Despite record numbers of American pastors saying they were seriously contemplating leaving the ministry — just one-percent have quit their jobs each year over the past decade.
A Lifeway Research study of around 1,500 evangelical pastors found very few resigned for reasons other than death or retirement.
“The rate of pastors departing the pastorate is steady and quite low given the demands of the role,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research.
“Many of those leaving the pastorate feel they are moving at God’s direction to another role of ministry. “
SPECULATION ALWAYS OVERSTATES WORST-CASE ISSUES
“However, it’s easy for those outside and those inside the church to fixate on those who leave because of conflict, burnout or moral failure.”
“Speculation always overstates these cases, yet these are the outcomes churches can seek to prevent.”
And it appears they’ve been very successful at doing that.
Though record levels of pastors, including more than half in mainline Protestant churches, seriously considered leaving full-time ministry during the COVID-19 pandemic, only about 1% of them have been leaving ministry work each year for at least a decade.
HOW LONG DO PASTORS LAST IN THEIR ROLES?
More than half of the pastors in the study (58%) said they started their current roles within the last decade, while 15% have served in their pulpit for at least 25 years.
Around 52% of survey respondents also indicated that they were serving in their first pastoral role, while the remaining 48% served at a previous church.
For pastors who left their jobs over the past decade, 7% were said to have taken on a different ministry role, and 3% were reported as working in a non-ministry role.
PASTOR BURNOUT DOUBLES OVER PAST DECADE
Pastors offered a variety of reasons for why their predecessors left the ministry including a change in calling (37%), conflict in a church (23%) and burnout (22%).
“Today’s pastors don’t always know all the reasons their predecessors left their church, but the number of pastors describing the previous pastor at their church leaving because of burnout has doubled over the last 10 years (22% v. 10%),” Mr. McConnell explained.
