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 Visitation: At the Heart of MinistryA pastor's reflection on the nuts and bolts of calling on members.
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Every pastor has strengths, gifts, and interests. Some may emphasize preaching, others administration, others teaching. For me, visitation has become the joy and strength of my ministry. Some days visiting is an adventure; other days it's drudgery. But my pastoral ministry cannot exist without it. Not all pastors, of course, will make visitation their top priority. Nonetheless, personal care for members remains a vital part of every pastor's ministry for three reasons. • It's central to our call. To some degree, the words we use to describe our calling determine the nature of that calling. We call ourselves ministers, so we serve our people. We call ourselves preachers, so we proclaim God's Word. If we call ourselves pastors, that means we will also shepherd the church flock. As a shepherd is responsible for the sheep, being with people is the heart of the pastor's responsibilities. In his book. Pastoral Theology, Thomas C. Oden, professor of theology at Drew University, says, "The pastoral office is by definition a shepherding task. … Shepherding cannot be done at a sterile distance, with automated telephone answering services, computerized messages, and impersonal form letters. By definition there cannot be an absentee shepherd. There can be no mail-order or mechanized pastoral service, because pastoring is personal. It is not just public talk but interpersonal meeting where richer self-disclosures are possible." On one of my visits to a schoolteacher in our community, she told me of a child in her school. The child's mother is twice divorced. While the child was visiting her father in another state, the mother moved in with a new boyfriend and his parents. One morning after the child returned, the mother and boyfriend fought, and the little girl assumed the blame for it. She was brokenhearted, feeling out of place in a strange house. I grieved for the child and admired the teacher, with whom I then prayed. I didn't preach or evangelize; I didn't administrate, delegate, or plan. But I performed essential Christian ministry: I spent time with a member of my congregation, learned from her experience, and encouraged her in her faith. • People need pastoral contact. Those who analyze our culture and business world underscore the value of personal contact for leaders. John Naisbitt in his book Megatrends says that in a high-tech society people crave high touch. Peters and Waterman in their book In Search of Excellence emphasize the importance of mbwa, Management by Walking Around. Effective management happens best through personal contact, the personal touch. Likewise in the church, a recent survey summarized in the Ministerial Competency Report shows that lay people consistently thought pastoral calling important, even more than ministers did. I've found that routine pastoral calls, during which we don't talk about anything urgent, are the most important ones to church members. Such contacts say clearly, "Your pastor cares for you—not just about spiritual things, but about you." |             | |||||||||||||||||
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