A friend wrote to ask whether their church should sell their residential properties...

Briefly:

1. Healthy churches have a manageable debt (otherwise if everything's paid off people get slack)

2. They don't put money into residential bricks and mortar if they expect their pastor/s to stay any reasonable length of time. That money can be better used to facilitate ministries-through-people

3. Pastors ought to be encouraged to get into the real estate market for themselves: I'm counseling some in their 50s and 60s who have nothing to retire to - sad stories, some of them....

4. Relating to the church-as-landlord is often problematical: most pastors and their spouses tend to pay for improvements to the manse out of their own pockets, rather than ask for help on small matters; and most churches have not appointed someone to ask regularly: Is there anything the church can do to make your life in the manse easier?

That's enough for starters!

Rowland Croucher