God is calling His people to be. It involves a ministry prayerfully discerning what God wants it to become in order to carry out the work of His Kingdom.

Our Stephen Ministry exists to serve God by bringing Christ’s healing love to individuals who are experiencing life’s challenges and difficulties.

Our mission

The FUPC congregation’s Stephen Ministry will do everything we can to make sure that everyone who needs care receives it.

However, the reality is that we have people in our congregation and community who are in need of care from a Stephen Minister, and we don’t have enough Stephen Ministers.

Therefore, our direction is to recruit more effectively so that we add 5-8 Stephen Ministers to the 13 we have now, in the next two years.

We equip laypeople to provide one-to-one Christian care to people in our congregation and community who are experiencing difficulties in their lives. This is a confidential ministry. The identity of those receiving care and everything they discuss with a Stephen Minister remain private.

Is God calling you to be a Stephen Minister?

Talk to one of the Stephen Leaders: Ruth Neagle, Launa Engelbrecht, Jim Boland.

Stephen Ministry is a ministry of Congregational Care.