Pastor Statistics

Pastors today are faced with more work, more problems, and more stress than any other time in the history of the church. This is taking a frightening toll on the ministry, shown by the statistics below:

Pastors:

• Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout or contention in their churches.

• Four thousand new churches begin each year, but over seven thousand churches close.

• Fifty percent of pastors' marriages will end in divorce.

• Eighty percent of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors.

• Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.

• Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years. Ninety percent of pastors said their seminary or Bible school training did only a fair to poor job preparing them for ministry.

• Eighty-five percent of pastors said their greatest problem is they are sick and tired of dealing with problem people, such as disgruntled elders, deacons, worship leaders, worship teams, board members, and associate pastors. Ninety percent said the hardest thing about ministry is dealing with uncooperative people.

• Seventy percent of pastors feel grossly underpaid.

• Ninety percent said the ministry was completely different than what they thought it would be before they entered the ministry.

• Seventy percent felt God called them to pastoral ministry before their ministry began, but after three years of ministry, only fifty percent still felt called.

• Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression.

• Almost forty percent polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry.

Pastors' Wives:

• Eighty percent of pastors' spouses feel their spouse is overworked.

• Eighty percent of pastor' wives feel left out and unappreciated by the church members.

• Eighty percent of pastors' spouses wish their spouse would choose another profession.

• Eighty percent of pastors' wives feel pressured to do things and be something in the church that they are really not.

• The majority of pastor's wives surveyed said that the most destructive event that has occurred in their marriage and family was the day they entered the ministry.

Pastors' Children:

• Eighty percent of adult children of pastors surveyed have had to seek professional help for depression.

Pastors' Relationship With the Lord:

• Seventy percent of pastors do not have a close friend, confidant, or mentor.

• Ninety-five percent of pastors do not regularly pray with their spouses.

• Eighty percent of pastors surveyed spend less than fifteen minutes a day in prayer.

• Seventy percent said the only time they spend studying the Word is when they are preparing their sermons.