Pastoral Visitation (eBook)

Part II

Pastoral Resources

CHAPTER 4

Preparing for Pastoral Visitation: Things to Consider

The basics for maintaining a healthy relationship between the pastor and the congregation are not complex. This healthy relationship is an essential foundation for effective pastoral care. Matthew Harrison in his book Letters from a Pastor’s Heart mentions three important keys: preach a good sermon, visit the people, and be visible in the community.11

He’s right; it’s not complex. Healthy relationships depend on good communication. All three keys build on that one important fundamental. It’s not enough, however, to know what makes for good and healthy relationships: we must also be able to put these keys into practice. How does one carry out the function of preaching a good sermon? How can one become more visible in the community? And, for the purpose of this book, how does one go about effectively visiting members in the church and the community? Putting these keys into practice forms the art of pastoral care.

All three of these keys are interrelated. They’re most effective when they are put into practice with the other. Visitation produces the fodder for good preaching. Being visible in the community will help establish relationships that may lead to visitation. Good preaching relies on knowing the people and knowing the community. All three keys are dependent upon each other.

In The Pastor: A Memoir, Eugene Peterson illustrates this point by telling a story about his seminary days in New York City. Each seminarian had a fieldwork assignment for acquiring experience and education within the parish setting. He and several other seminarians were assigned to Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, where the famed preacher, George Arthur Buttrick served as pastor.

One Sunday afternoon, Peterson and the others were invited to the pastor’s home for conversation. One student asked Buttrick what was the most important thing he did to prepare for preaching a sermon. Perhaps the young theology students assumed the preacher might tell them his method of studying the biblical text or a new technique for effective delivery. Instead, they got a pragmatic lesson in the care of souls. His answer: “For two hours every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, I walk through the neighborhood and make home visits. There is no way that I can preach the gospel to these people if I don’t know how they are living, what they are thinking and talking about. Preaching is proclamation, God’s word revealed in Jesus, but only when it gets embedded in conversation, in a listening ear and responding tongue, does it become gospel.”12

Each pastoral care touchpoint strengthens the other. Visitation helps fill in the lines of life’s coloring book with vibrant hues that bring important narratives to light. The preacher proclaims to individual souls who trudge down life’s path in different ways. He must understand the condition of the soul and learn what makes up the various stories of those he serves, so that he may be equipped to minister to the individual parts of Christ’s holy body—the church.

We visitors must also focus on how we can better prepare and carry out the ministry of visitation to others. A prepared and informed pastor is better equipped to carry out effective care of souls. In this chapter, I will share some practical ways for preparing to make pastoral visitation. I will also illustrate how visitations take place, especially with an eye toward modern challenges that face pastors today. Lastly, I will review ways pastors can train others for the task of visitation—especially lay visitation.

PREPARATION: CREATING A PLAN

Proper preparation is an important way to overcome the obstacles that often inhibit the pastor’s ability to carry out visitation effectively. These obstacles fall into two categories: external and internal. External obstacles include the large amount of time it takes to make home visitations, the travel time between visits, and the demand of other duties that pull the pastor in many different directions. These obstacles will require visitors to plan out activities for each day during the week and make time management a priority especially so that the visitor’s family and personal needs for self-care don’t suffer.

The second obstacle, the internal obstacle, tends to be more at the heart of the visitor’s primary challenge. Because visitors are human, we get nervous or become timid. The prospect of confrontation is always a possibility, and most people try to avoid those situations as much as possible. We aren’t exactly sure what awaits on the other side of that door we are about to approach. Will they have tough questions we aren’t sure how to answer? Are they preparing to do battle and argue over festering disagreements? Will the visit make the person feel nervous or, worse yet, disrupted and agitated? Visitation involves a certain level of risk. We aren’t exactly sure what to expect, and that can give the visitor pause. The courage to carry out visitation can be challenging to muster when the unknown awaits. Every pastor has most certainly experienced this type of reluctance.

I still remember my first visitation as a new assistant pastor right out of the seminary. The senior pastor gave me a list of shut-ins, a list of sick and hospitalized, a list of church leadership, a list of prospective members, and a list of delinquent members. He told me to make a plan to visit all those on the lists. He didn’t explain to me how to go about making these visits or which list to take up first. No, instead, he simply gave me names and left it up to me.

For some reason, and I’m still not sure why, I started to plan visits to the delinquent members first. Perhaps I thought they were the most in need, the furthest away from heaven, and that I could swoop in, make a good impression, and even set them back on the right path. Perhaps the new, young, and energetic pastor can save them from certain doom.

I didn’t anticipate how nervous I would be until I got in the car and started to make my way to the first delinquent member’s house. I had made visits before as a student—I had made visits with my mom many times, inviting neighbors to our church Vacation Bible School. But this was different. I was now a pastor. I realized I didn’t have any real information about who I was visiting and why they stayed away from church. I hardly knew anything about the church I was serving. Nerves nearly overcame me, and I almost abandoned the visit.

To help combat both external and internal obstacles that tend to get in the way of effective pastoral visitation, it is helpful to create and implement an action plan. A plan will help the pastor stay organized, keep accurate records, manage time, and focus on essential needs and concerns. It doesn’t matter what the plan is so much as there is a plan to begin with. Here are a few suggestions.

Create a Visitation List

Make a list of every member of the parish that includes their address, phone number, email, information about their family, any church ministries they are involved in, and upcoming milestones. Prioritize this list by creating categories that include regular attenders, irregular or delinquent attendees, shut-ins, and prospects. Many churches use organizational software that keeps track of basic membership information including notes for categories. I, however, find it helpful to keep my own records. I create individual folders for each family. I add dates visitations take place and follow-up phone or email contacts. I take notes about spiritual needs, family situations/concerns within the household, illnesses, and hospitalizations. With a few short lines, I summarize important narratives that bring everything from joy to despair. Essentially, I log everything I want to remember including favorite hymns and Bible verses. Note: this is highly sensitive material that includes pastoral observations, diagnoses, and plans for spiritual treatment. These folders must be safely secured to maintain the highest degree of confidential integrity. No one, including church leaders or employees, should ever have access to them. They should be destroyed if the pastor leaves to serve another ministry.

Make Initial Contact

Try to make phone contact with each church member. I suggest calling rather than email or text. Conversations are more intimate and help individuals to hear the pastor’s inviting tone. Here, the conversation may extend to talking about family, job, background, church involvement (without asking them to get involved—at least not during this conversation), and any upcoming life events. The objective here is to get to know the membership and set the stage for important conversations that may need to occur in the future. Don’t forget to jot down details that will be important to remember in your member folder. If you cannot talk to each person in the household, try to talk to at least one of them. This way, you can get a general idea of personal narratives and needs, which hopefully take shape through familiarity as time goes on.

Ask to Visit

Make your inquiry more than an offer, but an actual ask. For example, “I would like to sit down with you and your family and visit. May I please set up a time with you to come and visit with you in your home?” If you kindly offer a visit, they may...