The Rev. Robert Mack of New Life Baptist Church stands in front of the Ypsilanti church. The church will be celebrating its 10th anniversary and the popularity of the church has it nearing capacity. If the congregation continues to grow, Mack says the church may have to put an addition onto the church, or sell the building and move to someplace bigger.

Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

For at least four years, the Chelsea Free Methodist Church has seen its promised land on the horizon. Problem is, the church has been hard-pressed to sell the land it already occupies.

The Free Methodist Church owns 80 acres of land on Jackson Road, where it wants to build a new home for its congregation. The church listed its property at 7665 Werkner Road in 2006, hoping to reap more than $800,000 for the 10,000-square-foot church and its 10-acre campus, which also includes a single-family home and a building for its youth ministry.

During the last four years, though, church leaders steadily have reduced their asking price to $599,000, before finally throwing up their hands and removing it from the market altogether.

"It's been a few years we've been at it," Head Trustee Von Miller said. "We've pulled it off the market, switched directions and are unsure of the current plan."

Like a family that has outgrown a two-bedroom house, Chelsea Free Methodist Church is among dozens of Southeast Michigan churches that are increasing in membership, yet unable to sell a current building to allow a move to more spacious quarters.

Also like many families, the church eventually might move even if it means sitting on its property and hoping conditions improve.

"We've been kind of waiting on this to sell, holding up for a while," Miller said. "Recently, we've restructured plans a little, and we think we can move forward without needing to sell the church."

It's a tough call for growing churches, many of which don't have the finances to build or purchase a new place until they can sell. Many are waiting out the market — and it's a long wait.

The average time it takes to sell a church has increased from 3-9 months to 2 years or longer, said Bill Skubik, owner of Plymouth-based Religious Real Estate, a company that specializes in selling and leasing church buildings.

"It's a significant challenge," Skubik said. "There's still a demand out there, but financing has become a problem.

"Say you have a place that seats 200 people, but it has an underlying mortgage that's half of its value. (Churches are) growing out of that and want to buy a new facility, but the buyer can't get financing."

Churches have been affected like any other business by tightened bank lending, Skubik said.

"It hasn't completely dried up, but it has slowed down," he said. "Banks have just gotten a lot pickier as to how they finance deals. Back in the good ol' days, a bank would loan 80 percent of the value, and the buyer would have to come up with 20 percent, and they'd look at the last three years of (membership) giving.

"Now, banks want 30-35 percent down, and they're getting a lot more conservative about how they're underwriting the properties."

Some out-of-state financial institutions that used to be prolific lenders for religious organizations now steer clear of Southeast Michigan, said Kevin Messier, a manager for Real Estate Professional Services. Several banks and credit unions he used to do business with now say, "Thanks, but no thanks." They're well aware of what the region's high unemployment rate means for churches.

"When (layoffs) happen, tithings go down, and churches get in trouble and can't pay their note," Messier said. "(Banks) look at the area and are not looking to lend money here, which I kind of understand. But I think it's going to get better. I think banks will loosen up."

While Messier has gotten creative to move church properties in recent years, it's nearly impossible to sell some without financing. Messier's church properties range in price from $100,000 to $3 million.

Besides financing, churches also face another unique problem that doesn't necessarily hamstring residential and commercial real estate. Church property comes with a very limited base of potential buyers.

"With a church, a congregation is such a local thing that you're not gonna draw a congregation from very far away," Miller said.

Desirable, heavily populated cities like Ann Arbor are never a problem, Skubik said, because there is no shortage of churches hoping to move into permanent buildings. Cities like Ypsilanti, where multiple — often aging — church buildings sit on the market, are a tougher sell.

But moving church buildings — even in this economy — has become a passion for Skubik, 48, who has two business degrees from the University of Michigan.

The Rev. Robert Mack, a client of Skubik's, led New Life Bible Baptist Church in 2005 to purchase its first building at 1175 S. Grove St. in Ypsilanti. Five years later, the church has 260 members and is pushing the limits of its building, which holds 300 people.

The time for New Life to sell hasn't quite come, but Mack knows it might not be far off.

"If we keep growing at our current rate, we'll either have to add on or find another building," Mack said. "We are getting close to capacity."

Like most clergy either seeking to move their congregation, or knowing they'll soon face such a decision, Mack acknowledges the situation is out of his control.

"I have a theory on these things," he said. "An empty building is our problem, and a full building is God's problem."