Mental Health Survey for Church Workers 2026: 10 things we learnt – and how we can respond

There is good news, and there is troubling news, from the Salt&Light Mental Health Survey for Church Workers 2026.

More church workers – or at least Pastors – feel that their churches are safe places to discuss mental health. More have people they can turn to when they are struggling. And more than half say their personal mental health has improved over the past year.

Yet the proportion experiencing anxiety, sleep difficulties and loss of enjoyment in everyday activities has increased. More respondents also report having had suicidal thoughts in the past year, according to the survey, which was conducted in January 2026, in collaboration with Christian Mental Health Advocates.

The survey, conducted every three years and now in its third edition, drew 649 respondents, up from 474 in 2023 and 451 in 2020, when it was first conducted in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Respondents included Pastors, ministry staff, non-pastoral church staff, lay leaders, missionaries and para-church workers. The findings are based on respondents’ self-reported experiences and perceptions, rather than clinical diagnoses.

What can churches learn from these findings? And, more importantly, what can we do about them?

1. Church workers could use more rest.

Three in four respondents (75%) were only able to completely disengage from pastoral work or ministry for one day a week or less. Alarmingly, one in five (20%) said they had no days at all when they could completely disengage from work.

The problem was particularly pronounced among non-pastoral church staff, 30% of whom reported having no days of complete disengagement, compared with 20% of Pastors.

Sleep is another concern. More than three-fifths (62%) of respondents reported sleeping six hours or fewer a day, while 28% said they had trouble sleeping.

How can we help? Churches can begin by protecting the rest days of their staff. This means establishing clear expectations about after-hours communication; emphasising that non-urgent matters can wait; and providing adequate staffing or cover so that ministry does not grind to a halt when someone rests. Leaders should also model healthy rhythms of work and Sabbath rest themselves. If we believe that rest is God’s gift to His people, we should ensure that those who serve Him are not the last to enjoy it.

2. While personal mental health has improved for many, some are feeling the strain.

Despite growing awareness of mental health issues, several indicators of emotional distress have worsened across the three surveys. The proportion of respondents who felt “nervous, tense or worried” most of the time increased from 21.1% (2020) to 21.9% (2023) to 26.8% (2026), while those who “no longer found the same pleasure in activities they previously enjoyed” rose from 19.5% (2020) to 24.3% (2023) to 25.4% (2026).

However, by contrast, their overall perception of how they are faring was more positive. More than half (53%) said their personal mental health was better than a year ago, compared with 12% who said it had worsened. The large majority (80%) also expressed confidence in their ability to cope with their present stresses.

Taken as a whole, this means that while many church workers feel they are doing better, significant proportions continue to report symptoms of emotional distress.

How can we help? Churches should move beyond treating mental health as an occasional seminar topic and make emotional wellbeing part of our regular staff care. Confidential check-ins, periodic wellbeing assessments, access to professional counselling and training for supervisors to recognise signs of distress can all help. Importantly, leaders should not assume that because someone is functioning well in ministry, they are necessarily doing well emotionally. A person can continue serving faithfully while quietly struggling.

3. Suicidal thoughts among church workers and members are a serious concern.

One of the most sobering findings is that 7.5% of respondents – about 1 in 13 church workers – reported having had thoughts of ending their lives within the past year, up from 5.7% in 2023.

About one-fifth (18.9%) reported having had such thoughts at some point in their life.

The issue extends beyond church workers themselves. Nearly six in 10 respondents (59%) said they personally knew someone in their church who had experienced suicidal thoughts within the preceding year.

How can we help? Pastors, staff and lay leaders should be trained to take disclosures seriously, respond calmly, be able to assess immediate safety, and/or direct members to appropriate professional support. Churches should also have a ready list of crisis services and mental health professionals they can contact or refer members to, such as:

• Samaritans of Singapore (SOS): 1-767 (1-SOS) (24-hour) | pat@sos.org.sg| m.me/SamaritansofSingapore
• Institute of Mental Health: 6389-2222 (24-hour)
• National Care Hotline: 1800-202-6868
• Singapore Association for Mental Health: 1800-283-7019
• Care Corner Counselling Centre (English and Mandarin): 6353 1180
• TOUCHline (Counselling): 1800-377-2252
• Fei Yue’s Online Counselling Service: ec2.sg
• Tinkle Friend by Singapore Children’s Society: 1800-274-4788 | tinklefriend.sg (online chat)
• Silver Ribbon Singapore: 6385-3714

Importantly, we need to answer the question: Who cares for the caregiver? We often say that a church is like a hospital staffed by patients, where church workers and leaders are not immune to moments or seasons in the valleys. Pastoral workers often taken on hurts and pains from those they care for, and are greater exposed to spiritual warfare on the frontlines of ministry. Stay attentive to the emotional and mental health of your Pastor and church worker – an occasional gentle check-in could go a long way.

