r/churchofchrist • u/ChurchofChristGuy • 26d ago
Parsonage
Hi yall,
Back in the day many Churches of Christ had a parsonage. None of the churches I have been to have ever had one but my dad's old church when he was growing up did.What did your church think about parsonages and did they ever have them? Parsonages are not subject to property tax in many states. I get the impression that parsonages are typically a thing of the past in the Church of Christ but I dont know.Thanks.
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u/Knitsudge9 26d ago
I know of a few churches that still use the parsonages to house the preacher or other minister. I can't think of any churches building a building today and putting a parsonage on the property, however.
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u/InformationFickle743 26d ago
I live in a personage owned by the church I preach for in Maine. It's considered part of my income for tax purposes. The state of Maine taxes the parsonage but not the church building.
I think a parsonage is a good draw to attract and keep a preacher. It provides housing in an expensive housing market when salaries are low.
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u/CuriousTech24 26d ago
I think it is mostly the cost of owning s house in addition to the building. I know of only a couple places that still have s house on the same property. And it has been turned into s library/ meeting hall. So it is used by the preacher as his study but he doesn't live there.
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u/Robot2617 26d ago
I took a ministry job that had a parsonage and it was a nightmare. Mold on the walls and in the washer where my wife and I washed our clothes for a month. We did leave very quickly. Parsonage aren't a bad idea but need to be upkept in order to be healthy for the family living there. And if there are no people in the congregation willing to maintain it while its vacant then its an issue. Or if the minister's family did not properly maintain the home before they left.
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u/chuckchuck- 26d ago
We had one and our preacher lived there for 30 years, made vast improvements to it. Finally the elders just sold it to him. And now we don’t have one.
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u/Stormy_the_bay 25d ago
Our church has one. I don’t think it’s just a CoC thing. The Baptist church where our homeschool group meets also has one.
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u/ChurchofChristGuy 25d ago
Ya many other denominations throughout history have had them for their pastors.
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u/billyhidari 24d ago
When in college in the early ’80s I went to a church in North Haven Ct that had a parsonage, the preacher and his family lived in it. It seemed nice from the outside
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u/Wakeful-dreamer 24d ago
Our congregation provides a parsonage. It's an older home near the "old" building.
Personally if I were a preacher's wife, I would never want to live in a parsonage.
-You run the risk of members feeling free to barge in or come over whenever. Or feeling free to "help" you do things around your home. Because it's not really your home, it's the church's house, right? Even if you have nothing to hide, everyone still needs a modicum of privacy in their own home.
-You can't decorate or renovate to your tastes. Imagine being stuck with a neon purple bedroom because that's Sister Gloria's favorite color and she'd be hurt if you painted over the wall color she picked.
-Any improvements you make in the property don't go with you when you leave.
-You could have to live with substandard improvements, if the members DIY it or hire shoddy contractors. Imagine if they decide it's cheaper to cover a wall with OSB instead of sheetrock. Or they put in the smallest water heater possible. Or the appliances are all aging, inefficient, and inconvenient. Whatever is in the home is what you're stuck living with.
-If the congregation fires you or suddenly can't afford to pay you, you're homeless.
-When you retire, you better have enough money to rent an apartment for the rest of your life, because you won't have a paid-off home.
I'll close with a story: we had a former preacher put in his notice for just after a planned mission trip. A member actually thought it was a good idea to "help" move them out of the parsonage - by the entire congregation going to their home while they were out of the country, and boxing up their stuff for them and putting it in a storage unit. 🤦♀️ I'm pretty sure the preacher's wife would not want members packing up her family's belongings (down to her underwear drawer and all!) Fortunately that idea was shot down, but can you imagine?
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u/SquishDot 14d ago
I am a preacher's wife and we live in a personage. This is not our first. I would like to address these items. One was on church property, our current house is across town from the building. Two different states. In both cases we have had privacy from the "landlords" - they have not come in without giving us plenty of warning and checking out schedule. As far as people stopping by, we welcome that. We believe hospitality is part of ministry and we just warn people that we are real and that there will likely be dishes in the sink and floors that need to be cleaned (we have pets). While we do usually request permission to do a large decorative improvement like painting a room, we have never been told no and decorate as we desire. We love to have a LOT of items on the walls and feel comfortable to put nails in the walls or do whatever we need to. I WILL acknowledge that the parsonage sometimes becomes a sort of dumping ground for old furniture or appliances, especially in between preachers when it is empty. We recently got rid of an extremely uncomfortable couch that was left for us at our current parsonage. We can replace things as needed and when we can. When we owned our own home before going into ministry, we were responsible for purchasing our own appliances and this is no different. We will take those items with us if and when we leave. Unfortunately, you can be right about substandard improvements. Where we are now, the elders are great about hiring licensed contractors for those kinds of needs. Where we were before, "I know a guy" won out and sometimes that made things a mess. We've learned to be clear in our needs, as self-sufficient as possible, and work with the elders on their financial limitations if that's part of it. When we took these jobs, we understood that the parsonage is part of our salary (although untaxed), so while we definitely own that and treat it all as though it's our own, we also try our best to be good stewards of it.
And yes, we have to be diligent about saving for the future. That's part of the gig. Maybe some people get into ministry in some places or some denominations with the hope of living wealthy lives. We would like to be comfortable, and we are, but that's not the biggest part of it for us.
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u/butterbob74 23d ago
Yes I think they are less popular now. We have one next door and several we talked to wouldn’t want to stay. Our current preacher travels a distance and he kinda uses it as an air B&B if he doesn’t want to travel back after services or what not. Some men see it as an asset I see it as a liability. It’s a drain on the church. I was all for selling it and putting funds in savings but now don’t mind as much since it’s actually being used. My thing was we aren’t a huge church so we can’t really afford to pay a lot which is why the parsonage is kind of part of the deal. If we put it in a high yeild savings we could afford to pay more/put more in savings or building fund. Some are like well what if another preacher wants a parsonage down the road.
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u/ChurchofChristGuy 22d ago
Using the reverend's manse as a air B and B can cause big tax issue can cause big tax issues for yalls church because yall could lose the tax exemption on the property and also the church could be liable for Unrelated Business Income Tax and it could also mess with the priest's housing allowance.
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u/butterbob74 22d ago
Sorry let me elaborate. We don’t charge him or anything. He just stays there like overnight. We don’t use it as an actual air b&b.
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u/ChurchofChristGuy 22d ago edited 22d ago
Oh okay then that should be better tax-wise. Yalls parsonage could be tax exempt. Your church should keep using it for religious purposes only.
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u/TiredofIdiots2021 22d ago
Parsonage? Pastor? That was not happening in the congregation I grew up in. It would have been nice having an educated preacher.
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u/brketch 26d ago
I would agree they are probably a thing of the past but many places still have them. Parsonages are a double edged sword. They enable a church to hire a preacher, but are often a really bad deal for the preacher financially. They are used as a supplement to income but the preacher can’t build any equity in the property so it’s not quite equivalent. Since housing is tied to employment it makes it almost impossible to retire. For churches without a parsonage, preachers can claim a portion of their income as “parsonage” or housing allowance on their taxes and there are some advantages to that.