Menlo Park Presbyterian Church has scheduled a Stephen Series Caring Ministry Workshop 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the church, 950 Santa Cruz Ave.
Registration will begin at 8 a.m. and refreshments will be served at 8:30 a.m. The half-day workshop consists of three sessions designed to enhance participants’ caregiving skills and to help congregations explore ways to expand their caring ministry.
“The needs for care in our congregation and community were much more than the pastors could handle alone,” said Kim Engelmann, pastor of Congregational Care, one of eight Stephen Leaders who oversee the church’s Stephen Ministry. “We enrolled in the Stephen Series and are now equipping members to provide quality one-to-one Christian care.”
The workshop is sponsored by Stephen Ministries, a St. Louis-based Christian training organization that has been providing congregations with training and resources for Christian caregiving for more than 30 years.
Dr. Joel Keen, who serves on the pastoral staff in St. Louis, will lead the workshop.
The first session, “Ministering to Those Experiencing Grief,” addresses the grief process, the stages of grief and how to minister to people in each of those stages.
The second session provides an introduction to the Stephen Series, a system of lay-caring ministry through which congregation leaders can equip members to provide one-to-one Christian care to people in need. Since 1975, more than 9,000 congregations representing more than 100 denominations have implemented the Stephen Series.
The final session defines “How to Care in a Distinctively Christian Way.” Participants learn what makes Christian caregiving unique and how they can use resources like prayer, blessings and Scripture in their caring for others.
The cost of the workshop is $15 per person or $50 for a group of four or more from the same congregation.
For more information or to register, call (314) 428-2600 or visit www.caringministry.org.