4. Non-pastoral church staff struggle more with mental health than every other category of church worker.

Non-pastoral staff are often the least noticed or mentioned members of a church team. Perhaps we should pay more attention to them.

Among this group, 30.8% reported that their mental health had worsened over the previous year, compared with 12% of Pastors and 11.3% of church ministry staff. They were also less confident about coping with stress: 66.7% expressed confidence, compared with 82.6% of Pastors.

Non-pastoral staff were more likely to report difficulty disengaging from work and trouble sleeping.

This group includes those working in administration, finance, technical operations, facilities and other support functions. Although they may not have formal pastoral responsibilities, their work can be demanding and essential to the life of the church, in particular in a season of flux such as we have experienced post-pandemic. They may also not have the spiritual feeding and immersion that pastoral staff may get to help them understand and cope with the stressors of their role.

How can we help? Staff care should encompass everyone on the church payroll, not only those with pastoral or ministry titles. Churches should review the workload, working hours, supervisory support and professional development opportunities of their administrative and operational teams. Non-pastoral staff should also have access to spiritual equipping, pastoral care and confidential support outside their reporting lines.

This weekend, would you go up to your church facilities, AV, or other backroom staff to honour and appreciate their labour for the Lord?

5. Pastors say churches are becoming safer places to discuss mental health. Not everyone agrees.

In 2020 and 2023, 65.2% of respondents agreed that their church was a safe place to talk about mental health issues. In 2026, that figure rose to 71.1%.

However, perceptions differed considerably according to respondents’ roles. While 83.7% of Pastors considered their churches safe spaces to talk about such matters, only 59.8% of lay leaders and 58.1% of para-church ministry staff agreed. Among missionaries, the figure was 35.3%, although this was based on a relatively small sample of 17 respondents.

The findings raise an important question: Are Pastors experiencing a different reality from the people they lead?

This could mean that Pastors are more exposed to mental health concerns, and thus better able to create the environment for such sharing. But it could also mean that their efforts to create such safe spaces are not having the impact that they would hope for, and that their co-labourers have not been equipped to the same level.

How can we help? We need to humble ourselves to be open to honest feedback. Churches should regularly find ways to ask staff, lay leaders and members whether they genuinely feel safe discussing their struggles, rather than assuming that a welcoming church culture automatically translates into emotional safety. Anonymous feedback mechanisms, confidential pastoral conversations and a clear commitment to responding without judgment can help. Senior leaders should also model appropriate vulnerability and openness. A church is only as safe as its most vulnerable members’ experience.

A key group to hear from, where possible, is the hardest group to ask: Those who have left the church, especially if they were wounded or stumbled by the church’s response to their sharing. There is a lesson to glean from every church leaver.

6. Awareness of mental health is on the rise. But our ability to minister has not caught up.

There is a significant gap between awareness and preparedness. The majority – 82% of respondents – believed they could recognise signs and symptoms of mental health issues, while 75% said they understood the differences between depression and anxiety.

Yet only 36.6% felt their church had “sufficiently equipped them to minister to someone facing mental health concerns”. That figure has barely changed since 2023, when it stood at 38.4%, although it remains higher than the 27.7% recorded in 2020.

The gap was particularly evident among lay leaders, of whom only 27.2% felt adequately equipped, and missionaries, at 23.5%.

Why does this matter? Because according to the survey, 7 in 10 respondents ministered to more than 10 people a year. The need for practical skills in ministering to mental health concerns is evident.

How can we help? Churches should invest in structured mental health literacy training for Pastors, staff and lay leaders, and not simply rely on occasional awareness talks. Churches could also establish a tiered system of care, where cell leaders provide initial support, trained pastoral staff offer further assistance, and complex cases are referred to qualified professionals. We cannot expect our leaders to care effectively for struggling members if we have not first equipped them to do so.

