The COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on how we live our lives continues to unspool. The full impact of a crisis of its size probably won’t be truly understood for years or even decades, but we are starting to wrap our heads around some of the ways COVID has shaped new norms. For instance, many people came out of COVID with very different feelings about their jobs than they had going into it. And pastors are no exception.

The number of pastors who feel burnt out, lonely or unwell is growing To put it bluntly, Barna Group’s current data does not paint a pretty picture of the state of the American pastor. Over the past few years, Protestant senior pastors have seen a drop in their job satisfaction, their confidence in their calling and their overall sense of well-being. The number of pastors who are feeling burnt out, lonely or unwell is on the rise, and this is especially true of young pastors. In short, things are a little bleak.

How bleak? For one example, our research shows that today’s pastors are deeply struggling with their sense of calling in the wake of COVID, with levels of pastoral self-doubt climbing to new highs. Consider that in 2015, when Barna conducted research for The State of Pastors, 72 percent of pastors said they felt “very satisfied” with their job as a pastor. By 2020, that number had dropped to 67 percent. Then, as of 2022, just 52 percent of pastors are “very satisfied” with jobs.

That’s an eye-popping 20-point drop over the course of just six years, and it’s notable for a few reasons.

First, the trend has continued as the pandemic response has eased, instead of leveling out as lockdown restrictions relaxed. Additionally, the drop is especially notable among younger pastors—just 35 percent of pastors under 45 say they are “very satisfied.” This troubling decline in vocational satisfaction may cause significant problems for churches in the future.

We see similar trends across multiple dimensions of pastors’ work-lives. In 2015, two in three pastors (66%) said they were “more confident” in their calling than they were when they started their jobs. By 2022, just 35 percent of pastors said they were more confident, and half (50%) said they were “just as” confident. A full 25% of female pastors say they’ve lost confidence in their calling While only 14 percent are “less confident” now than they were when they started ministry, this is a huge jump from the 3 percent who said the same in 2015. Among women in pastoral leadership, confidence wanes further: A full 25 percent report they’ve lost confidence in their calling since they started. Overall, the percentage of pastors who say they have gone through a period when they significantly doubted their calling to ministry has more than doubled since 2015 (from 24% to 55% in 2022).

Pastors aren’t just broadly less happy with their work than they used to be, they may also be less sure of where they’re supposed to be. In 2015, 53 percent of pastors said they were “very satisfied” with their current church. Today, 38 percent express this contentment. Among pastors under 45, just 27 percent do so.

The problem is plain: Across the board, the pastorate seems to be taking a greater toll on church leaders than it used to.

Challenges pastors face in ministry follow into their lives Maybe even more concerning, this overall withering sense of confidence and satisfaction mirrors a declining sense of well-being among pastors. The challenges pastors are facing in their jobs follow them around in the rest of their lives as well. Since 2015, pastors’ evaluation of their spiritual health, mental health, emotional health and even physical health has dropped significantly. In 2022, just one in 10 pastors (11%) says their mental and emotional is “excellent,” and one in seven (14%) calls their spiritual health “excellent.” One in five (22%) says their physical health is either below average or poor.

Some of this might be related to the fact that pastors aren’t getting the same sense of reward out of their jobs that they used to. Since 2015, pastors have seen a decline in things like “feeling energized” by their work, “well supported” by their friends and "motivated” to be a better leader. Meanwhile, they’ve seen an increase in feelings of mental and emotional exhaustion and overall loneliness.

It would be alarming enough if pastors were just feeling a declining sense of meaning and satisfaction in their work—but something deeper is going on. America’s pastors, on the whole, say they just aren’t as healthy as they used to be. The struggle is not only real; it’s also very personal. What does this mean for the future? That’s still a little hard to predict

What does this mean for the future? That’s still a little hard to predict—after all, these findings about pastoral burnout have emerged rather quickly and only recently. For now, we might assume the number of pastors themselves may dwindle: In January of 2021, only 29 percent of pastors said they’d given “real, serious thought to leaving the ministry within the last year.” By October of that same year, that number jumped 10 percentage points, to 39 percent. Since then, it’s held at roughly two in five (41% as of September 2022), which remains a startling figure—even more so when you break it down by gender. Thirty-eight percent of male pastors say they’ve considered quitting within the last year; among women pastors, the proportion is significantly larger, making up the majority (57%).

It’s not entirely bad news. There are still pastors in America who report a strong sense of calling, job satisfaction and overall sense of well-being. But the data make it clear that such pastors are declining in number and sometimes are a minority. Too many pastors—particularly among young people and women in the ministry—are not doing well. Their numbers are growing, and it’s important that we’re aware of this reality.

The Church in the United States is looking at a future in which most of its pastors don’t like their work or aren’t sure they should be doing it in the first place. The challenge facing denominations, congregations and those who support pastors is to help reinstill a spirit of encouragement, community and confidence in our church leaders.

This Resilient Pastor series is produced in partnership with World Vision, Brotherhood Mutual and Gloo.

About the Research:

- 2015 data: Barna conducted 901 interviews with Protestant senior pastors in the U.S. between April and December 2015. The interviews were conducted through a mix of online and phone. Quotas were set to ensure representation by denomination, church size and region. Minimal statistical weighting was applied to maximize representation and the margin of error is +/- 3.1% at the 95% confidence level.

- 2020 data: Barna conducted 408 online interviews with Protestant senior pastors in the U.S. from September 16–October 8, 2020. Quotas were set to ensure representation by denomination, church size and region. Minimal statistical weighting was applied to maximize representation and the sample error is +/- 4.8% at the 95% confidence level.

- 2022 data: Barna conducted 585 online interviews with Protestant senior pastors in the U.S. from September 6–16, 2022. Quotas were set to ensure representation by denomination, church size and region and oversampling was conducted to reach female senior pastors. Minimal statistical weighting was applied to maximize representation and the sample error is +/- 3.8% at the 95% confidence level.