Ministers and Spouses Spiritual Health Survey
How are you doing, really?
This is the question we look to answer in our Annual Ministers and Spouses Spiritual Health Survey, which we open for respondents from January - March each year.
Each year we ask the same generic questions about spiritual health, followed by a special interest topic exclusively for that year. 2026's specialist topic was the impact of finances on leaders and spouses wellbeing and access to refreshment and support.
Here are a small sample of this year's results:
6.5/10
was the average self-assessment of spiritual wellbing for all the leaders and spouses who participated, with nearly two thirds scoring 7 or higher
60%
reported their financial situation as at best ‘stretched’ and at worst ‘unsustainable’, including 13% who described their situation as 'precarious' or 'worrying'.
43%
Are feeling weary, burnt out, drained, exhausted, lethargic or tired. With 26% of the survey respondents using only negative words when asked to provide 3 words for their current state
19%
Report that their marriages have experienced significant pressure due to finances in the last year. Whereas 60% of the marriages represented are not facing meaningful pressure due to finance.
64%
do not receive positive support from a denomination. 13% have no denomination to support them, 36% says denominational support was not beneficial to them, and 13% sadly said it had a negative impact.
28%
Of spouses of those in ministry consider financial pressures to be one of the most concerning challenges in ministry life.
18%
Have considered leaving ministry quite or very often over the past year. Encouragingly, this number is down 7% from 2025.
55%
Of the respondents’ churches/ministries budget for their spiritual health. (We however acknowledge there may be an over-representation due to many respondants being service users of LL)
For more information on this year's survey you can check out our executive summary or reach out for fuller statistics.
