I read the sad story recently of a church that fired its pastor because “he didn’t visit the members enough.” Granted, I don’t know all the details about the situation, but I am not optimistic about the church’s future.
“Visitation of the members” became a common job description of pastors about a century ago.
It’s a bad sign.
While I am not advocating that pastors never visit people, I am concerned that such expectations are well beyond those with serious and emergency needs.
The truth is: Your pastor shouldn’t visit much. Here are 15 reasons why.
- It’s unbiblical. Ephesians 4:12 says that pastors are to train the saints or believers to do the work of the ministry. It does not say pastors are to do all the work of ministry.
- It deprives members of their roles and opportunities. The second part of Ephesians 4:12 clearly informs us that ministry is for all those in the church. When the pastor does all or most of the ministry, the members are deprived of a God-given opportunity.
- It fosters a country club mentality. “We pay the pastor’s salary. The pastor works for us to do the work and serve us.” Tithes and offerings become country club dues to get served.
- It turns a church inwardly. The members are asking what the pastor is doing for them, rather than asking how they can serve others through the church.
- It takes away from sermon preparation. Those same members who complain that a pastor didn’t put enough time into the sermon are the same ones who expect the pastor to visit them.
- It takes away from the pastor’s outward focus. If pastors spend all or most of their time visiting, how can they be expected to get into the community and share the gospel?
- It takes away vital leadership from the pastor. How can we expect pastors to lead if we give them no time to lead since they are visiting members?
- It fosters unhealthy comparisons among the members. “The pastor visited the Smiths twice this month, but he only visited me once.”
- It is never enough. When churches expect their pastors to do most of the visitation, they have an entitlement mentality. Such a mentality can never be satisfied.
- It leads to pastoral burnout. It is impossible for pastors to maintain the pace that is expected of all the members cumulatively, especially in the area of visitation.
- It leads to high pastoral turnover. Burnout leads to pastoral turnover. Short-term pastorates are not healthy for churches.
- It puts a lid on Great Commission growth of the church. One of the great growth barriers of churches is the expectation that one person do most of the ministry, especially visitation. Such dependence on one person leads to a cap on growth.
- It leads pastors to get their affirmation from the wrong source. They become people-pleasers instead of God-pleasers.
- It causes biblical church members to leave. Many of the best church members will leave because they know the church is not supposed to operate in this manner. The church thus becomes weaker.
- It is a sign that the church is dying. The two most common comments of a dying church: “We never done it that way before,” and “Why didn’t the pastor visit me?”
The pervasive mentality in many churches is the pastor is the chief visitor in the church.
It’s a key sign of sickness.
It’s a clear step toward death.
Let me hear from you.
Posted on August 31, 2016
With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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437 Comments
Hello ,
I am an avid reader from the U.K.
I wonder if you have read recently Richard Baxter’s book ‘The Reformed Pastor’.
In a different era, he would visit homes continuously ‘to ascertain the spiritual condition of his flock and townspeople’.
I understand that this is no longer practical in most circumstances, but can I make the following contribution to the discussion :-
1. Home visits present a very good means of evangelising the church members and the ‘fringe’ attenders who may not be even saved or committed to the fellowship.
2. Pastoral Care and wise counsel is a specific ministry to the Pastor’s flock and needs trained and experienced committed Christians to be able to complete the task of serving the church in this way.
3. Homes are the places where the Pastor begins to really understand spiritual and practical needs of his congregation and actually begins to get to know them.
It is my experience in the U.K. that many (Baptist) Pastors do not visit homes unless specifically asked.
My own pastor didn’t visit me in hospital when I had heart blockage and a pace maker fitted recently. In the four years that I have been attending the church, I have not had a pastoral conversation with him and his conversation tends towards sport.
I am not complaining, because he has other strengths of an evangelist.
I would hope, however, that any pastors reading this would be able to understand and acknowledge these simple matters.
I have experienced fringe attenders coming to saving faith and being baptised because of home visitation I carried out for a busy pastor.
God Bless your work for Christ and His kingdom.
I can see valid points on both sides of the discussion. I don’t agree with the term “haters” being used though. I think if someone disagrees with an issues, it should help us to think about what we believe, not just put a label on them.
Our main church doesn’t utilize their deacons enough or even encourage them to visit. On one hand I agree visiting isn’t just about pastors. But on the other hand, my husband is a bi-vocational pastor, full time prison chaplain and “part time” mission pastor. He doesn’t have time to do all the visiting and I know he understands what the article is about. But he recently too had surgery and not one of the staff called or visited or even sent a text. That was hurtful. My mom also never stepped foot in her church after the pastor didn’t visit my sister when she had a premature baby. So when she died many years later and my dad was alone, I couldn’t get him to get some love and encouragement from the church. He just would say he’d go when he felt better. He never did. Maybe it’s also not just about visiting in person, but also can include sending a card, a text or message or praying over the phone. But yes, people also need to recognize that if someone visits from the church, they are a representative of the church and deacons and others need to be encouraged to serve outside of the walls.
