ABSTRACT
Stephen Ministry is a popular nondenominational Christian caregiving model, training lay persons in church congregations to care for fellow congregants in a quasi-therapeutic context without formal licensure requirements. It is argued that Stephen Ministry, based on the principles of person-centered psychotherapy, imposes a one-size-fits-all strategy for helping the client (i.e. clients receive empathy, validation, encouragement, and spiritual tools such as prayer). Stephen Ministry’s strengths and limitations in the context of attachment theory, as well as its applicability to individuals who display each of four attachment relationship models, are discussed. A case illustration of a Stephen Ministry caregiving relationship is offered.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to express gratitude to the care receiver who agreed to share the content of his Stephen Ministry sessions for this article. The author also would like to acknowledge his local Stephen Ministry team and the Stephen Leaders at Stephen Ministries St. Louis for conducting his training as a Stephen Minister and Stephen Leader.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).