Pastoral Visitation

Definition and Meaning

The Korean term simbang (尋訪) combines the characters sim (尋, "to seek") and bang (訪, "to visit") and means to seek someone out and meet with them. In Korean churches it refers to a pastoral activity in which ministers, including the pastor, or church officers visit members to hold a brief worship service, offer prayer, and inquire about the state of their faith and daily lives.

Visitation is classified by purpose as follows:

• Great visitation (daesimbang): A regular annual visitation in which the church visits every household in turn. It is also called "regular visitation."
• New-member visitation: A visit to a new believer who has recently registered with the church.
• Hospital visitation: A visit to a member who is ill or hospitalized.
• Family-occasion visitation: A visit made on joyful or sorrowful family occasions such as childbirth, a move, the opening of a business, the start of school, or a death in the family.

Biblical and Historical Background

The following passages are commonly cited as a basis for visitation:

• Acts 20:20: Paul taught "publickly, and from house to house"
• Acts 15:36: the proposal to revisit the cities where they had preached and see how the brethren were faring
• James 1:27: visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction
• James 5:14: the sick calling for the elders of the church to pray over them
• Matthew 25:36: visiting the sick and coming to those in prison

After the Reformation, the Reformed tradition regarded visits by pastors and elders to members' homes to examine their spiritual state as an important part of pastoral ministry. The seventeenth-century English Puritan pastor Richard Baxter is widely known for emphasizing instruction in the faith through home visitation in The Reformed Pastor.

Practice in Korean Churches

The great visitation usually takes place at the beginning of the year or in the spring and is organized by parish district and cell group. The senior pastor or the minister in charge of the district visits households together with a cell leader, a gwonchal (lay pastoral helper), and others. A visit typically consists of a hymn, prayer, a short message from Scripture, and a prayer of blessing for the household. It is also customary for the family to give a thanksgiving offering or to serve a meal. Routine pastoral-care visits are often handled by a jeondosa (ministerial assistant).

The bodies responsible for visitation, and the terms used for them, differ by denomination:

• Presbyterian: The duties of an elder often include visiting members, especially caring for the sick and the bereaved.
• Methodist: The class leader of the class meeting, a small group, is responsible for caring for its members.
• Cell and small-group churches: Small-group leaders may take on much of the day-to-day pastoral care.

In recent years, dual-income households have become more common and privacy has come to be more highly valued. As a result, more members find home visits burdensome, and some churches have scaled back the great visitation. Meetings at the church or in a café, as well as visitation by telephone or online, are also used. Some have noted that the offerings and hospitality associated with visitation can burden members, or that visitation can become a mere formality. Others, however, regard it as an important opportunity for pastors to learn about the actual lives of their members.