By Brent Lacy

There is a generation of former ministry staff who are doing something the church does not have a good category for.

They are not in full-time ministry. They are not on a church payroll. They are not leading a congregation or directing a ministry program. But they are not done serving, either. They are teaching Sunday school. They are leading small groups. They are mentoring younger men and women. They are serving on elder boards. They are doing pastoral care for their neighbors. They are working jobs that put them in contact with people who need the gospel, and they are showing up for those people.

They are doing ministry. Just not the kind that comes with a title or a W-2.

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How They Got Here

The paths are different, but the patterns are recognizable.

Some were downsized. According to a ChurchSalary study of over 1,000 pastors and leaders, 15% of churches laid off staff during COVID-19. For some of those people, the pandemic firing was the end of a chapter. They found jobs in the marketplace, discovered they were good at them, and did not go back to full-time ministry.

Some burned out. Barna Research found that 42% of senior Protestant pastors had seriously considered leaving ministry in March 2022. Some of them did leave. They were not failures. They were people who had given everything they had and needed to stop before they had nothing left.

Some chose their families. The fishbowl of ministry life is real. The expectation that the pastor’s family will be available, gracious, and exemplary at all times is a burden that falls hardest on spouses and children who did not choose the job. Some pastors looked at what ministry was doing to their family and made a decision. They chose their family. That is not a failure of calling. That is a different kind of faithfulness.

And some simply sensed that God was moving them somewhere else. According to Lifeway Research (2025), 40% of former pastors cite a “change in calling” as their reason for leaving. That is not a crisis of faith. That is a recognition that the call to ministry is not always a call to the same form of ministry for the rest of your life.

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What They Are Doing Now

More than half of former pastors, 53% according to Lifeway Research, continue working in ministry in a different capacity. The forms vary.

Parachurch ministry

Parachurch organizations do significant ministry work and employ people with pastoral gifts. Prison ministry, campus ministry, addiction recovery, disaster relief, international missions, and dozens of other parachurch contexts need people who know how to care for people, lead teams, and communicate the gospel. Former pastors often find that their skills translate directly.

Chaplaincy

Hospital chaplains, military chaplains, and workplace chaplains do pastoral care in contexts where the church often cannot reach. The work is demanding and the pay is modest, but it is genuine ministry. Many former pastors find chaplaincy to be a better fit for their gifts and their family situation than congregational ministry was.

Lay leadership in a local church

Some former pastors are the most valuable people in their local church. They are not on staff. They are not paid. But they are leading small groups, mentoring younger leaders, serving on elder boards, and doing pastoral care for their neighbors. They bring years of ministry experience to a volunteer role, and they do it without the complications that come with being on staff.

Bi-vocational pastoral ministry

Some former full-time pastors found a small church that needed someone exactly like them. They are working a day job and pastoring a congregation of 40 or 60 people. They are not trying to build a platform. They are not climbing a ladder. They are just pastoring. And in many cases, they are doing it better than they did when ministry was their only job, because the financial pressure is gone and the power dynamic is different.

The marketplace itself

Some former pastors are doing ministry in the marketplace without any formal ministry role. They are the person at work who people come to when they are in crisis. They are the neighbor who shows up when someone is sick. They are the coach who takes a genuine interest in the kids on their team. They are doing pastoral work. It just does not look like what the church usually calls ministry.

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What the Church Loses by Not Recognizing This

When the church treats pastoral departure as failure, it loses the ability to stay connected to people who still have a lot to offer. The former youth pastor who burned out and took a job in sales is still someone who loves teenagers and knows how to reach them. The former worship director who is now a music teacher is still someone who cares about the church. The former pastor who chose their family over the fishbowl is still someone with pastoral gifts and a heart for people.

These people are not gone. They are somewhere else. And in many cases, they are still serving. The church that makes room for that, that honors the ministry happening outside the staff role, is a church that understands something important about how the kingdom actually works.

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If This Is Your Story

If you are a former ministry staff member who is still figuring out what comes next, a few things worth knowing:

Your gifts did not leave when you left the job. The ability to care for people, to communicate truth, to lead through hard things, to show up when it matters, those things are still in you. They will find expression somewhere.

You are not alone. Thousands of people are navigating exactly what you are navigating. The conversation is happening, even if it is not happening loudly.

There are options you may not have considered. The MinistryPlace job board lists open positions at small and rural churches, including part-time and bi-vocational roles. The bi-vocational ministry resources are built for people doing ministry outside the traditional full-time model.

And if you are not ready to step back into a formal ministry role, that is okay too. The ministry you are doing right now, wherever you are, counts.

MinistryPlace has a full library of free resources for small and rural churches. No subscription required.