There are moments in ministry when even the strongest leaders become tired.
Not simply physically tired, but emotionally, spiritually, and mentally exhausted.
Pastors spend their lives caring for people. They pray with families in crisis, prepare sermons, counsel marriages, navigate conflict, lead staff and volunteers, manage organizations, respond to emergencies, carry the concerns of their congregations, and often do much of it while quietly carrying struggles of their own.
In 2022, research revealed just how heavy that burden had become.
According to Barna Group, 42% of U.S. Protestant pastors reported that they had seriously considered quitting full-time ministry within the previous year.
Think about that for a moment.
More than 4 out of every 10 pastors had seriously considered walking away.
The number had risen dramatically from 29% in January 2021 to 42% by March 2022.
These weren't simply leaders having a difficult week or joking about resigning after a challenging Sunday.
They were pastors seriously considering whether they could continue.
And when researchers asked why, three reasons stood above the rest.
1. The Immense Stress of the Job — 56%
The number-one reason pastors gave for considering leaving ministry was simple:
The stress had become too much.
Among pastors who had considered quitting, 56% identified the immense stress of the job as a contributing factor.
Pastoral ministry carries a unique kind of responsibility.
A pastor may be a preacher on Sunday, administrator on Monday, counselor on Tuesday, mediator on Wednesday, hospital visitor on Thursday, organizational leader on Friday, and crisis responder on Saturday.
And sometimes they are several of those things on the same day.
There are sermons to prepare, people to counsel, volunteers to manage, budgets to consider, decisions to make, conflicts to navigate, families to comfort, and expectations to meet.
Then there is the responsibility pastors often place upon themselves.
Did I do enough?
Did I respond correctly?
Is the church growing?
Are the people growing?
Could I have handled that situation differently?
Am I doing what God called me to do?
The work of ministry can be deeply rewarding. But meaningful work can still become exhausting work.
Calling does not eliminate the need for rest.
2. Loneliness and Isolation — 43%
The second-leading reason is perhaps more surprising.
43% of pastors who considered quitting said loneliness and isolation contributed to those thoughts.
Pastors can spend their entire week surrounded by people and still feel alone.
Leadership can create complicated relationships.
Who does the pastor talk to when the pastor is struggling?
Who can hear about the conflict that cannot be shared publicly?
Where does the pastor go when the person who normally encourages everyone else needs encouragement?
Pastors frequently carry information they cannot share. They walk with families through situations that must remain confidential. They make decisions that may not be understood by everyone. And sometimes the expectations surrounding spiritual leadership make admitting weakness feel dangerous.
A crowded church does not necessarily mean a supported pastor.
Research from Barna has shown that pastoral loneliness had been increasing for years. In 2015, 42% of pastors reported sometimes or frequently experiencing loneliness and isolation. By 2022, that number had risen to 65%.
Pastors need pastors.
Leaders need friends.
Those who spend their lives caring for others also need safe places where someone cares for them.
3. Political Division — 38%
The third-leading factor in 2022 was current political division, identified by 38% of pastors who had considered quitting.
Those years presented church leaders with challenges few had encountered before.
The pandemic forced churches to make difficult decisions about gathering, closing buildings, reopening, masks, online ministry and other issues.
At the same time, political and cultural tensions intensified.
Pastors were often expected to respond to every issue—and whatever they said, someone could believe they had said too much, too little, too early, or too late.
Congregations were not immune to the polarization occurring throughout society.
Pastors found themselves trying to shepherd people who sometimes disagreed deeply with one another.
For many leaders, the cumulative weight became exhausting.
But That Is Not Where the Story Ends
If we stopped with the 2022 statistics, this would be a discouraging article.
Thankfully, there is more to the story.
In January 2026, Barna released updated research.
The percentage of U.S. senior Protestant pastors who said they had seriously considered leaving full-time ministry within the previous year had fallen to:
24%.
From 42% in 2022 to 24% in 2026.
That represents an 18-percentage-point decline from the 2022 peak.
That does not mean the challenges have disappeared.
Nearly one in four pastors seriously considering leaving ministry is still significant.
But the direction matters.
The number went down.
Churches survived extraordinarily difficult seasons.
Pastors adapted.
Congregations rebuilt rhythms.
Leaders learned boundaries.
Ministries changed.
Some pastors rested.
Some found help.
Some rediscovered why they started.
Some simply kept going.
Barna describes the current situation more as stabilization than complete recovery, noting that fatigue and uncertainty have not disappeared even as fewer pastors report being in immediate vocational crisis.
And perhaps there is something important for the Church to learn from both sets of numbers.
Healthy Churches Need Healthy Leaders
We often measure the health of a church by what we can see.
Attendance.
Giving.
Growth.
Programs.
Volunteers.
Buildings.
Events.
But there is another question worth asking:
How are the people carrying the ministry doing?
A church can have a successful Sunday while its pastor is exhausted.
A ministry can grow while its leader becomes increasingly isolated.
A calendar can be full while a pastor's emotional and spiritual reserves are empty.
If we care about healthy churches, we must also care about healthy leaders.
That means creating cultures where pastors can rest without guilt.
Where leaders can admit they are tired without people questioning their calling.
Where pastors have friendships in which they don't have to perform.
Where counseling, mentoring, sabbaticals, boundaries, days off, vacations, and spiritual renewal are viewed as wisdom rather than weakness.
And where responsibility for the ministry does not rest on one person's shoulders.
Maybe You Are the Pastor Reading This
Perhaps 2022 wasn't your difficult year.
Maybe it is 2026.
Maybe nobody knows how tired you are.
Maybe you haven't written a resignation letter, but you've imagined what life would look like if you weren't carrying the responsibility anymore.
If so, the statistics tell us something else:
You are not the only one who has felt this way.
Some incredibly faithful leaders have reached moments when they wondered whether they could continue.
Feeling tired does not erase years of faithfulness.
Needing help does not invalidate your calling.
And needing rest does not necessarily mean you need to quit.
Sometimes the next faithful step isn't doing more.
Sometimes it is allowing someone to help carry what has become too heavy to carry alone.
There Is Hope
In 2022, 42% of pastors said they had seriously considered quitting full-time ministry.
By 2026, that number had fallen to 24%.
There is still work to do.
We should not wait until pastors are ready to resign before asking whether they are okay.
We should build healthier systems before leaders burn out.
We should create community before isolation becomes unbearable.
We should normalize rest before exhaustion becomes crisis.
And we should remember that the person standing behind the pulpit is still a person.
Pastors spend enormous portions of their lives caring for the Church.
The Church must also learn how to care for its pastors.
The numbers are not where we want them to be.
But they are moving in the right direction.
And that gives us something we desperately need in conversations about pastoral health:
hope.
For God. For Life. For Service.
Cherise
For God. For Life. For Service.
Cherise
*Sources: Barna Group, “Pastors Share Top Reasons They’ve Considered Quitting Ministry in the Past Year” (2022); Barna Group, “Pastors Quitting Ministry: New Barna Data Shows a Shift” (2026).*
Related Resources: Burnout Prevention Training
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