Your ministry leader is not OK: Why burnout is the Church’s silent crisis

By Alicia Lee, Op-ed contributor Friday, August 29, 2025

This past year at our church, we said goodbye to another beloved staff member. It wasn’t scandal or failure — just quiet exhaustion. I’ve lost count of how many pastors I know who have stepped away from ministry, not because they stopped believing in the Gospel, but because the work slowly broke them.

They loved Jesus. They loved the Church. And still, they burned out.

As a ministry leader and a founder of a technology company serving pastors and church staff, I’ve seen this pattern play out far too often. We tell our leaders to take care of their souls, but we don’t always give them the systems, support, or space they need to thrive.

This is more than anecdotal — it’s a crisis.

The latest Barna research reveals that one in three pastors (33%) has seriously contemplated leaving full-time ministry. While this figure has fallen from its pandemic peak of 38%, it remains troublingly high. 

The concern extends beyond pastoral attrition to the broader issue of well-being, which has seen a steep decline. In their review of Barna’s findings, the National Christian Foundation highlighted significant drops in pastors’ personal wellness across every major dimension of life. Between 2015 and 2023, the share of pastors reporting excellent physical health fell from 24% to just 11%. Those rating their mental and emotional health as excellent declined even more sharply, from 39% to 14%. Perhaps most troubling, the proportion who described their overall quality of life as excellent was cut by more than half — from 42% to 19% — while those who said they have “true friends” dropped from 34% to 19%.

The numbers are staggering. The heartbreak is deeply personal.

We should be alarmed. Not only because of what this means for the well-being of pastors, but because the health of the Church is inseparable from the health of its leaders.

And yet, ministry is one of the only “helping professions” where the people serving on the frontlines are often expected to do so with little infrastructure, inconsistent compensation, and enormous emotional labor. We wouldn't expect a doctor to carry a full caseload without a medical team or a teacher to lead a classroom without a school system behind them. Why do we expect pastors to shoulder this alone?

I’m not saying churches don’t care — we do. But too often, our care stays theological when what’s needed is structural. We talk about Sabbath and about mental health, but we stop short of addressing the deeper systems that are driving burnout in the first place.

Rest is important, so is counseling. But if we ignore the financial, relational, and organizational pressures leaders face, we’re just treating symptoms.

Where’s the commitment to fair and transparent compensation?

Where are the collaborative ecosystems that reduce isolation instead of reinforcing silos?

Where’s the access to quality resources for small, under-resourced churches so their leaders aren’t running on empty?

Where are the relational structures that ensure pastors are pastored, too?

If we truly want leaders to thrive, we can’t just preach health — we have to build it.

This isn’t optional. It’s biblical. Paul reminds us in 1 Timothy that “the elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor.” How often do we treat them with half?

When pastors flourish, the Church flourishes.

Let’s build a Church where ministry leaders don’t have to choose between faithfulness and health. Where staying in ministry doesn’t mean sacrificing your mental well-being or your family. Where we care for those who care for us — not just in words, but in real, structural, sacrificial ways.

The ministry leader is not okay. But the Church has the power to change that.