The mission of Stephen Ministries is to help congregations equip God’s people for spiritual growth and Christ-centered, practical ministry in today’s world.

The Stephen Series is a complete system developed to train and organize lay persons to provide ONE-TO-ONE Christian care in and around congregations, with an emphasis on confidentiality. This Ministry is named after Stephen, the first lay person chosen by the Apostles to care for the needs of that early congregation (Acts 6:1-6). The Ministry was started by Dr. Kenneth C. Haugk, a St. Louis Pastor and Clinical Psychologist. As a parish Pastor in 1975, he realized that the needs for care in his congregation exceeded what he alone could provide, so he drew on his psychological and theological background to train nine members as "Stephen Ministers" to assist him with pastoral care. Later that year he and his wife Joan founded Stephen Ministries to bring this caring ministry to other congregations.

The Stephen Series has now been implemented in more than 9,000 congregations representing more than 100 Christian denominations. More than 450,000 laypersons have been trained as Stephen Ministers, who in turn have ministered to nearly a million care receivers.

Stephen Ministries St. Louis is the not-for-profit religious and educational organization working transdenominationally and internationally, that develops and administers the Stephen Series System of lay caring, and ChristCare Series System of small group ministry, and many other resources “to equip people for the work of ministry.”