More Than Half of American Pastors Have Considered Quitting

originally posted by: TzarChasm
a reply to: FlyersFan

I didn't realize you could "quit" being a pastor. Seems like the kind of work you take home every day. Not so much a job as a lifestyle. Don't need a church and office and desk and certificate on the wall, just need the book and a nice view far away from distractions. I bet there's a parable about that.

There's those who go to church, and there's those who have the church in them everywhere all the time (no homo) so I suspect this is just the charlatans giving themselves away, taking the easy way out.

No, it's not that "simple."

The world translated as "pastor" in the new testament (see Ephesians 4:11) is the Greek word poimen. The word literally means a herdsman or a shepherd.

One cannot claim to be a herdsman or a shepherd without a flock to care for. Would you not agree? Imagine a man wandering around out in a field with a staff in his hand all by himself.

"What are you doing?" you ask.

"Oh, I'm a shepherd," he responds.

"Where are your sheep, your goats, or your cattle?" you ask.

"One doesn't need animals to be a shepherd," he replies, "one just has to feel like a shepherd." To which you roll your eyes and move on.

No, being a shepherd of God's flock, the body of Christ, is certainly a calling and a lifestyle. As I said in my other post here, the young man who asked the experienced minister if he should go into the ministry was told, "Only if you can do nothing else." But to be a shepherd, a "pastor," one must have a flock to care for.

See my previous two posts for more clarification.

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originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: FlyersFan

We stopped going to church when our church went, "woke".

Many people did.

It's more like a Starbucks with a cross than a church now.

If you are serious about your faith, I can only encourage you to find a church where the Word is faithfully taught. There are some out there.

Now, I don't mean that you will find a "perfect" church. I tell people, if you ever find the "perfect church," do not join it, because you are imperfect and you will, therefore, ruin it.

Every church has its failings, its flaws, but where Word is faithfully taught and lived out, there is life and fellowship.

Yes, many have fallen away from the faith, abandoned orthodoxy and sound teaching. This should not shock us:

I John 2 says:

18 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. 20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

It happens. It's not reason to abandon neither the faith nor the fellowship of the saints.

Paul admonished Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:

3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound[a] teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Again, no surprise. When we put our faith and confidence in men more than in God and men fail us, it is a blow. If our eyes are on Christ, even in the pain of betrayal or failure, we remain steadfast because we are on a Rock that cannot be moved.

a reply to: AwakeNotWoke

I didn't leave the church.

The church left me.

originally posted by: Leftiris13

originally posted by: FlyersFan
I think this is Protestants and not Catholics. Over half of Protestant clergy have been considering quitting. Seems that the people post-COVID aren't as religious and not volunteering or doing church things, and the pastors are exhausted and not very psyched' on doing their jobs. Religious beliefs are in decline in the USA. But I think the country would notice if more than half the Protestant ministers gave up and quit.


More Than Half of American Pastors Have Considered Quitting

As American pastors have grown increasingly discontent with their profession, more than half have seriously considered leaving pastoral ministry since 2020 for various reasons, a new study from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research suggests.

"The further we are from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the more we observe larger percentages of clergy pondering alternatives to their present congregation, vocation, or both," the research team led by Scott Thumma, professor of Sociology of Religion at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace and director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, stated in the report.

The data suggests that as of fall 2023, 53% of religious leaders have seriously considered leaving pastoral ministry at least once since 2020. This share is significantly higher than the 37% of pastors who reported in 2021 that they had similar thoughts since 2020.

The average clergyperson was described as a 59-year-old leader who had served in their position for a median of 7 years and was 80% more likely to be white and male. Some 75% were employed full-time, and 60% of them served solo rather than as part of a team of leaders.

It's time for "religion" to die off. It's the fastest road to hell.
It's time for people to find their spirit and there spiritual connections to God.

"I desire mercy, not sacrifice." Said the Son of God.

Right! we are witnessing the real-time aftermath of people finding their spiritual connections as we speak. People are so finding their spiritual connections so completely now that I just can't stand it much longer. Everything is just so right, right now it's just so, so overwhelming to me. (Sarc)

In their time, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah found their spirituality so thoroughly, God destroyed them. LOL

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: AwakeNotWoke

I didn't leave the church.

The church left me.

No, you are wrong. A congregation left you behind as it wandered off into places it never should have gone. The CHURCH never leaves us.

