Most Exhausted Pastors Stay. What Staying Costs Them.

Your people take care of everyone else. Who takes care of them?

For most churches, the person that question points to first is the pastor. This guide is for the elders, board members and church leaders who decide how a church takes care of its pastor and staff.

Two numbers are worth sitting with. In January 2026, Barna reported that 24% of U.S. senior Protestant pastors seriously considered leaving full-time ministry in the past year (Barna, 2026). In 2025, Lifeway Research found that only about 1 in 100 pastors leave the pastorate each year for reasons other than retirement or death, a rate that has barely moved in a decade (Lifeway Research, 2025).

Most tired pastors stay. The gap between those two numbers is where pastor burnout does its work, and where the support around your pastor matters most.

Why Isn't Staying the Same as Being Okay?

Lifeway's 2025 data shows that only about 1.2% of pastors leave the pastorate in a given year, close to the 1.3% it measured in 2015 (Lifeway Research, 2025). Among former pastors, the most common reason for leaving was a change in calling (40%), well ahead of burnout (16%) (Lifeway Research, 2025). Burnout rarely pushes a pastor out the door. More often, it stays with them.

Picture a pastor on a Sunday night at 9 p.m. The last family left two hours ago. He sat with a couple whose marriage is in trouble, took a call from a deacon unhappy with the sermon series, and let a hospital visit go to voicemail because the service ran long. His wife is already in bed. He sits at the kitchen table and doesn't open his laptop, because he isn't sure what he'd say.

He isn't leaving. He loves this church, and that's part of what makes it hard. He's in the much larger group of pastors who have decided, without any announcement, to keep going.

Who Does Your Pastor Talk To?

In January 2026, Barna reported that two in five pastors feel lonely, and only one in three has anyone outside their church they can truly confide in about personal matters (Barna, 2026). Of the areas of flourishing Barna measured, pastors scored lowest on relationships.

A pastor's job puts them in the room for everyone else's hardest moments: marriages, deaths, addiction, doubt, illness. They hold those stories, and they hold most of them alone. They can't debrief Sunday's counseling conversation with the board. They can't tell their small group that a family everyone loves is coming apart. They can't tell their spouse everything without handing the weight to them.

That matters for staying power. Barna found that pastors who experience stronger relational support are significantly less likely to consider leaving ministry (Barna, 2026).

We know you love your church and you love your pastor. There are Sundays when you can see it in their face, and you aren't sure what to do. Most elders feel the same quiet worry: am I asking too much of the person I'm supposed to be caring for? That's an honest question. It's also the right place to start.

What Does Real Support for a Pastor Look Like?

There's no shortage of advice on pastor care: sabbaticals, staff coverage, counseling referrals, peer groups. Some of it helps. The piece most churches miss is simpler. A pastor needs someone outside the church who knows their story, needs nothing from them, and will never use what they say.

That's why Forte gives every one of your people their own Forte Coach, a real person outside work who's with them for all of it, the hard weeks and the good ones. For a pastor, "outside work" means outside the church: no stake in the budget, the board or the sermon series.

Everything lives in one app. Your pastor picks a time, their Coach calls them, and short exercises keep them growing between calls. Members can connect with their Coach as early as the next day, and they can keep the same Coach or switch any time. Forte Coaches come from backgrounds that include pastoral care, counseling and certified coaching (Forte Coaches). Coaches use Mental Fitness training, and Sessions are confidential.

Here's how one lead pastor described it on Forte's website: "I appreciate Forte and its ability to allow me to process various aspects of my life and ministry."

How Can Elders Support Their Pastor This Season?

We know you care, but you can't sit beside every one of your people. You have your own family, your own job, your own Sunday morning. You don't have to become your pastor's confidant. You need to make sure they have one.

Three steps:

1. Book a demo with Forte. A short conversation to see what this looks like for your church.
2. Give your pastor and staff their own Forte Coach. Offer it as a direct expression of care, not a line item.
3. Say it out loud. Tell your pastor why you're doing it: you want them to feel as cared for as the people they care for.

You become a place where everyone has someone in their corner. So your people feel as cared for as the people they care for.

Want to see what that looks like for your church? Book a demo. Not ready yet? Take the free team Mental Fitness Scan for your staff.