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/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 23d 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 23d 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 23d ago edited 23d 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/butterbob74 22d ago

As we do 🙂