The true believer is a member of a body, a universal body that each member needs and that each member is needed by.

Read the 12th chapter of I Corinthians, focusing on verses 12 and on.

If you are truly a member of the universal, invisible body of Christ, you will find a place to connect. It is in the nature of the disciple of Christ to be a part of a healthy, functioning body. If you are serious about your faith and your commitment to Christ, you need to find one.

originally posted by: charlest2

originally posted by: Leftiris13

originally posted by: FlyersFan
I think this is Protestants and not Catholics. Over half of Protestant clergy have been considering quitting. Seems that the people post-COVID aren't as religious and not volunteering or doing church things, and the pastors are exhausted and not very psyched' on doing their jobs. Religious beliefs are in decline in the USA. But I think the country would notice if more than half the Protestant ministers gave up and quit.


More Than Half of American Pastors Have Considered Quitting

As American pastors have grown increasingly discontent with their profession, more than half have seriously considered leaving pastoral ministry since 2020 for various reasons, a new study from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research suggests.

"The further we are from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the more we observe larger percentages of clergy pondering alternatives to their present congregation, vocation, or both," the research team led by Scott Thumma, professor of Sociology of Religion at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace and director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, stated in the report.

The data suggests that as of fall 2023, 53% of religious leaders have seriously considered leaving pastoral ministry at least once since 2020. This share is significantly higher than the 37% of pastors who reported in 2021 that they had similar thoughts since 2020.

The average clergyperson was described as a 59-year-old leader who had served in their position for a median of 7 years and was 80% more likely to be white and male. Some 75% were employed full-time, and 60% of them served solo rather than as part of a team of leaders.

It's time for "religion" to die off. It's the fastest road to hell.
It's time for people to find their spirit and there spiritual connections to God.

"I desire mercy, not sacrifice." Said the Son of God.

Right! we are witnessing the real-time aftermath of people finding their spiritual connections as we speak. People are so finding their spiritual connections so completely now that I just can't stand it much longer. Everything is just so right, right now it's just so, so overwhelming to me. (Sarc)

In their time, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah found their spirituality so thoroughly, God destroyed them. LOL

I believe that judgment is most often a passive event, meaning that God doesn't really have to do anything for judgment to find a rebellious, disobedient and prideful people. Their own sin drags them to the place of judgment. God, in His mercy, restrains us from fulfilling the ultimate result of or wickedness. (See II Thes. 2:7) People usually bring their own judgment on their own head.

There are times, though, when the call for active divine judgment goes out, when the blood of the murdered and the oppressed cries out from the earth. Then, all bets are off. Sometimes, for the sake of others or for those who openly flaunt their wickedness before the world, active judgment becomes a necessity.

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a reply to: AwakeNotWoke

MY church had an issue praying for Trump.


It actually went to the archdiocese.

In Oregon.

originally posted by: charlest2

originally posted by: Leftiris13

originally posted by: FlyersFan
I think this is Protestants and not Catholics. Over half of Protestant clergy have been considering quitting. Seems that the people post-COVID aren't as religious and not volunteering or doing church things, and the pastors are exhausted and not very psyched' on doing their jobs. Religious beliefs are in decline in the USA. But I think the country would notice if more than half the Protestant ministers gave up and quit.


More Than Half of American Pastors Have Considered Quitting

As American pastors have grown increasingly discontent with their profession, more than half have seriously considered leaving pastoral ministry since 2020 for various reasons, a new study from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research suggests.

"The further we are from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the more we observe larger percentages of clergy pondering alternatives to their present congregation, vocation, or both," the research team led by Scott Thumma, professor of Sociology of Religion at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace and director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, stated in the report.

The data suggests that as of fall 2023, 53% of religious leaders have seriously considered leaving pastoral ministry at least once since 2020. This share is significantly higher than the 37% of pastors who reported in 2021 that they had similar thoughts since 2020.

The average clergyperson was described as a 59-year-old leader who had served in their position for a median of 7 years and was 80% more likely to be white and male. Some 75% were employed full-time, and 60% of them served solo rather than as part of a team of leaders.

It's time for "religion" to die off. It's the fastest road to hell.
It's time for people to find their spirit and there spiritual connections to God.

"I desire mercy, not sacrifice." Said the Son of God.