7. Everyone accepts the need for medical treatment for mental health issues, but not everyone knows where to find it.

One encouraging finding is that 97.3% of respondents agreed that mental health disorders may require medical treatment. This has remained consistently high across all three surveys, suggesting widespread acceptance that mental health conditions may require professional medical intervention. The days are past when mental health issues were dismissed as spiritual weakness.

However, the proportion who knew at least three mental health professionals to whom they could refer someone fell sharply, from 72.8% in 2023 to 53.5% in 2026.

Furthermore, 32% explicitly disagreed that they knew at least three such professionals.

In other words, while church workers largely recognise the importance of professional care, many may not know where to direct those who need it.

How can we help? Every church should maintain an accessible, regularly updated referral directory of trusted counsellors, psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health organisations, such as the database at the Association for Christian Counselling (Singapore). Larger churches could consider building formal partnerships with mental health professionals, while smaller churches could collaborate to share resources. Knowing that someone needs professional help is only the first step; knowing how to help them access it is just as important.

8. Fear of judgment remains a barrier to church workers who need help.

The survey found that 86.8% of church workers had a family member, mentor or friend with whom they could openly share their problems, up from 82.7% in 2020. Similarly, 77% said they could talk to someone in church about personal concerns or family problems, compared with 76.3% in 2020 and 74.7% in 2023.

While these are encouraging signs that church workers are becoming better connected to sources of personal support, almost a third – 29% of respondents – said “fear of judgment” might prevent them from seeking help for mental health struggles.

For Pastors and ministry workers, concerns about reputation, leadership credibility or the consequences of disclosure may make seeking help particularly difficult.

How can we help? Churches should ensure that every staff member and leader has access to someone they can confide in without fear of professional repercussions. This may mean providing external mentors, independent pastoral supervisors or confidential counselling arrangements outside normal reporting structures. Church leaders should also examine whether their organisational culture unintentionally rewards the appearance of strength while discouraging honest admissions of weakness. As Galatians 6:2 reminds us, we are called to “carry one another’s burdens” — and that includes the burdens of those entrusted with leading us.

9. Let’s show our missionaries more love and care.

Among church workers, missionaries face possibly the harshest conditions and the most displacement, but often without the immediate network of family or colleagues alongside them. Their mental health state may reflect these tough realities. (However, do note that these findings come from a small sample of 17 missionaries and should be interpreted with caution.)

Only about one in three missionary respondents (35.3%) agreed that their church was a safe place to talk about mental health issues, compared with 83.7% of Pastors.

While 82.9% of church ministry staff and 77.4% of Pastors said they could talk to someone in church about personal concerns or family problems, this fell to 64.7% among missionaries – the lowest proportion among the roles surveyed.

Nearly one in four missionary respondents (23.5%) said they felt sad “most of the time”, the highest proportion among the groups surveyed, with 8.9% of Pastors and 9.8% of lay leaders saying the same.

How can we help? Churches should make emotional support a regular part of missionary care, alongside financial support and ministry oversight. Each missionary should have a trusted person or appointed liaison who checks in on their personal and family wellbeing, beyond asking for ministry updates. Churches can also provide confidential access to counselling and opportunities for rest, and make clear that disclosing struggles will be met with care. Importantly, the church family should make missionaries continue to feel like part of the family, with regular and inclusive communication.

10. The church can still do more to address mental health issues.

More than eight in 10 respondents (83.1%) believed their churches needed to do more to address mental health issues — a figure that has remained consistently high across all three surveys (84.5% in 2020, 82.7% in 2023).

How can we help? Churches should make staff and leadership wellbeing an explicit organisational priority, with clear accountability at the senior leadership and board levels. This could include annual wellbeing reviews, protected rest periods, access to counselling, workload assessments, sabbatical provisions and regular opportunities for spiritual renewal. Such measures should not be viewed as optional staff benefits, but as essential investments in sustainable ministry.

When significant numbers of church workers are struggling to rest, experiencing emotional distress, or unsure where to seek help, the Church must respond with more than good intentions. We need to move from awareness to action, from concern to care, and from merely expecting our leaders to be resilient to creating environments in which they can flourish.

When our leaders are at their best – they will better be able to care well for the church.

Jesus invited His disciples to come away and rest after a demanding season of ministry (Mark 6:31). Surely those serving in His Church today deserve the same consideration.

The post Mental Health Survey for Church Workers 2026: 10 things we learnt – and how we can respond appeared first on Salt&Light.