One year of data gives you a snapshot. Three years? That's a trend—and the trend we're seeing in church staff health should concern every church leader in America.
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After analyzing responses from over 3,000 church staff members across three consecutive years, we've discovered something troubling: church staff health has declined every single year since we started measuring.
This isn't about one bad year or post-pandemic adjustments. This is about a consistent, measurable erosion of health among the people who serve our churches week in and week out.
Here are the facts from our Church Staff Health Assessment:
Two points might not sound significant, but here's what's really happening beneath those numbers:
Our healthiest staff members are disappearing. The percentage of "exceptional" staff—those thriving across all areas of ministry health—dropped from 18.8% to 14.7%. That's nearly a quarter of our healthiest workers slipping into lower categories.
Meanwhile, staff in the "fair" category—those struggling with mixed results—grew from 14.4% to 19.1%.
The needle is moving, and it's moving in the wrong direction. Slowly. Consistently. Unmistakably.
What we're seeing isn't a random fluctuation in church staff satisfaction. Scores have dropped every single year—not up and down, just down. That's not noise; that's a pattern.
But here's what's particularly concerning: the decline isn't uniform across all health categories. The middle categories (strong and good) are holding relatively steady. What's actually happening is a hollowing out from the top.
We're losing our healthiest people and accumulating more in what we call the "danger zone." Maybe someone who was exceptional last year moved down to strong. Someone who was strong slipped to good. Someone who was good is now just fair.
The movement is consistent, and it's not in the right direction.
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers." - Galatians 6:9-10
In 2023, nearly one in five staff members (18.8%) were in our "exceptional" category—thriving across all seven areas we measure. Today, it's closer to one in seven (14.7%).
That four-point drop represents thousands of ministry workers nationwide if you extrapolate across all churches. These are people who were thriving and have slipped into merely surviving.
Where did they go? Some moved from exceptional to strong or good—still healthy, but not flourishing like they once were. Others slid into the fair category, putting them at risk for burnout or departure.
The ceiling is lowering. Our best and healthiest staff members are becoming less healthy, and that should alarm every church leader.
Here's something counterintuitive: our "critical" and "needs improvement" categories actually shrank slightly. At first glance, that seems like good news—fewer people in crisis, right?
Wrong. It's not because we've gotten better at supporting struggling staff. It's what researchers call survivorship bias.
Staff in crisis don't tend to stay. They resign, burn out, or get let go. The floor hasn't risen because we fixed anything—it contracted because the most struggling people have already left the building.
We're not getting healthier as a church workforce. We're losing the sickest patients before we can treat them.
Here's the thing: the national trend doesn't determine your church's future. Your church could be doing much better than average, or it could be doing much worse. These are national averages from over 1,000 staff members who took the assessment this past year.
But this trend should absolutely inform your urgency.
The slow erosion is easy to miss because it's gradual. Your staff might seem fine this year, next year, and the year after. But "fine" is increasingly fragile across the American church.
The 75% of staff currently in healthy territory aren't immune to the pressures. They're one bad leadership transition, one mishandled conflict, or one unrealistic expectation away from joining the 25% who are really struggling.
This isn't meant to create panic—it's meant to create attention. The churches that will thrive are the ones paying attention to staff health and making changes before the crisis hits.
Three years. Three consecutive years of decline. The trend is becoming crystal clear.
We're not losing staff to one catastrophic event. We're losing them slowly, quietly, and consistently over time. Death by a thousand paper cuts rather than one devastating blow.
The question isn't whether this is happening in the American church—the data proves it is. The question is whether you'll notice it happening in your church before it's too late.
"Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be... not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock." - 1 Peter 5:2-3
Here's my challenge to you: stop assuming your staff are fine. You need to ask, assess, and measure regularly. Staff health should constantly be on your radar.
Take a hard look at your own three-year trend:
If you can identify that person, you need to have a conversation with them this week.
Don't wait for the resignation letter to tell you there was a problem. By then, it's too late to help that person—and too late to learn from what went wrong.
The three-year decline in church staff health is real, measurable, and concerning. But it doesn't have to be inevitable for your church.
The churches that will buck this trend are the ones that prioritize staff health not just in crisis moments, but as an ongoing priority. They're the churches that measure, assess, and act before problems become resignations.
Your staff are the heartbeat of your ministry. When they're healthy, your church can thrive. When they're not, everything else suffers.
The question is: what kind of church will you choose to be?
Want to dive deeper into this research? We've compiled all our findings from three years of church staff health data into a comprehensive 200+ page report. You can download it free at ChurchStaffHealth.com.
The trend may be moving in the wrong direction, but with intentional action, your church can be the exception. Your staff health can improve, even while the national average declines.
It starts with paying attention. It continues with taking action.
Have thoughts on this research or your own experiences with staff health trends? I'd love to hear from you. Email your thoughts to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com.