Megachurch Pastors’ Tax-Free Parsonages Valued in the Millions, Trinity Foundation Finds

A parsonage is often assumed to be a modest home that lets a pastor live on a small salary. Yet, as a ministry watchdog’s investigation found, a parsonage in a multimillion-dollar megachurch can be a $7 million mansion on 35 acres, and all of it tax-free. The Trinity Foundation, which describes itself as a ministry watchdog, conducted the investigation after a request for help from Houston Chronicle reporter Jay Root.

According to the report, Trinity compiled a list of megachurches and large media ministries in Texas, then searched for parsonages and homes belonging to pastors and ministry leaders. The Houston Chronicle, for its part, examined the state tax code and filed open records requests with county appraisal districts seeking lists of parsonages.

Root’s months-long investigation for the Chronicle found “no shortage of extravagant homes in high-dollar locales.” He wrote that “at least two dozen were worth over $1 million even using the artificially low values that exempt properties typically carry.”

Trinity also examined pastor and ministry housing in other states. It identified multimillion-dollar homes belonging to several televangelists and to evangelical pastors who, the report notes, have received little media scrutiny, including evangelist Greg Laurie and Association of Related Churches (ARC) President Greg Surratt. Some of these homes are owned by the pastor’s church or ministry and are therefore tax-exempt. Others are owned by individual pastors and are not tax-exempt, though the report says they are likely funded, at least in part, by tax-deductible donations.

Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, lives in the most expensive home Trinity identified. His 15,700-square-foot Houston mansion was appraised at almost $12 million, and its estimated value tops $14 million. Trinity also located a home Osteen purchased in 2017 in Newport Coast, California, near the Pacific Ocean. It is owned by a Delaware-registered LLC and is estimated to be worth more than $7.3 million. The report states that neither home would be classified as a parsonage, because neither is owned by his church and neither is tax-exempt.

Texas televangelist Kenneth Copeland’s multimillion-dollar parsonage, by contrast, is tax-exempt. The 18,279-square-foot mansion was appraised at $10,825,462 in 2020, and a year later the appraisal dropped to $7 million. The Chronicle’s December series reported that Texas law restricts the parsonage tax exemption to one-acre properties. Copeland’s lakefront parsonage, however, sits on almost 25 acres and receives a religious exemption, according to the Tarrant County Appraisal District. The Chronicle reported that the exemption cuts $150,000 off the home’s property tax bill. Copeland’s church also owns an adjacent 36-acre plot worth about $1.3 million, which carries an agricultural exemption.

Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) executives Matthew and Laurie Crouch also live in the Colleyville area, the report says, where the network owns several acres of agricultural land. One 16.5-acre plot was valued at $2,625,000 in 2021. The report notes that the land is not entirely exempt from taxation, but that in Texas agricultural land is taxed much less than other land.

Robert Morris, pastor of Gateway Church, owns a $1.7 million home in Colleyville, and Daystar Television Network co-founder Joni Lamb owns a home worth $2.6 million. Because neither property is owned by a church, both would be subject to property taxes.

Source: Read the original report