Pastors doing Visitation: From Pastoral Duty to Patient Advocacy

The pastoral practice of visitation is one of the great blessings but also a difficult practice. Visitation is often seen as the latter amidst the overly busy-ness orientation of the vocation. Almost everyday I could visit someone in the nursing home or visit the hospital. It rarely seems that the request for visitation comes at a time when pastors can actually accomplish the visit. There are multitudes of other tasks to accomplish - phone calls, Bible studies, staff conversations, ministry structures management, etc. Days already go to quickly, so mustering up the energy to drive 20-40 minutes to a hospital can seem to exhausting to accomplish.

Most contemporary pastors have made the argument that visitation is NOT the job of a pastor, but a gift and calling for Christians of all sorts, especially those gifted with mercy, hospitality, and service. I make this argument all of the time to faithful Christians who question my time regarding visitation (I do it generously with my eyebrows raised in a positive tone). I am firmly committed to inviting parishoners into visitation ministry. Homebound and hospitalized persons have been blessed on many accounts by having a visitor, whether a long-time friend or a friendly stranger who stops by their home or hospital room for a brief conversation. This is a ministry of healing, in my opinion.

This post began noting the difficult and argumentative natures of visitation, but today I was reminded of the need for visitation within the pastoral office. I went to visit a 90 year old in the hospital today – we will call him Hurley. Hurley suffered a minor heart-attack (I didn’t know at 90 one could have a MINOR heart attack). I arrived at the hospital to greet him. He looked remarkably healthy considering he had a heart attack and a procedure within 12 hours. Hurley was confused, as he struggles with memory loss, but he was conversant. We spent about an hour together, and during the time the discharge nurse stopped by to question Hurley’s home environment. He was able to answer a few questions, but several were to complicated or beyond his memory. Because I have visited him before and spoke with his wife, often, I was able to answer a few questions for him. My work as visitor became patient advocate.

I firmly believe churches – the peoples of God – should form friendly visitor teams and partner homebound and elderly persons with “friendly strangers.” Pastors should consider participation as a personal act of discipleship. The partnership turns merely from friendly visitor to friendly advocate when our new friends (not clients or patients) need advocacy whether regarding health care or elder care. I never considered visitation as patient advocacy, nor as an act of justice. Today I was converted. I was blessed by visiting with Hurley, and hopefully he was liberated by my advocacy. I want other Christians to experience this mutual blessing.

Sidenote: One of the most important points of advocacy today occurred when Hurley asked me when his wife was coming. I mentioned that she would arrive by 9:30. He said “WHEN?!” The clock on his wall said it was 4:14 am when it was actually 9:05. The date said January 1, 2001. I went to the nurses’ station and asked the nurse to change the clock – Hurley has enough variables to deal with – the time and date doesn’t need to be one of them.