Medina First Christian Church

New Beginnings

Each day we begin anew. There are opportunities to make positive changes in our lives. With the help of God, we can work towards goals.

If past changes did not succeed, we realize that actually we didn’t fail. The truth is that we simply tried an approach that did not work. We learn from our efforts, and move on. By discovering what didn’t work, we are one step closer to success.

New beginnings can spur new ideas and energy. They give you the will and desire to begin anew. Each new day is the beginning of the rest of your life.

“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you.”  —Ezekiel 36:26

FCC Stephen Ministers are here to help anyone who needs someone to help them with life’s changes.  Please contact Pastor Laura or Bobbi Way at (330) 723-7021.

Sheila Pao - Stephen Minister

To Be Heard

Many of us at FCC are familiar with Abraham Mazlow’s hierarchy of human needs, first published in 1943, which organizes in pyramid order our individual needs to achieve “self-actualization”. I have been thinking about something central to Stephen Ministry, and where it would fall in Mazlow’s pyramid.

I am speaking of the need to be heard. Stephen Ministry is a listening and praying ministry, which recognizes a human’s need to be heard, and acts on it. Stephen Ministers attempt to bless another’s need to vent, to “think out loud”, or to check his or her thinking by voicing it to a caring person, who is safe, not judgmental, and cannot be swayed to break confidentiality.

Stephen Ministers listen, reflect what we hear back to the care receiver, and pray often for that person’s success, in sorting his or her issues. We don’t counsel. We don’t try to dabble in professional services.

I think being heard by another who cares DOES belong in Mazlow’s pyramid, somewhere between the second level of “safety/health and well-being”; and the third level of “love and belonging/friendship”.

It is heady stuff, to know that one can meet this need, in another human being. I think that is why our Stephen Ministers at FCC are dedicated to God’s service this way: we feel that we are extending God’s love, to someone God loves.

May our Lord continue to bless both care receivers and care givers, in this worthy program, amen.

- Tom Dade

Stephen Ministry – A Threefold Cord

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help. Again, if two lie together, they keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone? And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.    – Ecclesiastes 5: 9-12

For the past 16 years, I have had the honor and the privilege of serving as a Stephen Minister to fellow travelers who were walking the “dark night of the soul”. Experience has taught me that neither I nor anyone who lives can escape that night. And, I have witnessed first-hand the closeness with God and the spiritual growth that can happen during these times of darkness and stillness, in my own life and in the lives of others.

Let me just say this much. Having been the care-giver (Stephen Minister) and the care-receiver (as a divorced father, hospitalized sufferer and some things I cannot mention in print), I know this truth. It takes more courage to be the care-receiver than the care-giver. And a former teacher directed me to that truth as revealed in the scripture where Jesus washes Peter’s feet. He came to Simon Peter who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.”  -John 13: 6-8

As a member of this congregation, you or a family member or a friend may be approached by a Stephen Minister who wants the opportunity to walk beside you in a time of darkness. That lay minister will have had 50 hours of training, practice and supervision in how to listen to you humbly, skillfully and lovingly. For the love of Christ as shared in community, please find the courage and the humility to accept.

Mark Way

The Stephen Ministry program: how you can help us help others

While attending Christmas and New Year open houses, I had the opportunity to engage in many conversations with people that I wanted to get to know better. Inevitably the question “Where do you work? Or what do you do?” was discussed.  As I got to know people and they learned more about me, I realized my training in listening (Stephen Ministry Training) was benefiting me even outside of church.

The more I listened, the more I heard about people who could use a Stephen Minister in their lives. They weren’t your typical suspects; a Stephen minister is readily called upon when someone is recently divorced, there is a death of a friend or relative, someone has lost a job or is moving away, or there is an illness in the family. These are all hardships and good reasons to have a Stephen Minister in your life to listen and support you.

There are many more people in our community who could benefit from a Stephen Minister. Please take the time to listen to what others are saying. God will help you “see and hear” where people need help.  When that happens, God will point out to you those that could benefit from this service. If you think that you’ve heard a need, then speak with either Pastor Laura or Bobbi Way and let them know who that person is that could benefit from the service. They’ll reach out and explore if having a Stephen Minister would be good and if the prospect is open to the idea.  It doesn’t hurt to point people in the direction of God’s love and understanding; after all, Stephen Ministers are only a conduit through which God works miracles. Maybe the person in need wants a guardian angel like you to point them in the direction of God’s healing power.

- Sheila Davis