100,000 Pastors Suffer From Burn Out

I have watched new pastors burn out in less than a year...why?

Fuller Institute did a survey and found that 80% of pastors believe that pastoral ministry affects their families negatively, and Focus on the Family did a survey that indicated 80% of pastors are discouraged or are dealing with depression. Alan Klass from Mission Growth Ministries says that there are 100,000 pastors currently suffering burn out. (Clergy Care Fact Sheet).

While Parachurch organizations remain on the front lines of local mission; churches, for the most part, continue to funnel their people into the rear echelon of local mission. In warfare the soldiers on the front lines soon discover that there isn’t a lot of time for griping and complaining. On the front lines people stay focused on the battles to be fought and won. But, in the rear echelon griping and complaining are a way of life. The expression “SIT, SOAK & SOUR” is well known. Of course it refers to church members whose main role is to criticize everything the pastor does.

So what has happened to the lay person’s passion for ministry? These are days when there is much for American Christians to be passionate about. For example we have the largest prison population in the free world. Jesus said “I was in prison and you came to visit me.” We have over two million opportunities to do something right out of the pages of scripture!




Scot McKnight listed some statistics on “Burnout for Pastors” he drew from London and Wiseman’s Pastors at Greater Risk (2003).

The American Church

*Churchgoers expect their pastor to juggle an average of 16 major tasks
*Pastors who work fewer than 50 hours a week are 35 percent more likely to be terminated.
*87 percent of Protestant churches have full-time paid pastors.
*50 percent of all congregations in the United States are either plateauing or declining
*Two-thirds of pastors reported that their congregation experienced a conflict during the past two years; more than 20 percent of those were significant enough that members left the congregation
*The typical pastor has his/her greatest ministry impact at a church in years 5 through 14 of his pastorate; unfortunately, the average pastor lasts only five years at a church.

The Upside – Pastor’s Life in the Church

*86 percent of pastors said they’d choose ministry as their career if they had it to do over
*87 percent of pastors say a strong sense of God’s call is why they chose ministry as a career
*91 percent of pastors feel very satisfied about being in ministry;
*75 percent say they want to stay in ministry

The Downside – Pastor’s Life in the Church
*90 percent of pastors work more than 46 hours a week.
*80 percent believe that pastoral ministry affects their families negatively
*75 percent report they’ve had a significant stress-related crisis at least once in their ministry
*50 percent feel unable to meet the needs of the job.
*40 percent report a serious conflict with a parishioner at least once a month.
*40 percent of pastors say they have considered leaving their pastorates in the last three months.
*19 percent of pastors indicate that they’d been forced out of ministry at least once during their ministry; another 6 percent said they’d been fired from a ministry position

Marriage and Family
*33 percent of pastors confess “inappropriate” sexual behavior with someone in the church
*20 percent of pastors say they view pornography at least once a month
*According to Focus on the Family’s Pastoral Ministries Division, approximately 20 percent of the monthly calls to their pastoral care line deal with sexual misconduct and pornography
*20 percent of pastors admit to having had an affair while in the ministry
*12 percent of pastors say that since they’ve been in ministry, they’ve had sexual intercourse with someone other than their spouse,
*51 percent of pastors say that Internet pornography is a possible temptation for them; 37 percent admit that it’s a current struggle
*13 percent of pastors have been divorced
*48 percent of pastors think being in ministry is hazardous to family well-being
*33 percent say that being in ministry is an outright hazard to their family
*80 percent of pastors say they have insufficient time with spouse
*58 percent of pastors indicate that their spouse works either part-time or fulltime outside the home because the family need the income
*56 percent of pastors’ wives say they that they have no close friends
*45 percent of pastors’ wives say the greatest danger to them and family is physical, emotional, mental and spiritual burnout
*66 percent of pastors and their families feel pressure to model the ideal family to their congregations and communities
*53 percent of pastors spend time off from pastors’ duties to do activities with their families; *21 percent spend time with hobbies or physical tasks