Read a March 15, 2012, account on the Ahead of the Trend blog about new research on “clergy killers” — conflict-filled congregations that are nearly impossible to lead.

Read an Oct. 2, 2012, Christian Today story about ministers struggling under increasing workloads.

Frederick L. Ware is an associate professor of theology at Howard University School of Divinity. He is an expert on black Pentecostalism and an ordained minister in the Church of God in Christ. He coordinated his school’s 2016 conference on religion and science.

The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, at Georgetown University, reports that in the United States between 1965 and 2012, the number of Roman Catholic diocesan priests declined from 35,925 to 26,661, while the Catholic population increased from 45.6 million to 66.3 million.

The Rev. Denis W. Wiley is an ordained minister in the Progressive National Baptist Convention. He is an adjunct professor of theology at Howard University’s School of Divinity.

See the results of an August 2011 survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors by LifeWay Research that details the rewards of their work but also the challenges.

William H. Curtis is president of the Hampton University Ministers’ Conference, the oldest nondenominational African-American ministers conference in the country. He is senior pastor of 7,500-member Mount Ararat Baptist Church in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Paul S. Morton is founder and international presiding bishop of the New Orleans-based Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship, International and pastor of Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church, with locations in New Orleans and Decatur, Ga. Begun in 1992, the Episcopal-style fellowship includes mostly African-American Baptist congregations and individuals who emphasize spiritual gifts, including speaking in […]

An infographic, drawn from H.B. London Jr.’s book Pastors at Greater Risk, illustrates some of the data on clergy burnout.