Clergy Guide to Making Visits

The Clergy Guide to Making Visits covers one of the most cherished and enjoyable parts of a pastor’s ministry. Visiting feeds a pastor’s sermons and keeps his or her fingers on the pulse of the congregation. “Our pastor knows us,” is the reaction from a visited congregation. Few will remember your brilliant homilies or the hundreds of meetings you attended, but they will always remember the day you came to visit, especially when they needed you. Clergy may invest a quarter of their ministry on visits and yet this share of their profession is covered less by theological education than any other part. Visiting may be the second most important part of their ministry, after preaching and worship. But who could teach it? Only one who has done it and mastered it. The Clergy Guide to Making Visits is for pastors who desire to make visiting their people a priority. It encourages pastors to show up and, as one church senior leader told of his expectations, “to be among our people.” The Guide deals with the art of showing up. How do you set it up? How do you keep track of it? What do you do when you get there? How do you conduct a home visit? How do you make time for proactive visits when there is so much else to do? Also included is a guide to using business lunches effectively, to making referrals to specialized helping professionals, and suggestions for how to keep records of members visited and to be visited. You already have developed heightened skills and experience in visiting. The Clergy Guide to Making Visits is for pastors who desire to fine-tune, improve, and re-energize this most important part of our vocation.