Sunday, January 29, 2012

Married to a Pastor: parsonage

Don't be jealous, but we live in a parsonage. It always strikes me as funny that we live in California, where the normal ministry rules don't apply, but we live in a parsonage.

This was a huge, scary deal to me when Steven told me that the church where he was interviewing had a parsonage. Oh yeah, and it's next door to the church. Great.

Honestly, we haven't had any issues with it, though. I wish there was a funny story behind this to make my blog post a better one. Hmmm.....anyone want to do something to change this?

We really wouldn't be able to make it here without the parsonage. We are at a small church and we live in stinking expensive California. The parsonage allows us to live here and serve at this church.

The house was built by the men at our church in 1970. There are parts of it that are really outdated and the carpet  is in sad, sad condition. But, it is solid house. I mean, I look around at the cabinets and the house is just built really, really well.

I think it's amazing that it was built by some of the members of our church, who are still around. (People live forever out here)

The church members are very giving with our needs for the parsonage, too.  When the dishwasher went out, I got to go pick out the new one. I had heard horror stories about parsonages before. Like families who have to have yearly inspections of the house (don't get any ideas!). That is not the way that we are treated here.  The house was freshly painted before we moved in. I mean, they even let my parents live with us.

There is a small part of me as a middle class girl that wishes we were building equity into something. But, really  does it matter? We are living in a house that is nice and it's actually convenient for Steven to work next door. If he has  a meeting at night, he can pop over and see the kids after school.

I need to work on my hospitality and have church members over more often. Right after we moved in, we had everyone over for Grilled (bbq'd) hamburgers. Mr. Jee, who helped build the house and is in his 90s, complimented something in the house and told me that it was the first time that he had been invited over to the house.

So, there's no horror story to go along with our stay in the parsonage. Our church is so gracious to us. Have you heard any crazy stories about pastors living in the parsonage?

4 comments:

Daniel said...

What about the drunk guy in front that jesse and I had to shoo away?

beth said...

Yea, I spoke too soon. A homeless guy just rang the doorbell and asked for a blanket. It's the 2nd time that Patrick has been woken up today by the doorbell.

Moosler said...

Yes. We've had some pretty wild experiences. In the first one, there was a tree root/plumbing problem that never got fixed. Every month, water would back up in the house, and it was always at the worst possible time. One time, I nearly turned the lights on to a flooded bathroom, and an extension cord that was laying in the water. It was plugged into an outlet that turned on with the light switch. Not sure what would have happened had I flipped the switch. We were so glad to be out of that house.

The flip side is that when the housing market crashed and we wanted to buy a house, we didn't have to try to sell the one we were already living in. So, in that case, the parsonage was a good thing!

Life on the Edge said...

I became a pastor's wife just this summer. My husband has lived here in the parsonage for 7 years. It's obvious that they don't do inspections because he was a TERRIBLE housekeeper! lol

I actually really love our parsonage. It is over 100 years old and a Sear's Catalog, Cape Cod style bungalow with some beautiful original woodwork. I've never lived in such a big house! It has 4 bedrooms, 2 baths (well, one would be called 3/4 bath), a living room, family room, 2 1/2 car attached garage, and a big front porch with windows! I always dreamed of living in a home with a big, friendly front porch! There are some repair and upkeep issues, but for the most part, the church has done a decent job of keeping the house in good repair.

Kady
Life on the Edge