Have you given real, serious consideration to quitting being in full-time ministry within the last year?”

Barna asked that question in surveys during 2021 and ’22, and the result was alarming. The number of ministers actively considering leaving ministry rose from 29% in January 2021 to 42% in March 2022. That’s an increase of nearly 45% in 15 months!

Influence interviewed Assemblies of God General Superintendent Doug Clay for his perspective on this trendline, as well as for advice to ministers considering leaving the ministry.

Are you troubled by the results of these Barna surveys?
I am very concerned. The Assemblies of God has approximately 10,438 lead pastors. If you focus on them, 42% translates to 4,384 lead pastors considering leaving ministry. That’s a lot of churches with hurting pastors.

According to a 2023 Barna study, between 2015 and 2022, the number of pastors who reported that their mental health was “Excellent” fell from 39% to 11%. The number of pastors saying their mental health was “Below Average” or “Poor” nearly quadrupled, from 3% to 11%.

Many of us are struggling emotionally. We need a pathway to better mental and spiritual health.

Barna asked the 42% to describe ministry challenges that led them to consider quitting. Respondents used emotional language: “I feel ____” and “I don’t feel _____.” How should ministers process their feelings?
Many might say, “How I feel doesn’t matter; I serve by faith, regardless of my feelings.”  

Allowing emotions to control your ministry is bad, but avoiding, hiding from, or not stewarding your emotions is unhealthy, too.

Jesus is our model. He felt the emotions we feel, negative and positive — from anger (Mark 3:5) to compassion (6:34), from sorrow (14:34) to joy (Luke 10:21). He never let those feelings dictate His actions, however. He acted out of His calling, not His feelings.

Emotions are a thermometer, not a thermostat. They take the temperature of our feelings in a given situation, but they shouldn’t dictate our responses.

It is from out the being of a rested soul that anything worth doing in ministry happens.

Consider three ministry scenarios:

You experience conflict at home because of how much time you spend at church. You feel guilty about time away from family and resentful of ministry demands. 

Your church is plateaued or in decline. You feel embarrassed because other churches are growing, and you start to doubt your current assignment, maybe even your divine calling. 

You get a stinging, critical email from a friend. You feel hurt and are tempted to lash back in reply.

In each case, negative emotions are telling you something is wrong, but you’ll worsen the situation if you react emotionally.

Like Jesus, we need to act out of out of calling, not feeling.

What is calling?
Calling is basically our relationship with Jesus Christ (Romans 1:6–7). It is different than our assignment. Our assignment is how we live out our calling based on our spiritual gifts. Both pastors and church members are called, but they have different assignments in the Body.

Living out of our calling has tremendous benefits. Consider Matthew 11:28–30, where Jesus says: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

This invitation isn’t just for sinners to come and find eternal life. It’s for every Christian, including ministers who are feeling burdened and broken-hearted. When we come to Jesus, we find rest.

That rest is much deeper than physical rest — it’s soul rest. In ministry, our problems aren’t sore muscles. They’re usually strained emotions, broken spirits, heavy hearts, and distracted minds. Jesus promises to give our souls rest from those things.

Glynnis Whitwer writes that soul rest is “rooted in faith and confidence that we are deeply and unconditionally loved, and held safe in the arms of our heavenly Father.”

In some church leadership circles, accomplishment is the only thing that matters. Doing is valued more than being. How can we make sense of Jesus’ promise of rest, then? Rest is about being, not doing. 

It is from the being of a rested soul that anything worth doing in ministry happens.

How do we enter this rest?
Jesus uses three imperatives in Matthew 11:28–30: “come to me,” “take my yoke,” and “learn from me.” Each teaches something important.

First, come to me. Jesus doesn’t say, “Come to my teaching,” “Come get involved in this project,” or “Come and do more.” He doesn’t offer a to-do list, like Buddhism’s eightfold path or Islam’s five pillars or even Steven Covey’s seven habits of highly effective people. 

He simply offers himself.  He is the divine solution to all the weight and burdens we carry. We were never designed to carry those burdens alone.

Jesus invites us to take a break from all the horizontal stuff of ministry, and turn our attention vertical, where our weary, tired, and burdened souls will find rest. 

Second, take my yoke. A yoke is a wooden beam that attaches two farm animals together to distribute a workload between them. It is a tool that makes collaboration possible.

Jesus is saying, “I want to partner with you in ministry.”

Part of taking Jesus’ yoke is giving up control and letting Him set the pace of your ministry. The greater your need to control things, the more you will feel out of balance, stressed out, and fatigued. 

Too often, however, we yoke ourselves to ourselves. We say, “I want to be in control” and, in effect, “I trust myself more than God.”

Or we yoke ourselves to others, attempting to please them at all costs. People yoked to other people have an unhealthy need to be recognized and liked by others.

Or we yoke ourselves to success, making ever higher and better achievements the marks of having arrived. Few people can survive that kind of “success.”

That’s why being yoked to Jesus is critical. When we are yoked to Him, we’re less likely to compare ourselves or our ministries to others! 

Jesus’ yoke invites us out of the comparison trap and into partnership with Him.

Third, learn from me. This is an invitation to gain a divine perspective on your current ministry assignment. We can learn so much from Jesus, but Matthew 11:29–30 emphasizes gentleness and humility.

Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:23). The Greeks used the word as an image of a horse under the control of its rider. Gentleness, then, is the ability to keep power, strength, rights, and authority under control. 

I wonder how many ministers and ministries would enhance their effectiveness by practicing more gentleness. I wonder how many ministry failures would have been prevented if gentleness had been more evident.

Humility is coming to a place where you realize ministry is not about you; it’s about Jesus. Humility runs throughout the Bible. Jesus came to humbly serve (Mark 10:45). Paul exhorted us to clothe ourselves with humility (Colossians 3:12). Solomon wrote that humility comes before honor (Proverbs 15:33; 18:12; 22:4). And James tells us God shows favor to the humble (James 4:6).

It’s only when we follow Jesus’ footsteps in gentleness and humility that we are able to do the “greater things” He promised us (John 14:12). What we do is the fruit of who we are.

Do you have any final word of encouragement for readers?
On May 16, 2023, at Lake Geneva Christian Center during the World Missions Sender Summit, I felt the Holy Spirit impress on me the reminder that Jesus is praying for us.

Hebrews 7:25 says, “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.”

Think about that: Jesus always lives to intercede for us!

Consequently, nothing can separate us from God’s love (Romans 8:35), we belong to Him (John 17:9), and He is protecting us (17:11,15).

In the midst of your storm and battle, you have One who watches over you, prays for you, and defends you.

To be yoked to Jesus means He offers himself to us. Will we offer ourselves to Him in return?

This article appears in the Fall 2023 issue of Influence magazine.