Planning the Parish Visiting Programme

An effective parish visiting programme both requires and repays careful and early preparation. Strike a balance between a capable and committed visiting team and a realistic and strategic number of people that can be visited. Trying to visit too many people can destroy the enthusiasm of parish visitors and impoverish the experience for both visitors and those who are visited. Giving in Grace can become the start of a rolling programme of parish visiting around sustaining and renewing financial commitment to the life and ministry of the church.

• Make an early start in planning. The danger is that visiting will be left behind if it is left too late. Read Why Visiting Matters and discuss at the third meeting of the planning group.
• Make sure the parish database is prepared and updated. Building a database is one of the early planning group tasks. Be sure it is robust and has been updated since it was first created.
• Can you realistically aim to visit the whole church? In smaller churches this may well be possible. Don't exclude this possibility before exploring it. See one church's story
• If not, determine what visiting is realistic for your church.
  The analysis of giving and the preparation of the Case Statement may define the visiting programme. If tax efficient giving is low then visit tax efficient givers as a priority. If planned givers are not reviewing their giving aim to visit the congregational grouping. If resources of time and people are limited review the database, be strategic and visit one segment. Maybe visit the Fringe to renew and extend the planned giving scheme in the church?
• Select people to form the visiting team. Quality not quantity of visiting counts so if you cannot recruit enough good visitors reduce the scale of the visiting you plan to do.
• Make plans for a visitor training event to encourage and equip visitors for this important task. See the Visitor training page
• Appoint a parish visiting coordinator to oversee the details and administration of the parish visiting process. Administering the Parish Visiting Programme has advice on the essential tasks.