Apathy and Strong Opinions Some of Greatest Challenges Pastors Face, Study Says

Apathy and a lack of commitment among parishioners are some of the biggest challenges they face, pastors say, but churchgoers with strong opinions also present a challenging dynamic, according to a survey of Protestant ministers.

For the 2022 Greatest Needs of Pastors study, Lifeway Research interviewed 200 U.S. Protestant pastors and surveyed an additional 1,000.

More than one-fifth (22%) of the pastors said people dynamics was the most challenging issue they face, or the one that required the most attention. Only skill development (23%) was identified as a greater need.

Young pastors were most likely to say they face challenging people dynamics at their church.

Three out of four of the pastors surveyed cited apathy or a lack of commitment as their top people challenge. Evangelical pastors (51%) were more likely than mainline pastors (42%) to say apathy is their primary problem, and pastors 65 and older (51%) were more likely than younger pastors.

At least half of Pentecostal (55%), Baptist (52%), and non-denominational pastors (52%) identified apathy as their top people dynamic concern. Baptist (79%), non-denominational (78%), and Pentecostal pastors (77%) were the most likely to say they find people’s apathy challenging. 

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“Many people can be a member of a church, but not participate in the work of the church,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “Pastors see the potential of mobilizing everyone in the church to minister to others in the church and in their community.”

On the other hand, close to half (48%) of pastors surveyed said people caring too much (in other words, having strong opinions about issues non-essential to the church—politics, for example) created the most difficulty. 

About 46% of pastors said they are frustrated by people’s resistance to change in the church, with African American pastors (22%) most likely to say so.

Around a third of the pastors said their parishioners have unrealistic expectations of them, including 11% of leaders of larger churches. Lutheran (40%) and Methodist pastors (38%) were most likely to say they cared too much about people’s approval or criticism.

“These challenging people dynamics all affect the unity within a local church,” McConnell said. “Unity matters greatly to Christ as seen in his prayer for his followers in John 17. Many things can disrupt that unity and one of the most common is not outright disagreement but silently abstaining from what the church is doing together.”