By Kaler Carpenter
You can describe The Redemption Movement as a low-to-no budget church plant. Going against the advice of traditional church planting organizations, Laura and myself moved to Oneonta in 2009 with zero support, not knowing anybody in NY, and having just enough money saved up to put a down payment on a vacant storefront on River Street. Some may call it crazy, we call it faith, whatever you call it, this church has been a lot of hard work.
Our Taxing Situation
In the face of such hard work, like remodeling and working full time jobs instead of fundraising, we are sometimes tempted to take shortcuts. Having shortcuts placed before us causes conflict in our hearts. Jesus teaches that the easy way will often be in opposition to God's ways (that's why it's called the straight and narrow). One easy way we could have taken with the church is in regards to taxes.Here's our taxing situation: back in 2009, we went before the Oneonta City Planning Committee to request that the River St. property purpose be changed for church use. By one vote and God's grace the measure passed, we then purchased the building and began working on our money pit. The agonizingly high New York property tax bills soon followed. Paying these tax bills took a lot of money away from the new church and made the work go much slower. Although, God has been very faithful in providing for our needs.
We are well aware that it's within the right of every church to seek exemption from property taxes. This thought crosses our minds with every check we write to pay our tax bill. We could have spent the last 4 years doing whatever it takes to get our property off the tax rolls; and in 4 years time, we surely could have figured it out. I mean, in the last 3 years we were able to write founding documents like articles of incorporation and church bylaws, and we put together a board of trustees and officers; therefore, achieving a tax exemption status for property tax is well within our capabilities, yet we chose not to. This is because of our values.Taking People's Religious Objections Seriously
As a new church, one of our driving values is to strip away all the religious objections that people have against church, while remaining true to the Gospel. We believe that by taking this approach, it will make it easier for people to connect with God by discovering His love through His church. This is commanded in scripture; Acts 15:19, “We (the church) should not make it difficult (be dumb with our religion) for the Gentiles (non Jews, or modern application: irreligious people) who are turning to God (people who are genuinely seeking to know God).”In this spirit, we have scrapped several objectionable religious practices, making it so that the only thing standing in the way of a seeker of truth turning their faith towards God is the cross of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:22-24). For us, ministering in a postmodern Northeast American culture, this means getting rid of Sunday morning church services, allowing women to teach, happily letting people who believe differently than we do use our space, removing the formal and judgmental tone from our teachings, and much more.
Showing God's Love By Paying Taxes
One objection that keeps many people from stepping foot inside a church is the issue of religion and taxes. Churches do not have to pay local taxes and many people believe this is unfair or even downright criminal. We believe that if churches skipping out on taxes is keeping a person from discovering the grace, hope, freedom, peace, joy, and love found in the body of Christ (the church), then we will gladly shell out a few thousand dollars per year ($2,625.25 to be exact) if that is what it takes to remove a religious objection and open one heart to the Gospel.Making the commitment to pay taxes is a sacrifice for us (but hey, making sacrifices is what it means to be a Christian). We know we can take that money and do a lot of good with it by blessing the community of Oneonta in ways that the government, with all of its red tape, simply cannot. Generations ago, the entire nation felt the same way, which is why these tax exempt laws were put into place; but, times have changed and the majority of the public now believe the church is a bunch of crooks whose lack of paying taxes contributes to people's ever-growing tax burden.
Finical Abuse in Churches
I can think of several good examples of churches that are using their tax-free dollars to bless their communities with noble charity works. But you know what? I can also think of more examples of churches that are only using the money to ornately decorate their buildings while giving their wealthy Pastor another raise. As Christians, we apologize for this abuse of your hard earned tax dollars at the hands of religious people. Please accept our tax dollars as a first step towards making amends. Also, we want to do more than just pay bills, we want to show love to our community by investing time and money into making Oneonta a better place.The City of Oneonta's Unique Tax-Exemption Dilemma
Normally, I do not like to shine the spotlight on church fiances; but I feel like in light of how strongly many people feel on this issue, shining a light on our actions can help to mend church-community relations. If you do not think this is an issue, then read the online public comments of the local newspaper every time a tax problem is discussed. Half of the comments say something to the tune of, “Tax the churches!” In fact, the not-for-profit institutions within the Oneonta city limits owns 51% of the real property value in the city. Due to this reality, many local residents hold nonprofits and churches responsible for their high tax bills.I would like to illustrate this point further by telling two brief stories. The first one is when I encountered a local business owner in May. It was while I was inviting Oneonta 6th Ward businesses to participate in our neighborhood block party by competing in a chili cook off (I was purposely not soliciting funds). One hardened 6th Ward Oneonta business owner replied to my introduction by scowling, “Church huh? Must be nice to find a way out of paying taxes!”
Another encounter I had was with a lady who was walking on the sidewalk in front of our building. She looked at our Redemption Movement sign and, not knowing that I was within earshot, said out loud to herself, "Oh great, this place doesn't have to pay taxes." As she continued walking, I called out to her about wanting to talk about our tax situation but she ignored me.
