Pastors worse than our adults in relationships are happy, but most don’t get help: studying

By Leonardo BlairSenior Reporter on Friday, June 13th, 2025

Despite being farther away in physical, emotional and mental health than practicing Christians and our adults, most pastors receive no professional support.

Most of them also seem to know that these are areas of their lives where they have the greatest needs, according to a new barna “State of the Church” report.

The report, released Tuesday, was created in collaboration with Gloo, the leading technology platform connecting the faith ecosystem. This study highlights the overall well-being of pastors and perceptions surrounding their role.

More than half (52%) of pastors do not receive professional support through the paths of mentoring, advisors, coaches, and counselors. And when they ask for help, they tend to do it on a more personal level, such as personal mentors (22%) and spiritual advisors (17%).

12% of pastors met therapists, 11% said they saw a professional mentor, and 3% said they saw a marriage counselor. Another 9% reported seeing a professional counselor.

In this study, researchers acquired how pastors thrive on a scale of 0 to 100 in essential areas of life, such as relationships, occupations, finances, health, and faith.

“Everything is taken into consideration, today’s pastors are on track. Based on the dimensions of Burna’s prosperity, their thriving scores exceed the US adult population (76 vs 71 out of 100). However, this overall score hides a more complicated reality,” the researchers write.

“If you look at a particular category, you can see that pastors’ thriving scores fluctuate and are significantly higher or lower than the general population and practical Christian prosperity of the shepherd.”

For example, in the field of finance, pastors recorded a 70% prosperous score, while 62% were recorded for all adults in the United States and 66% in Christian practice.

However, in relations, the pastors won 67%, 79% for all adults in the US and 85% for Christian practice. The pastor also scored a thriving score of 69% for happiness, compared to 73% for all adults in the United States and 79% for Christian practice.

“The most concern is that pastors may misidentify their biggest needs. Despite the lowest scores in relations (67) and happiness (69), pastors are most likely saying they need leadership development, spiritual growth and financial help.

“Our research also reveals a key connection between support and prosperity. Pastors who receive more frequent spiritual support report higher professional satisfaction. Conversely, pastors who suffer from work-life balance often receive more emotional support,” they added. “These correlations highlight concerns about the cycles that churches need attention. Those who most need support may feel potentially overwhelmed to the point of being unable to seek help.”

It was also found that pastors were not satisfied with their ability to retire in general, and their ability to be under the age of 40 in particular.

Researchers found that 64% of pastors, who today’s average age of 52, are confident they can retire when they want. Only about 20% can be “completely confident.” About a third (36%) said they were “not confident” or “don’t know” about when they could retire.

“If you calculate the time a pastor wants to retire, you see that 15% will retreat within five years and 27% will be retreat within the next 10 years.

“Young pastors also have much less confidence in their ability to retire compared to older pastors. More than half of pastors under the age of 40 are unsure or unsure about the timing of their retirement. This generational gap may reflect broader economic trends. It could also indicate that younger pastors need to retire appear more realistic.”