In their time, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah found their spirituality so thoroughly, God destroyed them. LOL

Stories like that are probably what drive people from the Church.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: AwakeNotWoke

MY church had an issue praying for Trump.

It actually went to the archdiocese.

In Oregon.

I understand.

I was sent out to the mission field by a church in the mid-eighties. When I got back from the field about 25 years later, the leadership had changed hands (a dynasty handed down from father to son) and had theologically gone way off in left field. I couldn't roll with it. We just disassociated from them.

For a while I helped to pastor a dying church that really needed to just be let go. (I jokingly refer to my time there as a "euthanizing pastor.") We ultimately helped the faithful members find new church homes and the remaining hangers-on just watched it die until there was nothing left. It was a sad situation, but we were able to help several of the spiritually committed members carry on. (The rest were just playing church and wanted to be entertained, goats amidst the sheep.)

We were then for a while without a home church. It wasn't a bad time, but it wasn't a good time. We visited a few churches but didn't find any that were a theological and doctrinal fit. I kept fellowship with some friends in a weekly men's gathering and through that group we found a new home. It's not perfect by any means, but the Word is faithfully taught and the core members reflect the character of Christ as best we fallen folk can.

Again, if you are in Christ, you are a member of a universal, invisible body that needs you, and you need it. What your previous congregation in Oregon did has nothing to do with that fact.

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originally posted by: Ohanka

originally posted by: charlest2

originally posted by: Leftiris13

originally posted by: FlyersFan
I think this is Protestants and not Catholics. Over half of Protestant clergy have been considering quitting. Seems that the people post-COVID aren't as religious and not volunteering or doing church things, and the pastors are exhausted and not very psyched' on doing their jobs. Religious beliefs are in decline in the USA. But I think the country would notice if more than half the Protestant ministers gave up and quit.


More Than Half of American Pastors Have Considered Quitting

As American pastors have grown increasingly discontent with their profession, more than half have seriously considered leaving pastoral ministry since 2020 for various reasons, a new study from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research suggests.

"The further we are from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the more we observe larger percentages of clergy pondering alternatives to their present congregation, vocation, or both," the research team led by Scott Thumma, professor of Sociology of Religion at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace and director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, stated in the report.

The data suggests that as of fall 2023, 53% of religious leaders have seriously considered leaving pastoral ministry at least once since 2020. This share is significantly higher than the 37% of pastors who reported in 2021 that they had similar thoughts since 2020.

The average clergyperson was described as a 59-year-old leader who had served in their position for a median of 7 years and was 80% more likely to be white and male. Some 75% were employed full-time, and 60% of them served solo rather than as part of a team of leaders.

It's time for "religion" to die off. It's the fastest road to hell.
It's time for people to find their spirit and there spiritual connections to God.

"I desire mercy, not sacrifice." Said the Son of God.

In their time, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah found their spirituality so thoroughly, God destroyed them. LOL

Stories like that are probably what drive people from the Church.

Some people, yet. But if one understands the events in their full context, no.

God is sovereign and He is holy. He is merciful and graceful, but there is a limit.

Look at what is happening in the U.S. now. The culture is succumbing to a wickedness that is promoting the sexual abuse of children, the murder of babies in their mother's wombs, the perversion of the sexuality of young people. So much damage is being done to so many. When the wickedness begins to corrupt the innocent, then something has to be done.

Preceding the judgment meted out on Sodom and Gomorrah, there is the story of how messengers from God came to the house of Lot. The men of the town saw them and wanted to rape them. They demanded that Lot turn them out to the street so that they could violate them. This is a culture that is destructive not only to itself but to anyone in its sphere. It would have been a lack of mercy to those around to allow that kind of wickedness to thrive. It was an act of mercy to eliminate them from the face of the earth, both to those around who would have been abused by them (as those two messengers would have been had it not been for miraculous intervention) as well as to those people themselves as their own corruption was just making them sicker and sicker.

a reply to: FlyersFan

THIS IS FINALLY what I wanted ATS to be not anti-christian but showing these institutions are creating a biased organization which if you are follower of Christ you cannot belong to!

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: AwakeNotWoke
MY church had an issue praying for Trump.
It actually went to the archdiocese.
In Oregon.

I bet your Catholic Church in left wing Oregon LOVES Pope Francis.
He's just a far left anti-American anti-borders anti-free-market politician.

a reply to: FlyersFan

He's a Jesuit.