Pastors & Staff2026LI-XEC682B22

Rural pastors who see members stepping into leadership

Name: Rural pastors who see members stepping into leadership
Creator: Lifeway Research

Percent of rural pastors, 2026 (in percent)

Key finding

Rural pastors who see members stepping into leadership: 77%. Rural pastors indicate they see members of their churches stepping into leadership

Source: Lifeway Research, Developing Leaders in a Rural Church · Article published 2026-01-07.

Get the chart, CSV, PNG and citation

Free account: full chart, CSV and PNG downloads, ready-to-paste citation, branded share image, and a discussion question for your team.

Create your free account I already have an accountNo password. We email you a sign-in code.

Questions about this statistic

What does this statistic show?

Rural pastors who see members stepping into leadership: 77%. Rural pastors indicate they see members of their churches stepping into leadership.

Who published this data?

Lifeway Research, 2026. Source: Lifeway Research, Developing Leaders in a Rural Church (https://research.lifeway.com/2026/01/07/developing-leaders-in-a-rural-church/).

Where can I get the full data and a citation?

Create a free Leader Insights account to open the full chart, download CSV or PNG, copy a citation and save the statistic to your own library.

More Pastors & Staff statistics

Black Protestant clergy who support women's leadership in the Black church Public Religion Research Institute, 2026
Decline in churches insuring their senior pastor Leader Insights, 2026
Drop in pastors considering quitting since the 2022 peak Leader Insights, 2026
Evangelical pastors with some income outside of church work Lifeway Research, 2026
Meaningful friendships among rural pastors Lifeway Research, 2026
Other full-time ministers' pay after inflation Leader Insights, 2026

All Pastors & Staff statistics · All 2026 statistics

About this data

Leader Insights collects statistics about U.S. churches from published research by organizations such as Lifeway Research, Barna Group, Springtide, the American Bible Society and PRRI. Every number is checked against the wording of the original source before it is published, and each statistic links back to the study it came from. Figures are reproduced from the publishers named above; see the source for full methodology.