Six new Stephen Ministers commissioned at Trinity United Methodist Church in Paducah

Trinity United Methodist Church in Paducah, Kentucky, commissioned six new Stephen Ministers on Sunday, May 6.

Stephen Ministers are laypeople—Christian men and women—trained to provide one-to-one care to people experiencing a difficult time in life, such as grief, divorce, job loss, chronic or terminal illness, relocation, or separation due to military deployment.

Stephen Ministers come from all walks of life. Their commonality? A passion for bringing Christ’s love and care to people during a time of need.

Since 1975, more than 650,000 people from more than 13,000 congregations and other organizations have been trained as Stephen Ministers.

According to Trinity UMC’s pastor, Rev. Sue Engle, two of the church’s six new Stephen Ministers already have care receivers and “more connections are coming.”

Thanks to the “generous support of the Memphis Conference,” Engle said her church “dreams of this ministry continuing to grow over the next few years with connections in the community” to the McCracken County Jail, Merryman House, Haven of Hope and Paducah Cooperative Ministry.

“One day,” added Engle, “we hope that there will be strong ties with other churches in our county, all reaching the community with one-on-one caring relationships.”

For more information about Stephen Ministries, visit www.stephenministries.org.