Membership Care Ministries

The Membership Care Committee and Pastor Stemler, the Minister of Pastoral Care, work together with many volunteers to serve the members of the congregation through prayer, visitation of shut-ins, phone calls and various other ministry opportunities.

The Lay Caregivers are trained, commissioned members of the congregation who participate in the church's program of intentional caregiving for members who are shut-in, sick or recuperating, in crisis situations, or who may become inactive. In these situations, Caregivers provide fellowship, encourage-ment, prayers, and endeavor to meet special needs, working very closely with the Minister of Pastoral Care. Caregivers are supported by continual training programs and serve for a term of two years.

The Tele-Care Ministry is an organized system for calling every member, by phone, every two months to express love and encouragement, to offer prayers and to see how we may help.

The Telephone Ministry enables shut-ins to listen to our Sunday morning worship via a telephone conference call on a speaker phone provided by the church.

The Love and Meals Ministry helps arrange, prepare, and deliver several free meals to the homes of members who have requested this assistance due to illness, injury, or the arrival of new baby. Food allergies and special diet requirements are taken into account. Volunteers are needed to prepare meals and/or deliver them a couple of times a year. Caregivers are supported by annual training programs and serve for a term of one year.

A Prayer Chain, composed of a group of dedicated members who monthly receive a partial listing of the membership and pray for those members throughout the month. They also receive and pray for individual requests made by the St. Paul's membership.

The Stephen Ministries empowers lay people to use their gifts of caring, empowers pastors to use lay people to share in a significant part of the pastoral workload while the pastor is freed and empowered to focus on those ministry areas that only pastors do, and empowers those receiving care. It’s a God-send to people facing a great difficulty in life, because they no longer have to face it alone. Stephen Ministries is really a win-win situation. Lay people, pastors and those receiving care are all empowered. The Stephen Ministries empowers congregations to share Christ’s healing love n a very tangible way.

Volunteers from the congregation are always needed to participate in all of our Membership Care Ministries. Many helping hands are needed to successfully provide this vitally important service year-round.