Around 40% of Church Leaders Struggle With Post-Pandemic Burnout, New Survey Shows

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A new survey shows that 40% of US church leaders are struggling with post-pandemic burnout that is causing them to seriously consider leaving their congregations, the Associated Press reports.

Titled ‘Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations and released last week, the survey was conducted by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

The survey was carried out during fall last year, with 1,700 respondents from more than 40 denominations, including Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox groups. The survey found that over 4 out of 10 church leaders had seriously considered leaving their congregations at least once since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and more than half had thought seriously of leaving the ministry since then, AP reports.

Around 30% of respondents said they were considering both leaving their congregation and the ministry altogether, and around 30% were considering one or the other, AP reports.

According to Hartford Institute director Scott Thumma, the high level of respondents who had thought about leaving their congregations mirrored the “collective trauma” that both clergy and congregants have experienced since 2020. “Everybody has experienced grief and trauma and change,” Thumma told AP.

Mainline Protestant church leaders were the most likely to consider leaving their congregations, followed by evangelical Protestants, AP reports. Catholic and Orthodox priests were found to be the least likely to consider leaving.

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