CREEDE HINSHAW: Visitation always fraught with peril

Has your pastor visited you lately? Has your pastor visited you ever? Do you care? Here are a few observations about church visitation.

There is no unanimity on the priority on pastoral visitation. Homebound and hospitalized persons have a much higher expectation level for pastoral visitation and older church members still prize door to door visitation. Younger church members neither expect nor demand their pastor to make a home visit for which few young adults have time.

The pastor will never be caught up with visitation. There is always one more visit to make, no matter how diligently one visits. Most pastors are haunted daily by that one visit left unmade.

Pastoral visitation is triage-like. Does the pastor make a followup hospital visit to a recovering parishioner, attend a 50th wedding anniversary party, soothe a church member miffed over a church spending decision, drop in to see a couple dealing with the death of a child, encourage a church member who has been absent from church for six weeks or attend the graduation ceremony for a high school senior giving the valedictory address? How often does one visit the homebound? When does the pastor visit those who are considering joining the church? What about visits to church members in nearby jails or far away prisons or those whose surgery is out of town? What about a member whose parent died out of state?

The era when pastors simply dropped in chat with members is largely over. In my first appointment – three small rural churches – people expected their pastor to sit on the front porch and shell butter peas with them. I did it because I had the luxury of time in that place. But even in that rural setting, administrative duties beckoned and poor administration can eventually become as deadly a sin as anemic visitation.

Some church members inevitably accuse the pastor of not caring enough to visit. A few clergy deserve the charge; most simply ran out of time. Sometimes pastors get it wrong and other times the complaints are groundless. It’s hard for the pastor not to get defensive over such blaming statements.

Social media is the new form of visitation. Many clergy find it easier to keep up with their congregation via Facebook or other social media, sources of information that should not be overlooked. But information on social media is highly managed and very selective and is no substitute for face-to-face time with parishioners.

The pastor’s family needs attention, too. Parishioners seldom realize that the pastor’s spouse and children also crave more consistence presence from this person they love.

Pastoral visitation is a high privilege. The pastor – unlike all other professions — has the opportunity to be with people at every key transition in life, a holy calling that most pastors embrace with a great deal of reverence and a deep sense of gratitude.

Creede Hinshaw is a retired Methodist minister living in Macon.