Thom, you nailed this. Maybe in the future you could do an article addressing people’s disdain for full-time pastors and their glorifying of bi-vocational pastors as if they are more holy than full-time pastors. I have been both bi-vocational and full-time and from my experience full time is a far more demanding and mentally and physically draining than being bi- vocational. Just my experience though, not meant to be a blanket statement.
I would like to preface my remarks by stating that I love pastors! I do. My earliest memories are of sitting at my grandparents table surrounded by local pastors eating supper at my grandparent’s home. My granddaddy was a deacon who loved preachers and listening to them discuss Scripture; and this was instilled in me almost from birth. I believe in supporting my pastor as he follows Christ and letting him lead as under-shepherd of Christ’s church. I was also a pastoral secretary from 1997-2009 and now serve as an administrative assistant in our local Baptist Association. I’ve been around pastors for most of my life and find them to be good, honorable men. Some relish visiting, though not most; and I do believe that this is because of the pressure of congregational expectation and the whole “that is what we pay the pastor to do” mentality. However, I do also observe that personality type plays a huge role in their enjoyment of visiting and motivation.
If an introverted pastor feels forced to visit by a congregation, then I would say burnout is likely. If an extrovert is doing visitation for the recognition of people, then motivation is off. If an introvert is hiding behind Bible Study when God is compelling them to get out of their comfort zone, this is wrong. If an extrovert is avoiding Bible Study by staying with people…again wrong. As a pastor, the primary responsibility is the pulpit; but one must also be relational to the flock and not just looking past them to the world beyond their walls. A pastor cannot train someone with whom you do not engage and invest. It is the responsibility of us all, not just the pastor, not just the person in the pews, but both together to engage the world as Christ directs while loving and caring for each other. There has to be balance, absolutely. The congregation needs to know that the pastor has a family that God gave him and that pastors are not and cannot be omnipresent.
We cannot do this without a self-less, daily crucifying, experience of “not my will but thine.” There is no blanket “one size fits all” mentality of service. There are responsibilities and means of engagement that vary. For a pastor to say that he only visits the critically ill short circuits something God might be doing in the life of a child of a single mother or of a parent who is serving overseas whose son is in the emergency room with a knot on his head because he fell off a slide; or the most seemingly unworthy person may be transformed because of your visit. God knows things we don’t. So it is important to look past guidelines and attitudes that are less servant oriented and more rigid.
Luke 17:7-10 contains a parable that rings in my ears about a servant’s proper attitude toward obedience to Christ. At first reading, I found it to be a bit harsh and even a little cold. Then, I heard a man, Dr. Joe McKeever, speak on this parable. He pointed out that this is not what Christ says of the servant but what the servant says of himself.
“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”
I can see where making a lot of visits of a non-crisis nature would be a drain, especially for the pastor who is introverted. In most cases this should be left to deacons, Sunday School or Small Group leaders and classmates; but the pastor must always listen with an ear that is open to God saying, “You go.”
As for burnout and other negativity mentioned, that would depend on the individual pastor and how they are wired and their reason for visiting or not visiting. For the introvert, there is not only the pressure to make conversation but also the recovery time to re-energize as being in those type situations are taxing on one who is introverted. These pastors need time to return to the inner processes of thought, prayer and sermon preparation as this is how they process. However, the extroverted pastor is likely invigorated by visiting and is probably inspired.
Much of this blog I can agree with like points 2, 3, 4, 8, and 9; but some of it, like point 14, has never been an issue in any church I’ve been a part of in my 51 years of life; but maybe you have some statistical data that reflects this. I only have held membership in 6 churches in my life–2 of which would be considered small as the average worship attendance would have been 50 or fewer, and no mega churches. Maybe this trend exists and I’ve just never encountered it but it would seem to contradict point 15 which I have seen. Points 10 and 11 would depend on temperament and motivation—again introverted individuals vs. extroverts and people pleasers vs. God pleasers.
I do not think anywhere in Scripture that it is biblically prohibited for a pastor to make visits, especially as it is part of training up those in the faith is by example; and I know that is not what you are saying. I do believe that it is biblically a primary job of deacons as the same Scripture that often used as the genesis of the deacon ministry also declares that was not the job of the Apostles. [Acts 6:1-7] Having stated this, it must not go unmentioned that Jesus, Himself visited people who were sick but with intentionality. These visits were not to coddle or really even to comfort them by in some way as an effort meet human expectations. These visits were never, in all honestly, for the sick person, but for His Father’s glory. The sick person’s blessing was a by-product of that obedience which glorified God. If the motivation is people pleasing, then that motivation is wrong regardless who does it. In the same tone, if the motivation is God glorifying obedience then the fall out of that glory is blessing.
