The Shrinking Church and the Shrinking Clergy

Clergy face challenges in an era of division and secularization. Clergy burnout is real, and many former clergy are NOT coming back.

Some of my best friends are current or former clergy. Generally, they are compassionate and wise. They like to consider the big questions and to help others to consider the big questions. More importantly, they are willing to accompany others through the highs and lows of their lives. They include births and deaths, marriages and divorces, prosperity and poverty, health and sickness, graduations and job losses, etc.

Challenges for Clergy

And this kind of work takes a toll. If someone spends 20 or 30 years in ministry, they may have very different views as gray haired veterans than they had as fresh-faced seminarians. They might have preached what their bishops or church members wanted them to preach, whether they believed it or not. Sometimes, what they learned in seminary and what they preached in church were different, even contrary.

In The Way, I describe theologian James Fowler’s stages of faith development: Primal faith to mythic-literal faith to universalizing faith. Accordingly, Christianity is changing, and many Christians, including many clergy, are rethinking traditional, literal faith.

For example, only 30% of Christians believe that the Bible’s creation narratives are literal, for cultural, scientific, and theological reasons. Likewise, almost half of Christians believe that society should accept homosexuality, according to the Pew Research Center.

We all know people who have changed their views on moral, political, and spiritual matters as their life experience broadened and deepened. They might say, “I used to believe the Earth was 6000 years old until I studied the science,” or “I used to believe homosexuality was wrong until I had a queer child.” Clergy have very broad and very deep life experiences, so they are particularly likely to adopt a universalizing faith.

One-third of us have suffered some form of religious trauma, and some clergy members may have suffered some religious trauma themselves. Worse, they might realize that they inflicted religious trauma on others by participating in hurtful behavior or promoting toxic theology.

Challenges for Churches

I attend meetings of progressive Evangelicals. Also, I attend local meetings of the Post-Evangelical Collective (PEC), mostly clergy members.  The PEC connects, cultivates and resources post-Evangelical churches. Their values focus on the Way of Jesus, full inclusion, holistic justice, deep and broad formation, and gracious posture. Sadly, these values are not common in some Catholic, Evangelical, and Mormon churches.

Often, affirming post-Evangelical churches are the first stop on the way back into Christianity. Or the last stop on the way out of Christianity. Sometimes, affirming clergy will accompany people through their religious trauma. But their involvement might come “too little, too late.” These churches (and their clergy) face long odds. They deplete financial (and emotional) reserves on social ministries and trauma response.

Since 2016, political division has taken its toll on churches and clergy, too. This week, Leah D. Schade, my fellow Patheos author, wrote a column about clergy burnout here. She cites a survey that she conducted, concluding that 43% of congregations are divided politically.

Even before 2016, the last church that I attended had disagreements. Some thought that flags on the altar were patriotic and guns in worship made us more safe. Others thought that flags on the altar were idolatrous and guns in worship made us less safe. That church closed its doors.

Schade says, “Backlash against clergy most often took the form of decreasing worship attendance and angry words, letters, or emails. Perhaps most concerning, 13% of respondents reported receiving threats against their safety, with over 120 describing experiences ranging from harassment and vandalism to death threats and actual violence. This contributes to an overall chilling effect in congregations and adds to the broader stress experienced by clergy, with 63% reporting frequent frustration and 59% feeling exhausted.” No wonder. Death threats?!?

I write a lot about finding community after leaving church. But, given the increasing division in congregations and the threats against clergy, maybe I should be writing about finding community while remaining in church.

The Shrinking Church and the Shrinking Clergy

The number of churches and the number of churchgoers are constantly declining. The Southern Baptist Convention’s membership declined for the 18th straight year in 2024. Today, the Convention is smaller than it has been since 1974. Clergy ranks are declining, too.

One of the churches in my community was searching for a new minister. So they contacted the denomination’s seminary. Of 30 graduates, only six were interested in congregational ministry. The rest were interested in academia, chaplaincy, social services work, or related fields.

At the same time, “The Wall Street Journal” reports that Catholic seminaries are closing worldwide. “Growing secularization, Church abuse scandals, the hardships of celibacy and more economic opportunities have all contributed to the shift away from religious work…. There are now more seminaries in the Democratic Republic of Congo than Poland, more in India than Italy, according to Vatican figures.”

Because of immigration reform and the worldwide perception that the United States is hostile to foreigners, it will likely become increasingly difficult for foreign priests to immigrate to the United States and increasingly less likely that they will want to do so.

Challenges for Former Clergy

Many good people have left the clergy. The increasing division in congregations and secularization in society, with the associated stresses, as well as the changes in churches, congregations and theologies, have made an already diffiult job even more difficult.

Some former clergy have trouble finding work, because they did not receive much training or because their training was not transferable. Outside of religion and adjacent fields, there is not much demand for people with Greek, Hebrew, or Latin fluency. And there is not much demand for people who studied the Bible, church history, congregational leadership, homilietics, pastoral care or worship, either.

Still, many former clergy would prefer to find unrelated work, even work for which they are overqualified, rather than return to ministry.