2015 data: Barna conducted 901 interviews with Protestant senior pastors in the U.S. between April and December 2015. The interviews were conducted through a mix of online and phone. Quotas were set to ensure representation by denomination, church size and region. Minimal statistical weighting was applied to maximize representation and the margin of error is +/- 3.1% at the 95% confidence level.

2020 data: Barna conducted 408 online interviews with Protestant senior pastors in the U.S. from September 16–October 8, 2020. Quotas were set to ensure representation by denomination, church size and region. Minimal statistical weighting was applied to maximize representation and the sample error is +/- 4.8% at the 95% confidence level.

2022 data: Barna conducted 584 online interviews with Protestant senior pastors in the U.S. from September 6–16, 2022. Quotas were set to ensure representation by denomination, church size and region and oversampling was conducted to reach female senior pastors. Minimal statistical weighting was applied to maximize representation and the sample error is +/- 3.8% at the 95% confidence level.

2023 data: Barna conducted 523 online interviews with Protestant senior pastors in the U.S. from August 28–September 18, 2023. Quotas were set to ensure representation by denomination, church size and region. Minimal statistical weighting was applied to maximize representation, and the sample error is +/- 4.3% at the 95% confidence level.

U.S. Protestant Pastors

Age

• Under 45
• 45 and older

Church Size

• Small: less than 100 adult attendees
• Midsize: 100 to 249 adult attendees
• Large: 250 or more attendees

Church Tenure

• One to three years at current church
• Four to nine years at current church
• 10 years or more at current church

Denominations

• Mainline: pastors from Protestant denominations such as African Methodist Episcopal (AME), American Baptist USA, Christian Church Disciples of Christ (DoC), the Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church (UMC) and Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA)
• Nonmainline: pastors from Protestant traditions such as charismatic / Pentecostal churches, the Southern Baptist Convention, churches in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition and nondenominational churches not included in mainline

Ministry Tenure

• Less than nine years in full-time paid ministry (total)
• 10 to 19 years in full-time paid ministry (total)
• 20 or more years in full-time paid ministry (total)

U.S. Adults

Faith Affliliation

• Self-identified Christians: Identify as Christian or with a Christian denomination
• Non-Christians: Do not identify as Christian
• Other faith: Choose a religion other than Christianity from a list of religious affiliations
• No faith: Choose “atheist,” “agnostic” or “none of the above” from a list of religious affiliations

Churched Segments

• Churched: have attended a worship service within the past six months
• Unchurched: have not attended a worship service within the past six months or  never attended a worship service