The Church used to be the first call.

For many, before someone calls a therapist, they call their pastor.

That’s not speculation. It’s one of the most replicated findings in mental health research. When people are struggling — really struggling — they turn to their faith leaders first. Before the hotline. Before the doctor. Before the spouse sometimes.

The church is often the room where stigma breaks down first.

Which is exactly why new data from Lifeway Research should stop every person of faith in their tracks.

Because the room is getting smaller. And quieter. And less equipped. 🔇

WHAT THE DATA SAYS

Lifeway Research spent a decade tracking how Protestant pastors engage with mental health. More than 1,500 pastors surveyed. Three data points across 2015, 2021, and 2025.

The direction is not forward.

In 2015, two-thirds of pastors maintained a list of counselors they could refer struggling congregants to. By 2021, that dropped to 60%. By 2025 — last year — it was down to 52%.

Nearly half of all pastors no longer have a name to give you when you fall apart in their office.

It doesn’t stop there.

Lay counseling ministries inside churches, the kind that let a congregation care for its own, declined from 34% in 2015 to 27% today. Pastoral attendance at counseling conferences dropped from 64% to 48%. The percentage of pastors reading multiple books or articles on counseling fell from 90% to 81%.

Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, put it plainly:

“We are seeing a simultaneous decline in pastors developing their counseling skills, having lay counseling ministries, and being ready to refer people to counselors they trust. If only one of those were down, we would say pastors’ methods were changing. But counseling appears to be getting less attention in general.”

Three declines. Across a decade. All moving the same direction.

That sentence should not pass quietly.

WHY THIS IS A STIGMA STORY

Here’s what I need you to understand as someone who has spent 23 years in clinical practice.

When a pastor doesn’t have a referral list, they don’t say “I don’t have a referral list.” They say something that sounds like help but isn’t. They pray with you. They encourage you. They tell you to trust God through it. And sometimes — sometimes — that’s exactly what someone needs.

But sometimes someone is sitting in that office with untreated trauma. Undiagnosed depression. Suicidal ideation they haven’t named out loud yet.

And the person across from them has no map.

Here’s the stigma piece that doesn’t get talked about enough. When someone works up the courage to walk into a faith leader’s office and say something is wrong with me, they are doing one of the hardest things a human being can do. They are cracking the door on their own shame.

What happens next matters enormously.

If that pastor says “I know just who you should talk to”, they’ve just told that person their struggle is real, it’s treatable, and help exists. Stigma loses a round.

If that pastor fills the silence with Scripture and sends them home — no referral, no next step, no name to call — they haven’t done nothing. They’ve communicated something. That maybe this isn’t the kind of problem professionals help with. That maybe this is a faith problem. A weakness problem. A you problem.

Stigma wins a round.

The pulpit has power. The silence from it has power too. 💬

THE GOOD NEWS AND WHAT TO DO WITH IT

This is not a story about bad pastors. Most pastors I know want to help. They entered ministry because they care about people in pain.

This is a story about drift. About complexity outpacing preparation. About a mental health crisis that has gotten harder and faster than most seminary programs anticipated.

And here’s the thing about drift: it can be reversed.

Lifeway Research released a full insights report — Beyond the Pulpit — in February of this year. It’s free. It’s direct. And it’s a starting point for any faith leader who wants to close the gap.

Here’s what you can do right now:

1. If you’re struggling and you’re in a faith community — you don’t have to choose between your faith and your mental health. They are not competing. Ask your faith leader for a referral. If they don’t have one, that’s data. And you can find your own.

2. If you’re a faith leader — start a referral list this week. Three names. Therapists in your area who respect faith. That’s it. That’s the whole first step.

3. If you’re a mental health professional — introduce yourself to a pastor. Offer a coffee. Build a bridge. We are not in competition with the church. We are a different part of the same care system.

4. If you’re in a congregation — ask your church leaders directly: “What do you do when someone needs mental health support?” The question itself starts the conversation.

Stigma grows in the gap between the person in pain and the system that can help them. Right now, that gap is inside a lot of churches. And it’s getting wider.

We can close it.

Until next Friday, come back. Be here. 💙