Pastoral Care of Pastors and Their Families > Visiting Pastors and Their Families

By Eli Rojas, D.Min. erojas@ccosda.org

Visitation within the context of the Ministerial Director word can be easily compared to pastoral visitation in the local church. From the pastor’s perspective you’ll find those that love it, those that hate it, and those that can take it or leave it. From the church family perspective, you’ll find the same.

Ministerial directors will find pastors that love to be visited, and those that don’t care for it. However, it has been my experience that it is needed. I learned that the first time I made a pastoral visit to one of my pastors. Sister White highlighted the importance of pastoral visitation in Gospel Workers. She said: “The pastor should visit from house to house among his flock, teaching, conversing, and praying with each family, and looking out for the welfare of their souls.” Pastors, and their families need this kind of care just like any church member.

Why should you visit your pastors?

Several reasons:

•Brings down walls. In an evangelism class that Mark Finley was teaching to a group of pastors he said “What happens when you visit? You bring down the walls.” Pastors too build walls. At times some pastors might feel like “no one at the Conference cares for them.” Dr. Clifford Jones said: “We must come down from our ivory towers, our stations of apartness, and meet with our people where they are”

•To connect. Some of our pastors are well connected with peers in the field. They join local ministerium, they attend their Conference’s local area ministerium, and they have mentors and friends in ministry with whom they keep in touch. However, most pastors feel like they are alone in the field. As Ministerial directors we can provide our pastors with support and connectivity. As we visit them and get to know them, we can be a channel to link one pastor with another so they can encourage each other, to provide mentorship, to pray, or to simply develop a friendship

•Listen empathetically. If you have the privilege of being able to listen about your pastors struggles without having to take an “official” action, then you have a tremendous opportunity to help pastors deal with their personal battles. Pastors are humans, too, with weaknesses and challenges like the ones their church members face. However, pastors cannot reveal their weaknesses without dire consequences. As a fellow pastor you can provide help and support, grace and restoration. You can provide resources, connect them to professionals that can help them in their struggles, and lead them to become better instruments of God’s grace. Keep in mind that situations of abuse and flagrant sinful behavior would have to be dealt with differently

Talking about pastoral visitation, Dr. Jones makes the following comment: “Jesus often visited people in their homes, where He listened to them, ate with them, and generally met their needs (Mark 1:29-34; 5:35-43; Luke 19:5). Writes Ellen White: "Our Savior went from house to house, healing the sick, comforting the mourners, soothing the afflicted, speaking peace to the disconsolate." Christ also showed how important visitation was by placing it among other acts of kindness and benevolence that would separate the sheep from the goats in the final great assize (see Matt. 25:34- 46).” Can this concept be applied to Ministerial directors visiting their pastors? I think yes!

1 Ellen White, Gospel Workers, p 337 (1915)

2 Mark Finley, Living Hope Center, Haymarket, VA. Pastoral evangelism class. 3/2018

3 R. Clifford Jones, “Pastoral Visitation: in person or by…?”. Ministry Magazine, August 1994. Web-reference: https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/1994/08/pastoral-visitation

4 Ibid