As we’ve seen, the current state of pastors is—emphatically—not great. A quick recap: Since 2015, we have seen a dramatic rise in the number of pastors who have lost confidence in their calling and are considering leaving their jobs. Those soaring numbers can be tied to a drop in the number of pastors who feel good about their overall sense of well-being. The research suggests that as pastors lose their mental, emotional, spiritual and even physical health, they also lose confidence in their role in ministry. Burnout among pastors is increasing and does not yet show signs of decline

In other words, burnout among pastors is increasing and does not yet show signs of decline. America’s pastors are increasingly likely to be discouraged both at work and in their personal lives. Troublingly, this trend is pronounced among younger pastors and women.

There’s a common, instinctual response to worrisome trends like these. You might be familiar with it. It’s something like “toughen up” or “get it together.”

One problem with this advice is that it’s far from a cure. Let’s face it: If we could really “toughen up” our way out of burnout, fewer people would be burned out. It also misunderstands what’s really going on. Research, including Barna’s, strongly suggests that the biggest stressors behind burnout are complex and go well beyond individual choices. The broader culture, ministry systems and organizational structures that pastors operate within can also be pinpointed as causes of stress, isolation, exhaustion or, ultimately, breakdown. When it comes to their job, pastors name lack of volunteers as the most common stressor

When we asked pastors what caused the most stress in their jobs, the most common response is a lack of volunteers (51%), attendance worries (38%), money concerns (32%) and pastoral responsibilities (31%). You can see how these things are beyond any one pastor’s ability to just stop stressing about. They are real issues with complicated causes and, in many cases, no simple solutions, particularly in a pandemic era.

In our search for solutions, it might help to look at what sets a stable pastor apart. One-third of pastors disagreed that any of several stressors affected their ability to lead. Pastors who are bucking the trend toward burnout tend to portray a strong connection with others around them, a flourishing connection with God and a sense of optimism about the future of the Church. They are energized by their jobs, feel well supported by the people in their lives and generally satisfied with their mental, emotional and spiritual health.

As we’ve seen, many of these traits are in sharp decline among today’s pastors. But they are also the things that seem to stave off burnout among pastors. If we want to make a dent in the rising tide of pastoral exhaustion, we’re going to have to figure out how to reverse the trend of disconnection.

At the same time that we have seen a rise in pastoral burnout, we’ve also seen a decline in the number of pastors who say they’re getting spiritual support from either a mentor or a group of peers. In 2015, 37 percent of pastors said they received such support at least several times a month, while only 11 percent said they seldom or never did. Jump forward to 2022, and just 22 percent of pastors say they’re getting spiritual support several times a month or more. The number of pastors who say they seldom or never get spiritual support more than doubled, to 24 percent.

This is no small thing. Pastors who say they’ve given serious thought to quitting over the last year are almost twice as likely to have received little or no spiritual support on a regular basis (32% vs. 17% of pastors who have not considered quitting).

Similarly, most pastors seem hesitant to reach out to outside sources for help and encouragement. Nearly two-thirds (63%) say they aren’t seeing any counselor, therapist, life coach, mentor or spiritual advisor of any kind. Only about 13 percent are seeing a spiritual advisor and the same proportion meet with a personal mentor, while 11 percent are seeing a counselor and 8 percent are seeing a therapist.

Data suggest there are a lot of opportunities for self-care that pastors aren’t prioritizing Taking steps to build more spiritual and mental health support can be a transformative part of holding off burnout and working toward quality solutions for other stressors in the job.

In fact, research suggests there are a lot of opportunities for self-care that pastors aren’t prioritizing. When Barna asked pastors how they practice self-care (which the survey described as anything done deliberately to support a personal sense of well-being), the most popular responses included quality time with family, rest or sleep, prayer, time away from work, exercise and scripture. Those are all good, healthy things! Unfortunately, pastors say they just don’t get a lot of time to do them. Less than half (43%) say they get to practice self-care daily. Fourteen percent say this occurs a few times a month.

Pastors are not like electric cars that only need to be plugged in every now and then to give the batteries a little juice. They’re human beings, designed to live full, rich lives of love and service in devotion to God and others. And while God does promise to strengthen us for the challenges we face (as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”), he also instructs his people to take time to rest, just like he himself did. In Mark 4 and Mark 6, we even see Jesus prioritizing quiet time alone with his disciples over ministering to the crowds of people who wanted to see him. Luke 5:16 says that Jesus “often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”

Rest and renewal are serious business, and there is evidence that they deliver big results. Our data show that younger pastors are more likely than their older peers to be feeling the effects of burnout—and it also says they’re less likely to have time for daily self-care. While 46 percent of pastors over 45 practice daily self-care, just 35 percent of pastors under 45 do.

Sabbath in my opinion, is really the kingpin of a life well-lived in God. —Ruth Haley Barton There is a correlation with job satisfaction too. Pastors who’ve strongly considered quitting in the last year are much less likely to say they have time for daily self-care.

“Sabbath in my opinion, is really the kingpin of a life well-lived in God,” says Ruth Haley Barton, founder of the Transforming Center. “I don’t think I’d be alive, doing my ministry, if it wasn’t for the practice of the Sabbath.”

At this point, we should note that self-care isn’t a magic spell or a quick fix—certainly not a sole one. “Rest” alone is not enough. In cases like this, church leadership might need to get involved to change the actual division of labor and pastoral expectations if they want to reduce their pastor’s risk of burning out.

But there is no doubt that, on the whole, pastors who do take time for self-care and prioritize getting spiritual support from peers and mentors fare much better than those who don’t. If men and women in church leadership can start to see those things not as nice perks when time allows but a vital element of a long, flourishing ministry, we might start making headway toward reversing the burnout trend.

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.

- 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.