I used to be a commercial lender and did church loans in Kalamazoo. They were hard to do. A vacant church would be harder because it has no cash flow. I agree with the others, that the bank will not want to buy the church from you.

You will have to talk to the lender who has the mortgage now to see if there is anything creative they can do.

No, a bank wouldn't consider buying the church building from you. Banks aren't in the business of owning real estate.

From your question, it appears you have "a minimal amount of equity" in the church. So you probably wouldn't be able to drop the price substantially. One thing you might consider doing is figure out other uses for the building. You don't say what it's being used for now. But, depending on both the zoning and the interior configuration of the property, could it be used for something other than what it is now? The point is: You'd broaden your market of buyers if you could show that it has (or could have) another use. Also, there might be more demand for that second use.

Sometimes you can pledge your equity in multiple properties in order to purchase another. But in that case, you wouldn't be selling the church and your home. You'd simply be placing a new mortgage--a blanket mortgage--on top of the ones already there. And that's not what you're after.

Look for a different use for the church, or a different way to market it, if you want to sell it. If it has only "a minimal amount of equity," it really has no value as far as trying to put a new mortgage on it.

I don't know who your lender is, but in general, they are not interested in buying real estate, especially when they have a huge amount of foreclosures to deal with. Your lender might use the church building as collateral for your mortgage but I doubt they'd be interested in purchasing it outright.