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Pastoral Visiting

By Hedgehog.

Hedgehog is puzzled. This is not an uncommon experience. There is much about the Church in the early 21st century which is intensely puzzling.

The reason for my temporary puzzlement is the recent articles and correspondence in this august journal (or on this equally august website, depending on which version you have) on the subject of pastoral visiting. None of the correspondents so far have mentioned either the Bible or the concept of gifting.

Let me take the latter first. It seems to me, as a simple soul, that, were I ever to need a pastoral visit, there are some pastors I would love to see and there are others whose well-meaning visit I would dread.

For example, I had a close colleague some years ago who did a great deal of pastoral visiting, but his congregation gradually dwindled. Sadly, I knew why - he simply had the knack of leaving people feeling worse than when he arrived! Everyone who received a visit from him dreaded it, and, if they saw him coming, would turn the lights out and not answer the door. It wasn’t that he was unpleasant. It was just that his attempts to make conversation usually involved a litany of his own woes. If ever there was a pastor who should have exercised his ministry differently, it was my friend.

Then I have a number of colleagues who, they tell me (and I have no reason to disbelieve them), make pastoral visiting their major ministry. One claims to spend almost all his week visiting. Both, I imagine, are very good at it and insist that it’s the only way to grow a congregation. So, I ask myself, why is it that their congregations are fewer than those of another friend of mine who does only the kind of ‘nuanced’ visiting described by John Davidson-Jones in the previous edition of Ministry Today?

This, of course, is one advantage of working in teams rather than as solo performers. Teams allow team members to specialise to some extent, so that the person with a gift for visiting can concentrate on it, leaving others who are less effective to do other things.

Second, after reading the previous articles and correspondence on this matter, I looked again at the books in my library on the subject of pastoral care. I was looking for a theology of pastoral visiting. Now maybe I bought all the wrong books, but none of them had anything which would pass muster as a theology of pastoral visiting. I was hoping for a biblical justification of why we clergy should visit, and failed to find one.

Yes, of course I know that there are a few Old Testament examples of people visiting the sick (e.g. 2 Kings 13.14; 2 Chronicles 22.6; and, of course, Job’s ‘comforters’), and there is Jesus’ own rhetorical question: “When did we ever see you sick and in prison and visit you?” (Matthew 25, where it occurs several times in one parable), but there is no other verse in the whole New Testament containing the words ‘visit’ and ‘sick’ in the same verse. A search through the New Testament reveals that, almost without exception, Jesus’ contacts with sick people were part of a healing miracle. James talks about visiting the sick (chapter 5), but to pray for their healing, not to drink tea and pat their hands!

So, unless I’m missing something, pastoral visiting, in the way that it is usually advocated nowadays, is a potentially useful practice (it can strengthen relationships and help to build community, etc.) looking for a theology. Why do I put it that strongly? Because, as far as I can tell as I settle down for my winter hibernation, the only biblical reason for visiting is to heal the sick, not to sympathise with them.

More tea, Vicar?

Hedgehog is a loveable, but occasionally prickly character, who has something to sound off about. If that describes you, you could be Hedgehog in a future edition of Ministry Today. Please send your article to ministry.today@tiscali.co.uk.