No, at least, not practically. Firstly, the church can't give you cash or gift cards either, it would still have to be on your taxable income and reported on your W-2 or 1099-MISC. Anything of monetary value that the church gives you is taxable income except for a parsonage, due to old common law exceptions.
Secondly, if these were gifts from church members and you wanted to return the check to the church, have the church send the money back to the members, and have the members re-give the gifts to you personally--you can't easily do that because it is now after January 1. If you did that before January 1, the church could have adjusted your W-2 or 1099-MISC to reflect the salary give-back and only report your net salary. But because the money was paid in 2016 and would be returned (if you did it) in 2017, your 2016 tax documents must reflect what actually happened in 2016. You would report and pay tax on the income in 2016, then you could take a deduction for the repayment in 2017. But unless the amount is more than $3000, the deduction is not very effective and your actual benefit in 2017 would be much less than the tax you would owe in 2016. If the amount of salary repayment was more than $3000, the income tax picture would be a wash (pay income tax in 2016 and get the same net deduction in 2017) but you would still pay self-employment tax on the amount in 2016 and that won't come back in 2017, due to how the repayment deduction is handled on the tax form.
If these are gifts from church members, you can do it tax free next year, but I think you are stuck this year. And your treasurer needs some training.
