Pastoral visit is one of the most powerful tools in the practice of caring for sheep belonging to Christ, the most significant spiritual moments for some believers occurred during the care and attention they received during a pastoral visit. someone who is admired, to the point that that person ”opening a space” in his diary and meeting his sheep, in fact, communicates a message that speaks directly to the heart. Also, have the pastor personally administer the word of God. For the believer it is a concrete expression of his concern for the flock; In addition, when in times of anguish and anguish the believer feels cared for, his moments of desert and drought become more bearable; In fact, every pastor should learn that people don’t care what they know until they know how much they care about them!
On the other hand, pastoral visit is not only beneficial for those who receive it, but also for those who practice it. Experience shows that often, whoever comes out on console, comes back comforted!
- However.
- It is necessary to clarify what we are talking about.
- Since many pastors report on social gatherings.
- Informal incidents in which they arise? some sheep in the supermarket or elsewhere.
- As a pastoral visit.
- While these moments can be significant.
- They should not be confused with the exercise of pastoral visitation.
- Rather.
- The pastoral visit consists of those meaningful encounters that create intentional spiritual interactions.
- Which occur.
- More specifically.
- Outside the confines of the church.
- In other words.
- “Is the pastoral visit underway? Ministry of Presence? Does the pastor relate to the members and visitors of his church.
- Personally extending the love of Jesus? [1] These interactions can take place at home.
- In the workplace.
- In hospitals.
- Prisons.
- Or anywhere else.
- Depending on the needs of the people involved.
- Can the pastoral visit be considered an “act of love”.
- “discipleship” and friendship? of the shepherd in relation to his sheep.
- This practice ends up working like? Doorways into people’s hearts and lives.
- As well as opportunities to build relationships and build trust.
- Which can help in various dimensions of pastoral ministry.
In writing on this topic, Michael W. Campbel identifies four basic objectives of the pastoral visit: “strengthen relationships, build spiritually, strengthen the believer’s connection with the church, and practice prayer with individual sheep. “[2] It is therefore clear that pastoral care The visit is an intentionally scheduled interaction and not just a few occasional meetings. [3] In this sense, it is important to remember that “of all professionals, the pastor is the only one who has the privilege and responsibility to initiate the relationship with people in the residential sphere, which is the best place for human interaction” [4].
Some people who question the validity of pastoral visit should remember that the biblical principle of “visiting orphans and widows in their tribulations”, which is an integral part of true religion, is a requirement for every believer, especially pastors (cf. 1,27). In addition, the practice of visitation is presented in the Bible as a concrete expression of love and attention (cf. Mt 25, 37-40, Gen 3. 8 and Lk 19, 1-10). Even after the fall of Adam and Eve into the Garden of Eden, the Lord continued to visit them to care for them (see Genesis 3: 15). [5] In this way, the minister who adequately conducts his work beyond the sphere of the pulpit will do ten times more than the minister who limits his work behind a table.
Different explanations have been proposed to explain the decrease in the practice of pastoral visitation, but perhaps the most consistent is the lack of planning of the pastors in relation to this exercise. It is true that the sociocultural context influences this, but this cannot be taken for granted. Franklin Dávila takes a correct position on this question by saying: “If Christians in this contemporary society had not experienced crisis of faith and spiritual struggles, would you completely agree with those who oppose this ministry? [6]. Apparently, many pastors hardly visit because they are not programmed in that direction. Some pastors seem content to maintain a superficial relationship with the flock, resulting in generalizations from the pulpit and contributing to a possible emptying of the church pews. On the other hand, the most effective shepherds in the practice of visitation not only wait to be invited by their sheep, but develop proactive strategies to reach them. In his ministerial experience, Franklin Dávila developed an interesting method and recommends that young pastors do something similar. According to him, “is it important that the parish priest has an agenda and, in agreement with the brothers, let them set the day and time of the visit?” [7] With this, not only the pastor, but also the church members end up participating in the planning.
Regarding the nature of the pastoral visit, it is possible to distinguish three common and extremely relevant categories in the care of the flock. In the first place there is the preventive or periodic visit, which is usually done and should be done without any particular problem, being useful to maintain contact between the shepherd and the sheep. According to Pastor Franklin, “this type of visit is important because it will give the visitor the opportunity to speak, ask questions, clarify points and, although he cannot measure the results, many things can be avoided in the future thanks to this meeting” . . [8] There is also a curative or therapeutic visit, which is this extraordinary visit, in which the parish priest addresses those who need his presence, his advice and his specific care. Franklin explains that the motivation for this visit is the need for the sheep, that is, the sheep must be visited because they are facing difficulties. Do you need to be assisted, healed and strengthened? [9] In such cases, visits to the sick (home or hospital), bereaved, or visits to families in crisis may be included. The aim is always to present the remedy of God’s word to the suffering heart. Finally, there is the corrective or restorative visit, during which a moral, relational or belief problem must be addressed. The purpose of this visit is to ensure that the bug does not spread through the body to the point of infecting others. Some pastors limit themselves to ensuring that only the pulpit is corrected, but discipleship and personal warnings, while more difficult, can also be qualitatively more beneficial. The unifying element of these three types of visits is the intention with which they are developed. In other words, these are not “accidental encounters”.
