"Church members can give you tax-free gifts, but the church cannot."
Let me expand on this a bit. Our church collects pastor gifts for "pastor appreciation month." If the members make gifts of gift cards and money and checks made out to the pastor, and someone holds them all and gives them in one envelope, those are personal gifts even if the gift campaign was arranged by the staff. But if the money is deposited in the church account and issued to the pastor as a church check, it's taxable compensation.
