A new Barna Group study shows a remarkable rise this year in the number of pastors, considering quitting ministry, and relatedly, a decline in their sense of well-being.
The graphs, via the Barna Group, tell the story.
That’s a nearly 10% rise in just 10 months.
Here’s another graph showing the mental toll pastors are facing.
That 24% “unhealthy” number is high.
And I would think it’s actually higher.
Consider this — over 80% of American pastors are male.
Further, most health care experts think men are much less likely to acknowledge their struggles with mental health.
Stigma is a huge issue. Men don’t want to say they have anxiety. It sounds weak.
And yet, there are clues that men experience anxiety at similar levels as women.
Men are more likely to commit suicide (which is heavily tied to anxiety), they’re more likely to abuse substances (again, often an escape from anxiety), and the Wall Street Journal has written that there are other ways men express their anxiety which we mistake for other things, and thus, anxiety’s true prevalence among men is probably underreported.
Now consider the fact most pastors are men (which might make them less likely to report mental health struggles), and Christian (which adds a further stigma — who wants to say they’re emotionally struggling shepherds), and that 24% “unhealthy” number could actually be higher.
Which is even more alarming.
But not surprising.
Barna notes the pandemic has made things considerable worse, citing “congregational divisions and financial strain.”
And you don’t have to play much of a guessing game there. Fewer people are returning to church, post-lockdown, worsening finances.
Churches have also become thinly-veiled war zones over masks and vaccines.
Many evangelical churches almost bask in the fact they’re mask-free, “freedom zones,” and for people with pre-existing health conditions, it’s a dangerous place.
And yet, there’s an aggressive political spirit of “I’m going to give you a mask-free, bear hug because I’m a Christian and we’re not playing by the world’s fear-based rules. Oh, and after the hug, let’s talk about how the vaccines are XYZ.”
If I have a pre-existing condition and need to protect my health, church is often the worst place to be. And Jesus cared about people’s health.
When John the Baptist began to doubt whether Christ was really the Messiah, Jesus pointed to all the healing he was doing.
He cares about physical suffering — not just spiritual suffering.
Then you have a miasma of conspiracy theories, infecting evangelical churches.
And while the gospel of Christ is preached, the Gospel of Trump seems a far more animating force in congregants’ conversations and lives.
Here’s where things get particularly interesting.
Barna notes that signs of pastoral burnout began, pre-pandemic, in its 2017 study. That’s shortly after the election of Donald Trump in 2016.
I don’t get into politics here, but politics has gotten into the church, and there was a hurricane bringing it in, unlike any I’ve ever witnessed, in 2016 during the presidential election.
I’ve followed politics my whole life, and even wrote about it for a living with The Hill.
I’ve never seen any person or movement permeate the white evangelical church as deeply as Trumpism.
Of course right-wing politics and evangelicalism have been tied, in pretty tight fashion, for decades, but not to one person.
There were causes, but no political Messiah. Even Ronald Reagan “had his issues.”
In fact, George W. Bush was a self-proclaimed evangelical and by every account from those around him — even political foes — Bush actually walked the walk of a Christian in the way he personally treated others, and yet (quite rightly) was never idolized by the evangelical church. The church shouldn’t worship anyone other than Christ.
White evangelicals voted for Bush, but that was about it.
But something happened to the white evangelical church with Donald Trump in 2016, and suddenly it seemed he had his own set of famous apostles who spread his word through the churches and attested to his testimony and evangelized for him.
In 2016, it felt like a new religion was born. The Book of Acts was happening all over again, but not for the risen Jesus Christ.
And for evangelicals who denied (and still deny) Trump, it is as though they have denied Christ himself.
I’ve seen it happen, and Peter Wehner recently wrote about this phenomenon, “The Evangelical Church is breaking apart.“
In many churches, he’s become more influential than the pastor and even Christ himself, because his message (one of conspiracies and relentless cultural pounding) has set the tone for congregations.
Christ’s “love your enemies” certainly hasn’t set the tone.
His call to rejoice in tribulation is forgotten.
Peter’s incessant pleas to live in peace with everyone certainly isn’t the driving force.
And the church has, quite proudly, become the self-proclaimed bastion of “freedom and my rights,” despite Hebrews 10:34’s reminder.
“You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever.”
Now…
If you’re a pastor and you’re actually expected to preach the Bible, your material is pretty much about loving your enemies, forgiveness, gentleness, kindness, and the wonderful reality that we are citizens of heaven.
That’s not what sells in the evangelical church right now.
You can imagine how discouraging it must be to preach one thing, and then hear another thing, over-and-over-and-over, from the congregation.
I would hate to be a pastor right now.
You’re judged by the yardstick of Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump (on the right) and Rachel Maddow and Christian Blue Check Mark Progressives on the Left. They’ve got control of the pulpit, they’ve got control of the Scriptures, they’ve got control of the congregation, and you’re accountable to God, but will your congregation let you be accountable to God and not Newsmax?
There’s something else…
Right now, the church is struggling from years of ignoring, dismissing, and covering up severe and rampant abuse.
A lot of people don’t feel safe putting their children in Sunday School. A lot of people are disillusioned by how the church has handled all of this.
When the Ravi Zacharias story broke, when the James MacDonald story broke, when the Bob Coy scandal broke, when the Carl Lentz scandal broke, when the Sovereign Grace Ministries scandal broke, when the Bill Hybels scandal broke, when the Mars Hill podcast shone a light on Mark Driscoll’s ministry and so many of these forces in the American evangelical church, it broke a lot of trust.
And yes, these stories showed the sin and abuse of these spiritual leaders — but even more than that, it was about a culture that covered up and tolerated and, in some ways, even enabled the abuse to continue.
Church suddenly didn’t feel safe. It felt downright scary.
And yet the vast, vast majority of pastors are wonderful people, working their hardest — in a thankless job where they’re subjected to weekly criticism — to advance God’s kingdom.
But they’re suffering from a domino effect of distrust by the abusive behavior of some mega church pastors.
It’s not fair, and there must be a tremendous emotional toll when you see the culture at-large start to write you off, at best, or accuse you of being one of the abusive ones, at worst.
So my guess is that these three things: a) The Pandemic, navigating the politics + financial strain surrounding it b) The Rise of Donald Trump and Conspiracy Theories as the animating force in many churches and c) Struggling to Fight Disillusion are behind the growing weariness and sense of burnout among pastors.
And 2024 is just around the corner. God help us. Please.
P.S. Kate Shellnut at Christianity Today has a good read on the Barna Study as well.
[Graphs via the Barna Group, Photo via Pexels]
