Pastoral Visits

The pastor does not make social calls. He makes pastoral visits.

When a person is sick or dying, he may not feel up to having visitors. That's to be expected. But nobody tells the medical doctor, "I don't feel up to visitors today. You can't come by." The sickness and the desire to avoid visitors is precisely the evidence that you need the doctor's care. AND the pastor's care!

Apparently hospice workers and nurses and home health aides do not understand this. If this is some unimportant factoid they heard in class and promptly forgot, the family is going to have to take action to make sure the helpers know. You know those signs that go up in houses when oxygen is in use? A warning with instruction? Maybe we need big signs like that in the home when a loved one is sick and dying: "Anybody who answers the phone always says YES when the pastor suggests coming over. No matter how the patient is feeling today."