Church Visitor Promising Practices

Gather regularly with other Church Visitors from your classes to share best practices, wisdom, and learning.
Ask your classis to structure church visiting so that Church Visitors are assigned the same churches to work with over time. This helps stronger relationships form between Visitors and councils.
Foster relationships with churches by doing more than just visiting once a year. Perhaps contact the Chair of Council in-between official visits for coffee or another informal get-together.
Draw on the experience of being part of a church visit (as the pastor) when fulfilling the role of Church Visitor.
Focus on the relationship aspect of church visiting rather than the question and answer aspect of the visit. A strong relational base can make the questions and answers flow more freely and honestly.
Educate councils/churches about the differences between the role of a Regional Pastor and role of the Church Visitor. (Need help? A Brief Guide to Church Visiting is a good place to start.)
Be proactive when things that need attention are made known.
Work with your classis to consider developing a “healthy church team” that includes Regional Pastors, Church Visitors and others to help address the many issues that often one or two classical functionaries have to take on alone.

Introduce yourself to a church council via a letter or an email upon getting a new church visiting assignment. This can help start the relationship the right way, right away.
Send a questionnaire to the church before the visit. This will help identify what needs to be talked about at the church visit.
Send the questions that you’ll be asking the council about a month before the church visit to help them prepare for a meaningful discussion.

Begin a church visit by focusing on the positive and asking a question like, “What are you doing really well?” or, “Where have you seen God most at work in the past year?”
Engage the council in a real conversation. Don’t just have a question and answer session.
Ask open-ended questions when visiting a church, not ones that result in a yes/no answer. (See the Brief Guide to Church Visiting for some useful open-ended questions.)
Ask for time to visit with just the council (without the pastor present) so they can be open and honest.
Take good notes during the visit. This is good for your own records and it shows churches you’re engaged in the conversation and process.
Be an encourager to the council.
Review the visit after it is over with the elder or someone on the council you’ve built a relationship with. Often, others will see and hear things you didn’t.

Develop a way for your Church Visitors to gather regularly to share best practices, wisdom, and learning.
Structure church visiting so that Church Visitors are assigned the same churches to work with over time. This helps stronger relationships form between Visitors and councils.
Be sensitive to churches that would not be comfortable with a female Church Visitor.
Educate councils/churches about the differences between the role of a Regional Pastor and role of the Church Visitor. Helpful summaries of both positions that can help can be found here.
Develop a “healthy church team” that includes Regional Pastors, Church Visitors and others to help address the many issues that often one or two classical functionaries have to take on alone.

Do you have a promising practice for Church Visitors you’d like to share? Email [email protected].