A thorny issue in relation to the pastoral visit is the ethical aspect that the practitioners of it must observe. By ignoring this problem, some workers end up doing more harm than good to the Body of Christ, and others even get involved in scandalous matters. In order for the building’s objective to be achieved, it is necessary to exercise caution in this practice. In this sense, the wise pastor will always avoid visiting a person of the opposite sex when unaccompanied, especially in the case of a married woman, if her husband is not present. We must escape not only from evil, but also from the appearance of evil. In addition, it is important that the visitor does not allow the conversation to develop about the life of someone who is not present to defend himself or give clarification. Much intrigue and dissension is fueled when this happens. No pastor needs to know someone’s life through the stories of others. Finally, the shepherd must be careful not to use cases and peculiarities of the domestic life of his sheep in the pulpit, as “sermon illustrations. ” However, if the pastor does not address these ethical issues, “it will not be long and soon all the houses will be closed to him. ” [10]
Finally, it is necessary to reflect on what should be done during the pastoral visit, that is, what should be its modus operandi, although there is no specific standard for this process, you can observe some general principles, for example, one of the first thing to do is to prepare the pastor for the visit to be made, in an article on this subject David Murray says he is preparing for a pastoral visit with a few minutes of prayer for the family to visit, as well as topic to discuss at this event. [11] Having arrived at the scene, I think it is important for the pastor to explain to people how long their visit will last, some seem not to realize that the long visit can be extremely problematic for their sheep, who have other activities (family interactions, students, professional activities, etc. ) The initial establishment of a period helps even in the attention that the sheep should pay to the minister and what he has to teach.
In addition, Murray suggests that the first fifteen minutes should be spent talking about what is happening in family, work, parental, school, etc. If there is an important event at the national or local level, it also includes the topic as part of the initial conversation. The care to be taken in this regard refers to the danger of getting lost in the midst of an interesting subject and forgetting the “spiritual purpose” of the visit. Therefore, returning to the topic of conversation on spiritual issues is the third step to observe.
A very practical suggestion made by Franklin Devila is that the pastor avoids “monopolizing” the conversation. One of the objectives of the visit is to get to know his sheep better and if the pastor does not allow people at that time to express their opinions and doubts, this goal will not be achieved, in this regard Franklin reminds us that pastoral words spoken during a visit can germinate for better or worse. Can they kill spirits or kill souls? If we don’t have a good word right now, is it better to shut up, will we never be punished if we remain silent?[12] Therefore, common sense and critical judgment are welcome in these times.
There are times when the process of directing the conversation towards spiritual issues can be simple, especially depending on the need or maturity of the visited person, however, there are other situations in which this approach can be very difficult and this occurs in cases where the visited person insists on continuing to talk about trivial issues of life; If the shepherd does not pay attention to this trap, he can use the time spent visiting in interactions that will not lead to the spiritual progress of his sheep. To resume the spiritual interest of the visit, David Murray proposes that, if necessary, the pastor should intervene with some questions such as:
Murray’s list includes other topics, but the summary above is sufficient to illustrate how a single question may be sufficient to direct the conversation toward the purpose of the interaction that should take place during a pastoral visit.
Fifth, the pastor should open the scriptures and quickly and objectively share any passages that are relevant to the situation of the family (or person) being visited. Biblical instruction is not optional, but a non-negotiable part of the pastoral visit. It is the element of the visit that only he can probably carry out with wisdom and authority. If you forget or omit this practice during the visit, the message communicated is that the interaction was more important than the building. Is this practice the best way to observe this practice?during the conversation to select the bible passage that best corresponds to the reality of the person visited. After reading the text, you may even ask the children (if any) what they understood from the read text, as this is a good way to involve them in Bible study and observe how their parents did not speak to them. in the Word of God.
Finally, end the visit with a prayer for the topics discussed during the visit. The manifestation of our desires and concerns before the Lord, in addition to being an exercise in devotion, is also educational, for the shepherd can teach his sheep to present. “all to God in prayer. ” In doing so, the worker will provide concrete evidence of how he listened carefully to everything his sheep told him during these minutes of interaction.
If the opportunity arises, it is important that the parish priest leave documentation that may be useful to the people visited, who in addition to showing affection through this act, contributes to spiritual instruction through good literary works.
Other suggestions could be made for specific visits to hospitals or prisons, but this would require another article. For the purposes of this little reflection, I think what was discussed was enough.
[1] NWAOMAH, Evans N. et DUBE, Sikhumbuzo. La pastoral visit as a real tool to strengthen family relationships. Perspective: Journal of Religious Studies 2008, p. 126 [2] CAMPBEL, Michael W. The Art of pastoral visit. Ministry: International Journal for Pastors, 85, issue 7 (July 2013): 18. [3] JACKSON, IN Call and Pastoral Visit. In HUNTER, R. J. , ed. Dictionary of pastoral care and advice. Abington Press: Nashville, TN, 1990, p. 115 [4] Ibid. , 126 [5] JAMIESON, Robert, FAUSSET, ARet BROWN, David. A commentary, criticism and explanation about the Old and New Testaments. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc. 1997, Genesis 3. 8 [6] D-VILA, Franklin. Pastoral visit. Aracaju, SE: First Presbyterian Church in Aracaju, 2005, p. 8 [7] Ibid. , P. 21 [8] Ibid. , P. 9 [9] Ibid. , P. 9 [10] Ibid. , P. 22 [11] MURRAY, David, isn’t that normal? Pastoral visit. Available at: http://headhearthand. org/blog/2010/06/01/a-normal-pastoral-visit/. Consulté on 29. 11. 2019. [12] D-VILA, Visitation, p. 26