Churches that offer their senior pastors a housing allowance sometimes allow other church staffers, such as youth pastors or worship leaders, to live in the parsonage. A large church may use its parsonage for short-term housing for staffers that are moving into the area but haven't yet purchased a house. The parsonage buys them time to search the housing market. Home Sweet Parsonage Clearly, the trend appears to be swinging away from providing parsonages for pastors. Parsonages are aging and becoming less attractive 2.
Pastors are financially better off owning their own homes.
However, not all pastors are ready to buy a house, considering the lack of permanency in some church pastorates. For example, after working in the denominational headquarters of the Church of the Nazarene, Mark Graham accepted a call to a pastorate halfway across the country. The salary package included a parsonage. A year later, Graham left the church and returned to Kansas City to work for the denomination. He was a bit disappointed that the pastorate hadn't worked out, but he was very thankful that he and his family had lived in a parsonage.