Clergy Burnout: Understanding the Occupational Crisis in Ministry Post-Pandemic
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The New Enlightenment Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/05/24
What are the primary causes and symptoms of burnout among clergy, and how has the post-pandemic era affected their mental health and professional efficacy?
Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:
- feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
- increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and
- reduced professional efficacy.
Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases (2019)
Burnout is a psychological syndrome emerging as a prolonged response to chronic interpersonal stressors on the job. The three key dimensions of this response are an overwhelming exhaustion, feelings of cynicism and detachment from the job, and a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.
Understanding the burnout experience: recent research and its implications for psychiatry (2016)
Burnout is a state of physical, emotional, or mental exhaustion accompanied by decreased motivation, lowered performance, and negative attitudes toward oneself and others.
APA Dictionary of Psychology (2015)
Clergy are people. Intellectuals, granted, but they get burnout. Some colleagues with theological backgrounds pointed this out in commentaries, recently. So, I decided to look into this a bit more.
Burnout is not merely a colloquialism, but a occupational phenomenon, while not a medical condition. Since 2019, the World Health Organization has classified it as an occupational phenomenon, marked by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal efficacy. Burnout is a more precise term for the real experience of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion.
They feel emotionally exhausted, psychologically depersonalized, and feel a reduced sense of accomplishment. Granted, clergy have a long list of duties. While some traditional duties have faded, many clergy have taken on new responsibilities, especially in digital outreach, social services, and crisis management.
Clergy have long hours, deal with congregational conflict, various social and ritual obligations, and the emotional labour of a community’s wellbeing. It’s couched in theological terms, but it’s secular concerns.
I was interested in the topic. What I found was genuinely interesting, there have been studies on the clergy on their wellbeing. A Hartford Institute survey in the United States found 44% of clergy have thought of leaving the congregation while 53% thought of exiting ministry since 2020.
This is a 16% rise since a 2021 AP News source. While the Barna Group has noted a decline in pastors considering quitting full-time ministry between 2022 (42%) and 2023 (33%), which may suggest a post-pandemic recovery or an early pandemic bump.
Over in Portugal, a 2025 study of Catholic priests found 34% experienced daily fatigue and irritation. This is in spite of high ministry satisfaction. So, satisfaction and ‘burnout’ may be decoupled in some key aspects. While a study of pastoral musicians in the States in 2024 found 83.8% had, at least, one burnout symptom, 41.3% fell low efficacy and 12.4% had high emotional exhaustion.
A 2023 Wespath survey found 69% of clergy in the United Methodist Church felt “tired” or “have little energy.” Any congregational conflict or resistance increased burnout. 73% find finances “slightly stressful” in this denomination.
While U.S. pastors as a whole report loneliness amongst 65% of them, they report frequent isolation in 2023. According to the Barna Group, this is up from 42% in 2015. 32% of the Church of England clergy did not trust their diocese to safeguard their well-being. The stories get even more complex.
When using the Maslach Burnout Inventory or MBI, clergy burnout is real, but moderate compared to other helping professions. On Depersonalization, clergy scores (2.9–8.1) are lower than police (5.6–17.4) and emergency personnel (6.5–13.7), while higher than counselors (1.7–26.9).
On Emotional Exhaustion, clergy scores (12.9–23.5) are lower than police or emergency personnel (14.3–26.6), while higher than counselors (8.6–42.4). On Personal Accomplishment, clergy scores (32.8–40.8) are moderate, while worse than counselors (9.3–43.6). Clergy may experience unique challenges in trauma and moral injury.
Regionally, there are some insights. In the United States, mainline Protestants and small-church pastors, including Evangelicals, continue to experience burnout, while being less likely to leave. In the United Kingdom, 32% of the Church of England show signs of clinical depression. 1-in-5 meet clinical thresholds. They work 50-60 hours per week.
In Australia, 36% of clergy considered resignation in 2023. Women and solo clergy are higher risk in those categories. In Portugal, Catholic priests report high satisfaction and significant fatigue. Now, the intriguing part is the emerging issues around and after the most recent global pandemic.
70% of U.S. pastors report mental health flourishing in 2023. It was 64% in 2021. Clergy burnout are driven primarily by loneliness and congregational conflict. If they, or others experiencing burnout, want to reduce the burden, they can do some things:
- Regular breaks reduce emotional exhaustion.
- Peer groups and mentoring with extraversion and leisure.
- Programs to address financial stress.
- Tailored coaching leveraging extraversion.
- Combining trauma care with workload boundaries.
Burnout for clergy is marked more for the younger clergy with heavy workloads, conflict-ridden environments, and in the post-pandemic setting.
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