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Peter Bush

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Of Manses and Housing Allowances

With excitement we unlocked the front door of our house. Not a house owned by the church, in which we were invited to make our home. No, this house was ours (or at least we and the bank owned it together). After eighteen years living in manses, this was what we wanted: to buy a house of our own. A variety of names identify the churchowned houses in which ministers and their families live: manse, rectory, parsonage. Over the past…
Peter Bush
August 1, 2009
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Stipend: A Theological Challenge to the Marketplace

"How much should we pay the pastor?" The annual dance around this question at the local church is often difficult and confrontational. Everybody involved hopes to spend as little time on the matter as possible. A financial figure is arrived at by some unrepeatable method, which allows for no discussion of the principles used to arrive at the number. Until both congregations and denominations discuss clergy remuneration long enough to get beyond merely setting a figure, the church will be…
Peter Bush
November 16, 2005