The State of Pastors 2024
I recently came across an article by Jill Foley Turner from the National Christian Foundation that offered some powerful and, sadly, troubling insights on the current state of pastors. The article bluntly began, “In 2024, most pastors have faced a multitude of issues that they could never have anticipated, and it’s weighing on them.”
When you stop to think about it, this situation is not surprising. Having come through the COVID crisis (with some churches still not fully recovered in attendance, volunteers, or revenue) and serious racial tensions (which split some churches and have left some serious relational scars in others), pastors are now facing a radically shifting culture as it relates to human sexuality and an intense and often hostile political climate.
Continuing from the article, “Add to that the fact that pastor credibility is down (and pastors sense it), and you find church leaders who report decreased confidence, doubt about their calling, and a decline in various markers of well-being.”
It’s not that this is new. Back in the 1st century, no less a pastor than the Apostle Paul wrote, “Besides everything else, I face the pressure of my concern for all the churches". (I Corinthians 11:28)
Any pastor can identify with this. I know that I did in my 40 years of active pastoral ministry.
When you stop to think about it, the responsibility of a pastor’s role is weighty. They’re called to cast a compelling vision, preach powerful sermons (every week!), monitor attendance and giving, create compelling programs, lead the church staff, deal with ongoing complaints and criticism, and handle various crises that occur around the clock. All while they seek to live exemplary lives, balance their family challenges, and maintain their spiritual, physical, and emotional health.
That’s in the best of times. These past years have not been the best of times.
As a result, the overall weight of these obligations resulted in 42% of pastors considering quitting full-time ministry as of March 2022. This is up 13 percentage points from 29% as reported in January 2021.
The chart below came from a recent Barna survey. It offers the various reasons why pastors felt this way.
The NCF article continued, “In late 2023, when Barna polled 523 Protestant senior pastors of varying ages and denominations (including nondenominations), they found that:
"One-third had considered quitting in the last year, 60 percent had significantly doubted their calling, and 25 percent said they’d seriously doubted their faith. Most soberingly, Barna says, 'Nearly one in five Protestant senior pastors in the U.S. (18%) say they have contemplated self-harm or suicide within the past year.'
“And between 2015 and 2023, significant measures of pastor wellness showed danger signs. In 2015, 24 percent of pastors reported excellent physical well-being.
“But in 2023, that same number was just 11 percent. In the same time period, those reporting excellent mental and emotional well-being plummeted from 39 to 14 percent. Pastors feeling they had excellent overall quality of life dropped from 42 to 19 percent, and pastors who believe they have “true friends” decreased from 34 to 19 percent. Over the same period, pastors who ranked the respect they feel from their communities as excellent fell from 22 to just 7 percent.”
I share all of this with you to expose the challenges being faced in the Church today. The problem is real…and this needs to not only be acknowledged, it needs to be addressed.
In my next post, I will share with you how church members can help, how church lay leaders can help, and how pastors can help themselves. For now, let these sobering facts drive you to pray. That’s the one thing we can all do.
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