Pastors at risk

A January Barna report found that 24% of U.S. Protestant senior pastors said they seriously considered leaving full-time ministry in 2025. The figure represents a significant drop from a high of 42% in 2022—when pandemic-era stress drove up pastoral burnout.

According to researchers at Barna, the lower burnout rate may be due in part to more openness to discussing mental health at churches. Yet even with the improved figures, 1 in 4 pastors today still contemplate leaving their jobs. Pastoring remains a stressful and isolated profession, and church leaders in some large denominations are fighting to improve pastoral retention nationwide.

Paul Joiner, the assistant vice president of wellbeing of the Presbyterian Church in America’s retirement and benefits group, is one of those who felt burnout at one point in his 15-year pastoring career. Pastors can feel like they need to be there for their church 24/7, which leads to a lack of rest, Joiner said. In his experience, he sees burnout normally hit ministers when they are in their mid-40s to mid-50s.

“They’re expected to be a jack-of-all-trades,” Joiner said. “Even though what they’ve been called to by the Lord is to be a minister of Word and prayer. That’s what they’re good at.”

He noted that pastors are typically isolated in their work and can struggle to relate to others who aren’t in similar leadership roles. Another Barna report found in 2023 that about half of pastors reported average or less than average satisfaction with true friendships.

For Joiner—and many other pastors—the COVID-19 pandemic contributed significantly to burnout. When Barna first started gathering data on the topic in January 2021, 29% of pastors reported they had thought about stepping away from their ministry. That number spiked to 38% by October and peaked in March 2022 at 42%.

The pandemic brought extra pressure, anxiety, isolation, and confusion to pastors, said Joe Jensen, the senior vice president of content and engagement at Barna.

Fewer pastors considered quitting in 2025 for several reasons, according to Jensen. It’s becoming more normal for pastors to be able to have open dialogue about their well-being, he said. More than three-quarters of pastors reported in 2024 that it’s either true or somewhat true that they can speak openly about their mental health.

“For pastors to be healthy, and growing as individuals, and as leaders, they need to be in environments where it’s OK to not be OK,” Jensen said. “Where it’s OK to kind of let their guard down and realize that they don’t have to be this perfect example of what it means to be a Christian.”

Pastors have also reported improved satisfaction in their marriages, he said. In a 2025 Barna study, 95% of pastors said that it’s very true or somewhat true that their spouses are their best friends.

Joiner said that during his bout with burnout, he had to recognize his need for rest before he could even accept it. “Most pastors aren’t able to say, ‘Will you come to me?
I need you,’” Joiner said. “We need to be able to … raise our hand and say, ‘I’m not in a good place.’”

The PCA is working to combat burnout through several methods, but especially by ensuring churches have the resources to provide pastors with a sabbatical every seven years, according to Joiner. At PCA retreats throughout the year, pastors rest and reflect on the highs and lows of ministry work.

The key to helping pastors navigate burnout successfully is to ensure they have set up the proper rhythms to balance their time between family and church, said Sandy Marks, the pastoral ministry strategist for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. Those rhythms should allow them to spend time with spouses, kids, and congregations and to focus on their own spiritual health.

Marks said he helped a pastor of a smaller church in western North Carolina navigate finding this balance. The pastor had been in ministry 20 years but was struggling with burnout, operating with the mindset that he had to give everything to the call, even to the detriment of his wife and family. Marks said that 1 Timothy 4:16 helped the pastor see it was Biblical for ministers to prioritize their life along with their ministry.

“We serve our churches better when we’re healthier ourselves,” said Marks, who also worked as a pastor for 25 years. “It’s not selfish, it’s stewardship, [to] care for yourself and just set those healthy boundaries.”

Marks said the church has a part to play, too. Congregants and staff should set realistic expectations for the pastor’s time, allowing him to have the space to care for himself and his family.

Clayton Greene, director of the Summit Collaborative, a church planting network that the Summit Church started, added that church staff can ensure that the lead pastor has a fair salary, health benefits, and vacation days. In 2023, the average salary of a clergyman was about $64,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Greene said the emotional and spiritual weight that pastors carry should be sacrifice enough for their profession: “It is not meant to be like, ‘I sacrifice my whole family’s physical, mental, emotional health and financial well-being in order to be able to do this.’”

Greene estimates pastors are at risk of quitting every 7-10 years, a period that typically lines up with major family transitions. As children move into high school or other family members change jobs, pastors will evaluate if the area, the house, and the schools around them are the best fit for their family. There’s a reason a sabbatical is supposed to happen every seven years, he joked.

But sometimes staying in ministry isn’t the right move for a pastor. In that case, changing your job isn’t a bad thing, Greene said. For instance, he previously served as an executive pastor in Wilmington, N.C. But because his daughter has a rare genetic disorder, he regularly made day trips to the Raleigh area for her medical care. While he liked his job and salary, there was too much pressure in other ways.

“So we ended up having to move, and it ended up being a really good thing for our family,” Greene said. “I still get to be in the ministry, still get to support that church, [and] the kingdom is still moving forward in both places. … The faith that we have to have is that God is building His church, and not us.”