Skip to main content

The Key to Quality Ministry

I've been on the job around 2 months now and there is still A LOT to learn. Nearly every day I learn another key lesson that will help me through pastoral life. So far major mistakes have been avoided but are sure to come. Despite all this, I really believe I've found the key to quality ministry. It's nothing profound or new but is very basic: visitation.

There is nothing like going to someone's home and talking with them. I've found that people are much more willing to open up and share their personal lives because they are in a comfortable environment. It shows them that you care about their lives and lays the groundwork for a deeper relationship and partnership for the future. Every family I've visited has been profoundly thankful and appreciative of our time together and it's been one of the most rewarding aspects of my ministry so far.

I know that visits are expected when you first arrive in a church but not as much as the years pass by. However, I hope and plan on making visitation a regular part of my weekly schedule because of how meaningful it is to everyone involved.

Comments

Scott A. said…
Any ideas as to the appropriateness of visitations by a youth pastor to his kids' homes? In my work I always enjoyed my visits to adults' houses, but visiting my youth felt... off, somehow. My senior pastor, however, was adamant that I do youth visitations (and my visiting them at lunch, at school, or events, or sports, didn't count).

Does anybody have some thoughts on this?

Asides from that awkward aspect, I loved visiting my members' houses, and they always seemed to love having me there. Visitation is a good thing.
David Hamstra said…
On general visitation: I try to do two in each of my churches per week, plus hospital/shut-in visits.

On youth visitation: I did this while serving as a volunteer youth pastor in Australia. It's kind of awkward at first, usually we ended up playing video games or doing some other activity. But by the second time around the kids are more willing to open up to you. They try not to show it, but they do appreciate it.
Anonymous said…
Are you discovering any difficulty getting into homes? I've heard that members are not as open to having the pastor visit as in earlier years.
trevan said…
I agree with all the discussion on youth visitation. Sitting down with the whole family is good but you won't get anywhere with the youth. I think playing basketball, video games, going to lunch, etc is the way to go. Trying to do formal things just won't cut it.

I haven't found that people aren't open to visits but scheduling them is the major problem. It's really difficult to find a time when the whole family is available and most of the time I haven't been able to sit down with the whole family in most instances because of a variety of reasons. If you wait for the ideal you'll never end up going so talking to at least one person in the family is good enough.

Popular posts from this blog

The Advent Struggle -- Part 2

There's been a lot of excellent discussion on the previous post. I've stayed out of it for the most part to let everyone else let their thoughts be known. I thought I would write another post explaining my thoughts in a little more detail. There has been some discussion over this issue of style versus theology (At least at the very beginning). I think I might have used that terminology and I want to clarify that I reject the false dichotomy of style VERSUS theology because our style and methodologies REVEAL our theology. The methods we use to present a message tends to reveal as much about the message as the message itself. In no way do I believe that all young adults want praise music, full band, nice lyric graphics projected, etc. However, I think that the 90% (no real data just a guesstimate) of Adventist churches who think of that worship style as being from the devil reveals one of the major issues at the heart of the crisis -- The Adventist response to culture. The tradit

A Jehovah's Witness Connection

This morning I was enjoying last night's episode of "The Daily Show" (THANK YOU TIVO!) when the doorbell rang. I couldn't figure out who it was through the peephole but I decided to answer the door anyways. A man had a little pamphlet which he gave me and asked me to read it and left. No pressure, just leaving it with me. So, who was it? My initial reaction was that it must be a Jehovah's Witness but I've found most of them are much more confrontational and never just leave something in your hand without arguing over something. I began to think it might have been an Adventist. Well, what did the pamphlet look like and what did it talk about? The front declared, "The End of False Religion is Near!" Inside it described false religions as those that meddle in war and politics, spread false doctrine, and tolerate immoral sex. On the next page, what did I see but decpictions of scary beasts and the scarlet woman of Revealtion. The text describes how false

Life of a Pastor

It was shaping up to be a long, draining Sabbath an Adventist pastor experiences quite often. I got up around 7am and didn't finish the day until 10pm (I did get a chance to sneak a nap in so that helped). Although too long, it provided a lot of thought-provoking experiences that made it manageable. The week turned out to be filled with good news. On Monday, a member had a baby so that was exciting. Another member had back surgery on Tuesday that went well. Wednesday, one of our members' sons was had a very rare and serious surgery. It literally took all day but by late afternoon we got the great news that everything had gone well. So, we were coming to church in a celebrative mood. Then, before Sabbath School started, a mother and daughter-in-law were crying and hugging each other because another daughter-in-law was given bad news about her cancer. The doctors have told her she has two months to live. This actual is quite typical in church. You have people coming full of prais