We’ve reported a lot on workforce shortages, especially after the pandemic. Religious institutions are no exception. Churches are having a hard time finding pastors as more clergy are retiring and dying than going into the ministry. Synagogues and mosques are feeling the shortage, as well.
It's forcing religious groups and smaller churches in particular to reimagine how they'll fill the gaps.
Pastor needed
There's a sign out front of the Community Church in North Chittenden. It lets passersby know that Sunday worship and Bible study is at 10 a.m. It also says, "pastor needed."
Ever since their 83-year-old pastor died in 2023, the few remaining church members have been worshiping on their own.
"I was coming to this church as a child, went to Sunday school here ... and now I pretty much keep the lawn mowed and we’re hoping for another minister or pastor," says Elmer Wheeler, a 67-year-old who lives about a half mile away.
In the meantime, he says they pray together quietly, sing a hymn or two and visit afterwards.
“It did have quite a few more people in it just a few years ago," says Bonnie Smith, who also lives close by. "God's still here. As long as we're here.”
According to a recent Gallup poll, the number of Americans who regularly attend religious services has dropped to 30%. That’s down from 42% 20 years ago. And those who go tend to be older and on fixed incomes. That’s at the heart of this problem, because the number of people who attend and donate to their church or synagogue directly impacts how much their pastor or rabbi gets paid.
Bonnie's husband, Buddy Smith, is not sure how much longer their little church can hang on. “It's hard to find anybody to come here to preach because there’s no money," Buddy says. "I mean, with five or six of us that come … and if you look at the collection plate at the end of the month, probably the guy would wonder where he’d get his groceries from.”
Data shows church attendance in Vermont and across the country will likely continue to decline in the future, given younger Americans are not as attached to religion as older ones.
The Rev. Jill Colley Robinson is the district superintendent for the United Methodist Church in Vermont. She's seeing the shortage firsthand: “I'm having a hard time bringing pastors to churches.”
In 2023, she says about a third of the more than 100 churches she supervises were without a pastor or were going through a change in leadership.
“And I'm seeing that we need to ask clergy to serve more than one church, sometimes three or four or five churches in a geographic area, in order to afford to pay the pastor appropriately for the work, but also to make sure that there is a pastor for each church in each small town where they're located,” Colley Robinson says.
That extra workload is falling on increasingly older pastors.
Colley Robinson says the average age of their licensed clergy is 70.
“We've only had one person who has, from the state, gone into the ministry in the last seven years, and we've had many, many people step away,” Colley Robinson says.
The Vatican has reported a decline worldwide in the number of men and women entering Catholic religious orders, and the number of priests continues to decline.
Burlington Rabbi Jan Salzman says the shortage is impacting synagogues and mosques as well. “Also in pastoral care, in chaplaincy, working in prisons, all the places where clergy hang their hat,” Salzman says.
Becoming a rabbi, imam or ordained minister requires advanced degrees, which can mean racking up significant student loan debt. But with congregations shrinking, there are fewer full-time ministry jobs that offer benefits.
A role with many hats
Salzman, of Congregation Ruach haMaqom, says low salaries and the high cost of housing in Vermont are also part of the problem.
This type of work, she says, is also incredibly challenging.
“One minute I'm being interviewed, and the next minute I am counseling somebody who is dying, and the next minute I'm teaching a rabbinic student … so the job is complex, demands a lot. And if it fits you, there isn't anything else you want to do,” Salzman says.
Michelle Fountain is among a growing number of new pastors who need to juggle multiple jobs.
"For the most part, Monday through Friday, I wear my teacher hat," says Fountain. "Saturday and Sunday is more my pastor hat.”
Fountain teaches ninth and 10th grade English at Proctor High School, a job she loves and plans to continue. Three out of four Sundays, however, the 59-year old is in the pulpit at the United Church of Ludlow.
Fountain grew up Catholic and says she's always been a churchgoer. She felt called to ministry during the pandemic and was able to get licensed by taking courses on the weekends.
“I am a pastor because of a pastor shortage in Vermont," she says. "I don't think there would have been opportunities for quarter-time ministry as I am, maybe even 10 or 15 years ago in some places.”
George Valley, 70, and 65-year old Michael Dwyer say the need for pastors is what encouraged them to come out of retirement and give ministry a second chance.
The two men met in the early 1980s when both were studying for the Catholic priesthood. They fell in love, left the seminary and enjoyed long careers as public school teachers in Vermont. They say their teacher pensions make it possible for them to preach at Congregational churches in Pittsford and Salisbury.
Jill Colley Robinson, with the United Methodist Church in Vermont, says churches across the state are having to rethink what their organization looks like and ask tough questions.
For instance, does worship always need to be on Sunday morning? Can they join forces with other nearby churches, even those of other denominations? How much of the ministry work can members themselves take on? And can they grow their membership by making their churches more useful during the week as day cares, soup kitchens, community centers or shelters?
All of this can create wonderful opportunities, says Colley Robinson.
“At the same time, our pews are filled with people who long for what the church was 30 years ago or 40 years ago," she says. "And so changing the church dramatically, which is probably what is needed for those younger generations, is really hard on those who are older.”
It’s a Catch-22 with no easy answers, and she’s praying for help.
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