Excellent post. Great read through the comments as well.
For those who advocate extensive pastoral visitation, where do small group leaders/members fit into this? How are you making disciples that make disciples, when you are the one running around meeting everyone’s needs for comfort, encouragement, and prayer?
If this post offended you, I would encourage you to examine the health of your church. Shepherding creates sheep. Jesus didn’t commission us to make sheep. Sheep don’t transform their communities, they eat all the grass, and stand around expecting their shepherd to water them and protect them.
There has only been one comment that was against this blog post that mentioned scripture (to this point). It seems to me, that shows people are more interested in what they want in a pastor than what the Bible teaches a pastor should be.
I agree! However, what are your thoughts about Pastors at “venue” churches? For example, my church has a main service where the Senior Pastor preaches from one location and that sermon is simulcast to other video venues throughout the city. At the video venues, there is a Campus Pastor that does not have to prepare a sermon every week.
I think he should do visitation, but he should not be the only one; he should also equip other members to visit one another.
Your thoughts?
This post illustrates beautifully why we prefer not to attend a mega church–or a small church emulating the mega church.
We don’t believe the church should grow beyond what the pastor, the deacons, and the congregants can handle and still be faithful to all the Bible says we are to do. If the church is too large for the pastor to know the congregants, it is too large. If the deacons and the people cannot handle the load on their jobs, it is too large.
This doesn’t mean churches die. It means they multiply. Seems to lead to a much deeper faith when churches parent new churches as they grow numerically. I dare say a church of one hundred, upon hitting two hundred, should become two churches of one hundred. Down the road four churches of around one hundred will be far more able to truly be communities of faith than one church of four hundred could be.
The choice truly isn’t mega or dying. There is another choice–the growing, faithful, multiplying church where the pastor is still the pastor, not the ceo, the deacons are still the deacons, not ruling elders, and the congregation is still a community, not consumers.
The early church was and heaven will be mega, so get used to it.
Thank you so much for posting this! You have validated my thoughts and concerns regarding the church I’m currently serving. I’m currently serving a church that puts a great deal of emphasis on visitations. It definitely is (a) a sign that the church is inwardly focused and (b) a cause of pastor burnout. I seem to spend most of time worried about visiting certain members simply because I know they will call other members to discuss my visitation schedule. This definitely affects not only my ministry but the churches ministry as well. It puts it at a standstill! I would love to hear any ideas about how we can help churches turn their focus outward and on the community! Thanks and God bless!
#16 – It’s hard on the waistline.
It seems most people expect the pastor to visit every time there’s a problem and every single day. I believe it IS important for a pastor to visit the members, maybe not daily or weekly but possibly once a month. When my grandfather was in the nursing home, our pastor would visit residents who were members of his church and if their families weren’t there at the time of the visit, he’d leave his card. One time, our church hired a pastor straight out of seminary who wouldn’t visit his members, when asked why, he’d say “I’m not a pastor.” I believe visiting should be PART of the sermon, I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day.
No, most people don’t expect that. In fact, I daresay the people who put unrealistic expectations on their pastor are relatively few. They just SEEM like a lot. Alas, it doesn’t take very many critics to destroy a pastor’s ministry.
Tim –
I appreciate your thoughts, but please consider the implications of visiting once a month. If a church has 200 members, an hour visit a month for each means the pastor is visiting 8 hours a day every day of the year except Sundays. He then loses his family, his preaching ministry, and his sanity.
Puritan Richard Baxter (in The Reformed Pastor) argues that if your church has 200 members, maybe you should take a pay cut and bring in another pastor who can help with visitation. Then you could make your rounds in four hours a day. Then you might not have time (or money) to bring in a consultant to talk about diversity or church growth; you might even have to skip your two-hour workout session a few days per week; and it’s likely that you won’t have time to write that best-selling book; but at least you’ll know your flock– a pastor is a shepherd, after all. It’s not simply a matter of visiting the sick and shut-in, but caring for the sheep that the true Shepherd has entrusted to you. Yes, that means preaching and teaching the word, and I am fully aware that sermon prep takes time. But you must not let that be a pretense for the kind of self-centered, idea-heavy, loveless ministry that many “pastors” practice today. Truly caring for your people necessarily involves dying to self in order to manifest Christ.
Your sarcasm is not helpful, John.
Thom, thank you for this timely post. Visitation has been a great drain on me personally, as I tried in my early years of pastoring to visit regularly. It was made clear to me, by some, that this was an important duty. This burden was in constant conflict with my need to study, plan, organize and be a family man. By nature, I am an introvert. I love to study, love deep meaningful conversations, love thinking about new ideas that can allow our church to be more effective in ministry. In these tasks I felt validated and productive. While I understand the need to visit others and engage in small talk, this was not my strength, and it often left me without the energy to do those other tasks, well!
Your post was so encouraging, as have the comments made by fellow pastors. Blessings to you!