One enormous challenge facing Americans is a decline in the overall trust of institutions One enormous challenge facing Americans is a decline in the overall trust of institutions, whether political parties, public schools, police departments or the press. You might find some of these dips in trust to be more understandable or valid than others, but there’s no denying that people are growing increasingly suspicious of bodies that were once widely respected.

The pastorate is not exempt from this credibility crisis.

U.S. adults just don’t have the same faith in pastors that they once did. And while this is part of a broader decline in trust of historically respected positions, roles and institutions, some unique factors contribute to the rot in the relationship between pastors and the general public. Understanding what exactly has happened to pastoral credibility over the last few years will be key to facing this crisis of cultural leadership head-on and, hopefully, reversing this trend.

The process may have already begun: The news that pastors are losing the trust of the public seems to come as no surprise to pastors themselves. Most of the pastors that Barna surveyed say they sense that things have been souring.

When we asked if pastors thought individuals in their role were becoming more or less trusted as a “source of wisdom,” most (57%) say pastors are now “somewhat less trusted,” and 16 percent say “much less trusted.” Just 7 percent feel pastors are becoming “somewhat more trusted,” and only 1 percent thinks they are becoming “much more trusted.”

On a more personal level, most pastors do feel that the men and women in their own congregation see them as a source of wisdom. Three-fifths of pastors (58%) say their congregants “very much” trust them as a source of wisdom, and two-fifths say their congregants at least “somewhat” trust them. Though the “very much” number dropped from 67 percent in 2020, on its own this is not terribly concerning.

More notable is that while 62 percent of men who are pastors say they feel “very much” trusted by their congregants as a source of wisdom, only 37 percent of women who are pastors agree. In other words, the trust deficit pastors sense broadly from the general populace is felt more personally for women in their own churches.

Similarly, pastors who are at high risk of burnout also feel a lack of trust from their congregation, with just 49 percent saying they feel trusted as a source of wisdom by their congregation. So, the more trusted a pastor feels, the more likely he or she is to feel good about their role and likely to continue in it. Pastors who don’t feel this trust find themselves at higher risk for burnout—and right now, that’s a group that also includes a disproportionate number of women leaders. The decline in trust between the public and pastors is not one sweeping drop

The decline in trust between the public and their pastors is not necessarily one sweeping drop. Rather, most pastors feel that they’ve lost trust in certain areas and with regard to certain topics. They’re right.

Most pastors assume that the average person trusts them on topics that have been traditionally considered to be more inherently religious in nature. For instance, an overwhelming 94 percent of pastors say they feel trusted about spirituality, and three in four say they feel trusted on matters of grief (77%) or evangelism (73%).

Beyond faith-based subjects, pastors don’t feel people trust them to have much to say about more practical matters Beyond these faith-based subjects, pastors don’t feel people trust them to have much to say about more practical matters of everyday life. Only 43 percent feel trusted to offer wisdom about parenting. Just 31 percent believe people would look to them to navigate cultural issues. And less than a quarter feel trusted as a source of wisdom about mental health (23%), money (21%), career (19%) and dating (18%). An exception to this trend is the topic of marriage, on which 63 percent of pastors still assume the average person welcomes their wisdom.

For the most part, pastors seem to feel they still have some authority on strictly spiritual issues, but that confidence dwindles in regard to the daily concerns of life. Barna’s research largely confirms that pastors aren’t wrong to feel this way. When Barna asked people what they’d be most interested in learning about from a pastor or priest, the most popular answers are more spiritual issues like the life and teachings of Jesus (32%), living a fulfilled life (33%) and morality and values (29%). When we asked what they were uninterested in, they tended to pick more practical topics like social issues (25%), dating (25%) and finances (18%). This holds generally true for both people who self-identify as Christian and those who don’t. That said, among people who have no faith, almost half—48 percent—aren’t interested in learning anything at all from clergy

We shouldn’t assume this attitude only exists among those without much familiarity with the Church. It is also evident among people who have at least some Christian faith background (i.e., they’re currently Christian, were raised Christian or experienced a “season” of Christianity). Seven in 10 of these people (71%) say it is “completely” or “somewhat true” that they want to distance themselves from the politics of the church. Half say it is at least somewhat true that the church cannot answer their questions (50%) or that they are skeptical of most teachings they have heard at church (48%).

If you’re a pastor and you’re sensing a credibility crisis, you’re not wrong As you can see, if you’re a pastor and you’re sensing a credibility crisis, you’re not wrong. While many people still do think of pastors as having some advice to offer on purely spiritual matters, a growing number do not (or no longer) look to them as sources of wisdom on many of the issues that make up their day-to-day lives.

All this poses the question: What happened?

When asked, most pastors assume the chief cause of credibility loss among pastors has to do with what we might broadly call hypocrisy; 65 percent say moral failure among the pastorate impacts the loss of credibility, followed by church scandals (55%) and Christians who don’t practice Jesus’ teachings (52%). Nearly half of pastors (45%) think “celebrity pastor culture” is hurting pastoral credibility. (Remember that; we’ll come back to it in a minute.)

Lower on the list of reasons pastors think they might be suffering a credibility crisis are things like negative media depictions of pastors (34%), a perceived marginalization of Christianity (14%) or a lack of training for pastors (8%).

Again, the data suggests pastors have a pretty good read on the situation. When we asked people about positive impressions they have of various Christians, Christian leaders or Christian roles, people are very positive toward Jesus (71%), spirituality (65%) and even the Bible (63%). However, they rarely have warm feelings about celebrity pastors (17%) and megachurches (16%). The 45 percent of pastors who think celebrity pastor culture is hurting the Church’s credibility might be onto something. The minority of church leaders who find renown, wealth, conference keynotes or large crowds are not necessarily regarded favorably by the general public—and their collective reputation presents obstacles for the majority of church leaders.

It’s true that pastors are facing a loss of credibility among Americans It’s true that pastors are facing a loss of credibility among Americans—and it’s also true that pastors seem to be aware of it. They sense limits to their cultural leadership, particularly on areas outside of strictly spiritual matters.

This may reflect a broader trend away from seeing faith and spirituality as being connected to everyday life. As noted earlier, it may also reflect a general decline in institutional trust that transcends Christian leaders. However, with at least some clarity, pastors and the general population alike can see a few factors that are contributing to this dwindling trust. That list includes things like public scandals and pastoral failures, as well as a general distaste for celebrity pastors and flashy megachurches.

Resilient leadership for the future of the Church must think about the best ways to repair these fractures.

To learn more about why people might “love Jesus but not the Church” and how to humbly navigate some of the public challenges facing pastors, read “Restoring the Church’s Reputation: A Field Guide for 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.