Administering the Parish Visiting Programme

Kubernesis is the Greek word usually translated as "administration". It was used for the steersman on a ship who kept the vessel on course. In 1 Corinthians 12:28 Paul lists administration as one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Good administration is essential so appoint a single person responsible for the parish visiting programme. This administrator may not be on the Planning Group so the communications person must support and encourage the visiting administrator.

Our strong advice is that the same person is administrator of both the optional Parish Visiting programme and also of the absolutely essential follow up visiting.The two roles merge as response forms are returned and are best administered by one person with an overview of the whole process. The tasks of the administrator include:

• Keeping the database both accurate and up to date.
• Draft an brief introductory letter from the clergy to be sent in advance to each person who will be visited explaining the purpose of the visit that to be made.
• Keep a list of all potential visitors and inform them of the date of the visitor training sessions. Thank those who agree to visit and those who may decline to visit after the training session.
• Review the training visitors web page to see what preparations are needed for the training session(s).
• Assemble the correct number of “Visitor Packs” - the packs of literature that visitors will need for each visit:
• Fix a clear date by which visits should be completed and all papers returned to the central administrator of the parish visiting programme.
• Write to thank all visitors for their time and effort and provide a very simple summary of the responses where possible to encourage visitors.
• Ensure a careful hand over of information for effective follow up visiting. This is a vital next phase and our advice is always that the same person who administers a parish visiting programme should also administer the follow up visiting strategy. This too requires careful administration to be effective and to honour the responses that people have made.