Recruiting Parish Visitors

Good planning and administration in parish visiting is essential but the success of a visiting programme stands or falls on the quality of the one to one conversations in people’s homes. For that reason it is important to give careful consideration to both the recruitment of visitors and to providing some basic training. This web page offers advice on recruiting parish visitors and should be read alongside Training Parish Visitors

• The critical qualification for parish visitors is that they should be regular planned givers who have already made a personal response to Giving in Grace before they visit anyone.[more]
• Draw up an initial list of those to be approached with the request to be parish visitors. The nucleus of a parish visiting team may well come from the planning group itself. They will have some experience of visiting while consulting PCC members around the development of the Case Statement.
• Next identify some possible visitors from the PCC because they themselves have had the experience of being visited as part of the case statement consultations and many will have found it a positive and encouraging experience.
• Now consider inviting people from the wider leadership of the church - perhaps lay readers, cell group or small group leaders, organisation leaders, Shared Ministry Team members and so on.
• Finally consider members of the congregational grouping on the database.

It should come as no surprise that the best way to recruit parish visitors is to ask them - one to one! Take the time to personally approach each person who is considered to be a potential parish visitor. Share the vision behind Giving in Grace and in particular why the planning group consider visiting to be an important element in Giving in Grace. Take copies of the brochure, letter and response forms and the supporting literature - leaflets about Gift Aid, Planned giving etc. Assure potential visitors that this is visiting established church members and that training is planned.