Though record levels of pastors, including more than half in mainline Protestant churches, seriously considered leaving full-time ministry during the COVID-19 pandemic, only about 1% of them have been leaving ministry work annually in the last decade.Those are the findings in a new Lifeway Research study.
Researchers found that the share of pastors who left their positions for reasons other than death or retirement remained steady at just over 1%. In 2015, only 1.3% of pastors left their jobs for reasons other than death or retirement. In 2021, that share increased slightly to 1.5%; in 2025, it fell to 1.2%.
Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, said in a statement. “Many of those leaving the pastorate feel they are moving at God’s direction to another role of ministry.”
More than half of the pastors in the study said they started their current roles within the last decade, while 15% have served in their pulpit for at least 25 years.
McConnell added, “It’s easy for those outside and those inside the church to fixate on those who leave because of conflict, burnout or moral failure. Speculation always overstates these cases, yet these are the outcomes churches can seek to prevent.”