Burnout is rising among U.S. pastors
Survey finds 4 in 10 eyed leaving ministry this year
By Robert Downen STAFF WRITER
The “Great Resignation” has come to American churches as nearly 4 in 10 Christian pastors have seriously considered leaving ministry this year.
The career soul-searching comes as American churches deal with disputes over masks, social distancing and COVID-19 vaccinations, and broader disagreements over racial and political issues, according to surveys released recently by Barna Research Group, a California company that specializes in issues affecting Christians. Burnout has been particularly high among pastors from mainline denominations such as the Episcopal, Presbyterian and Methodist traditions. Half of such clergy told Barna they had considered leaving ministry since January, compared with 31 percent of other clergy.
“The year 2020 and now 2021 are arguably the two hardest years to ever be a pastor in the United States,” said William Vanderbloemen, head of the Houston-based church consultancy group Vanderbloemen Search Group. “This is the hardest it’s ever been. I’ve never seen more people ready to check out.”
It may get worse: Almost half of pastors younger than 45 told Barna they had considered leaving ministry — a trend that, if sustained, could have profound effects on American religious life, leaving a shortage of clergy to lead churches and minister to congregations, Barna President David Kinnaman said.
“It seems to be something like an existential crisis,” he said. “Nobody went to seminary and took Pandemic 101. Nobody trained for this.”
Broadly speaking, American clergy and their churches were graying long before COVID-19. A report last year by the interfaith research firm Faith Communities Today found the average clergy member is 57 years old, compared with 50 years old in 2000.
The pandemic brought new pressures on pastors, many older and at the helm of cash-strapped churches. The virus shuttered congregations and forced pastors to quickly adapt to new and more expensive technologies for live-streaming almost overnight.
After churches reopened last year, pastors then faced divisions in their congregations over masks and vaccinations, as well as infighting over politics and former President Donald Trump.
Fewer applicants
At Memorial Baptist Church in Pasadena, two staff positions remain unfilled, while applicants are dwindling. Lead pastor Jason Havner said roughly 50 solid candidates applied for the vacant youth leader position when it was last open a few years ago, but he’s received only a handful of applications since advertising the job earlier this year, he said.
Most American churches count fewer than 100 regular members and only a handful of full-time staff, if any. Many are located in rural and politically conservative parts of the country, adding to the tension that some pastors said they felt when trying to implement COVID-19 safety precautions or move to virtual services.
Scott Jones, leader of Southeast Texas’ United Methodist conference, said it was not uncommon to hear from exasperated pastors as they tried to protect their members from the virus without bringing politics into the pews.
“In the rural areas, the resistance to masking and healthy practices has been strong,” he said. “Some pastors have feared for their own health.”
Burnout is not a new issue in the occupation that has many demands and often helps people deal with the most painful aspects of life, including the loss of loved ones. Those who stick with it often do so out of a passion to help others, which only became more difficult during the pandemic.
As pastors were forced by COVID-19 to keep their distance and communicate virtually, they struggled to foster the intimacy and trust needed to be an effective counselor.
“It’s already such a lonely profession,” said the Rev. Timothy Sloan, pastor of the Luke Church in Humble. “And so going through this season and having to be accessible but also lonely has been heart-wrenching.”
Division on racial justice
Sloan’s congregation is mostly African American and didn’t resume in-person services until August out of an abundance of caution. One young member also died of cancer this year, and Sloan said he was devastated that he couldn’t preside over her funeral.
But arguably the hardest part, he said, has been wrestling with the church’s role in movements for racial justice, debates that have dominated Christian circles in the wake of widespread protests over the murder of George Floyd and other Black men last year.
American Christians have long been divided on perceptions of inequality and injustice. Surveys conducted by Barna last year found that roughly 40 percent of white, practicing Christians “believe the U.S. has a race problem.”
More than twice as many Black Christians believed the same. About 70 percent of Black Christians also said they were “motivated to address racial injustice” — twice the number of white Christians who said the same.
Sloan said it’s been exhausting to try to have nuanced and productive conversations on race amid the chaos of the last two years. Still, he’s hopeful that the widespread burnout in the field will prompt what he said are much-needed conversations about mental health and counseling for clergy and churchgoers alike.
And so, he recently began a new sermon series.
The theme? “I Am Overwhelmed.” robert.downen@chron.com twitter.com/robdownenchron
