You already sense it, even if you have not said it out loud yet.
The last pastoral search took longer than expected. The resumes did not quite fit. A church down the road has been looking for 18 months. A pastor you respect just stepped out of ministry. Your associate is hinting at burnout.
You are not imagining it. The way the Church has formed its pastors for the last half-century is under strain, and if nothing changes, your congregation will feel the full weight of it within five years.
One Challenge, Three Parts
The pastor shortage is real, but it is the visible part of a larger shift with three moving parts.
First, generational. Pastors are leaving ministry faster than the Church can replace them. Burnout, political exhaustion, financial pressure, and loneliness are thinning the ranks. The average age of senior pastors keeps climbing.
Second, theological education is shifting in hopeful ways. The most recent Association of Theological Schools data, analyzed by Ed Stetzer in early 2026, shows that smaller seminaries partnering closely with local churches are thriving. The seminaries most committed to the local church are the ones finding their footing.
Third, and quietest, the local church drifted away from its historic role in forming leaders. Formation got handed almost entirely to seminaries, denominational offices, and parachurch ministries. They were never meant to carry it alone.
The Pattern We Can Reclaim
For most of church history, pastors were formed inside sending communities in partnership with formal training. Paul apprenticed Timothy. Spurgeon ran a pastor’s college out of his own congregation. Country churches sent young leaders forward with the laying on of hands, financial support, and prayer.
That partnership still works. We simply stopped practicing half of it.
What Is at Stake
If nothing changes, the next five years will be harder than the last. Pulpits will sit empty longer. Smaller churches will close. Your succession planning will get more expensive and less hopeful. Missional momentum will stall during a leadership transition that did not have to take this long.
If you begin now, the picture looks different. A young leader in your congregation discovers a calling she did not know she had, and your church walks with her into it alongside a seminary partner. Five years from now, the church down the road calls you to ask how you did it.
You Are Not Alone in This
Rebuilding the local church’s half of the pipeline is the work of a generation, too heavy for any single congregation to carry. That is exactly why mission-focused churches are doing this work together with the seminaries already leaning in.
The Momentum Network exists for this moment: a cohort of churches walking the same road, sharing what is working, and practicing the historic patterns together in new ways.
Learn more about the Momentum Network.
Dr. Tracee J. Swank guides Kingdom-minded leaders, churches, and entrepreneurs to clarify their purpose, reimagine mission, and multiply hope—so they can lead entrepreneurial movements that transform communities and advance the Great Commission.