Unprepared for change.
For several years prior to the pandemic, “creativity” and “innovation” were popular buzzwords among church leadership circles, but when pastors were forced to be creative and innovative just to keep their local congregations connected, they learned just how habitual they were. Suddenly they had to be creative and innovative, for some more than they wanted to be (and for many, more than they knew how to be), to the point of considering quitting.
“First responder” trauma.
Some pastors conducted more funerals during the past year than they have in all their years of ministry. Being a “first responder” comes with its own trauma of ministering to the trauma of others. For some, it has tempted them to consider quitting.
Sudden need for greater spiritual maturity.
With the fear of death creeping across the globe, many people suddenly became interested in Christian faith, even if just temporarily. The number of people streaming church services skyrocketed, the sale of Bibles increased, and Kate Shellnutt, writing an article for Christianity Today, notes that “As people have been bombarded with headlines about the global pandemic, civil unrest, natural disasters, and religious persecution, Google searches for prayer rose to the highest levels on record …” And then those numbers of people logging online for church services declined. Barna Group reports that one in three practicing Christians stopped attending church during COVID-19. Other reports stated practicing Christians were reading their Bibles less, and their number one way of dealing with the pandemic was streaming movies. When greater spiritual maturity and faith was needed to see people through a challenging time, the masks of faith began to crack. Professing Christians leaving the church and/or failing at practicing their professed faith has been so disheartening for some pastors it makes them want to quit.
Greater tension between ministry life and home life.
At a time when the demands of shepherding a local congregation increased dramatically, so did the demands of home life for many ministers. Like other families, their spouse may have lost a job, their children suddenly needed to he homeschooled, their own immediate and/or extended family members may have contracted COVID-19 or were struggling with fear and change. Trying to juggle an increased need for shepherding with an increased need to tend to their own families has been overwhelming for some pastors, enough to make them consider leaving ministry.
Impact on their own already frayed mental health.
Like so many other people around the world, ministers aren’t always the best about taking care of their mental health. Some pastors entered the pandemic with their own mental health issues, and some with a pre-existing mental illness, and the events of the past year only exacerbated their mental illness or mental health issues. For some, trying to minister to the impact of events on the spiritual, physical, and mental health of others while struggling with their own mental health issues or mental illness felt like more than they could handle. This has led some to think they need to leave vocational ministry.
Burnout.
Many pastors were on the border of burnout before the onset of the pandemic, and the significantly heightened demand for shepherding their flock finally pushed them into fully burning out. This has caused some to want to quit.
Lack of support and increased loneliness.
It’s almost shocking how many ministers suffer from loneliness. Add to that pre-existing reality the social distancing restrictions of a pandemic, along with less support as congregants became more critical, and that combination became a big push to some ministers to thinking about doing something other than vocational ministry.
