Fewer Pastors Now Wanting to Step Down from Ministry, Survey Finds

Milton Quintanilla CrosswalkHeadlines Contributor
Updated Mar 14, 2024

According to a new Barna study, fewer pastors are less dissatisfied with their job or doubt in their calling even though younger leaders are still faced with challenges.

The report, The State of Pastors, Volume 2 collected data from 523 online interviews with Protestant senior pastors in the U.S. from Aug. 28- Sept. 18, 2023. Although pastors considered quitting their jobs in the past, they are now feeling much better.

For instance, prior Barna data found that 35 percent of pastors were “more confident” in their calling in 2022 while 51 percent felt “more confident” in their calling in 2023. Moreover, 39 percent were “just as confident” while the percentage of pastors who were “less confident in their calling” dropped from 14 percent in 2022 to 9 percent in 2023.

Over half of male pastors (51 percent) and female (53 percent), as well as 52 percent of pastors over 45 years old, felt confident in their role, The Christian Post reports. About 50 percent of pastors younger than 45 felt the same. The amount of pastors who were “very satisfied” also increased by 7 percentage points between 2022 and 2023 from 52 percent to 59 percent.

When it came to pastors and their current church, 47 percent reported feeling “very satisfied” with their ministry in 2023 while 38 percent said the same in 2022.

Among young pastors, 38 percent of male pastors and 32 percent of females felt this way while 50 percent of older pastors and 49 percent of male pastors “very satisfied” with their current ministry.

“Age and gender discrepancies have long lingered within job satisfaction among pastors, and it seems the recent rebound has done little to narrow these gaps,” researchers noted.

Barna previously pointed out that older American pastors, with an average age of 52, found it increasingly difficult to find younger leaders to take their place when they were replaced. In that report, about 75 percent of the pastors at least somewhat agree with that statement:"It is becoming harder to find mature young Christians who want to be pastors.”

About a third of pastors “strongly agreed” that it’s more difficult to find young Christian leaders to replace them, an increase from 24 percent in 2015.

In the latest Barna survey, 71 percent at least somewhat agreed with the following statement,"I am concerned about the quality of future Christian leaders."

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Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.

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