(g) The Church's Program 



To Whom It Ministers. The gravest criticism which we can make of 

 those churches of the county which minister to the farming population, 

 a criticism which we are repeatedly compelled to make, is that their ser- 

 vice is not a community service but a class service. The pastors of 38 

 such churches replied to the question, "What proportion of the adult 

 male members of your congregation are farm owmers; what proportion 

 are tenants?" One fourth replied that there were practically no tenants 

 in their churches. Thirty churches reported from 85 to 100% owners; 

 6 reported from 50 to 85% owners; 2 reported as many tenants as owners. 

 Moreover, these churches seemed satisfied that this should be the case; 

 that in only one out of every five churches should the proportion of 

 tenants to owoiers be as high as the proportion to the entire number of 

 farm operators in the county. Just why the church does not reach the 

 tenant farmer is a question difl&cult to answer. He is a less stable 

 element of the population than the owner; his term of occupancy is 

 relatively short; moreover, in this county, he is usually less prosperous, 

 the conditions of his life are harder and there is a smaller amount of 

 surplus energy to be turned into religious activity. Nevertheless it is 

 exceedingly unfortunate that a fourth of the farming population should 

 be so largely eliminated from the church's program. 



How It Ministers. In the discussion of the Sunday-schools, attention 

 was called to the fact that the architecture of most of the churches is 

 such that they are very poorly adapted for Sunday-schools and similar 



branches of church w^ork. The 

 churches have been planned and built 

 as auditoriums in which sermons may 

 be delivered. This is because the 

 emphasis of the religion which estab- 

 lished them has been and still is so 

 largely individual. The mission of the 

 church has not been conceived as a 

 social mission. This remains the great 

 reason why these churches have been 

 so slow in assuming their rightful places 

 as the centres of community life. 



THE COLORED CHURCHES 

 (a) Distribution 



The Colored Churches are not so 



e\'enly distributed throughout the 



county as are the white churches for 



A GOOD I'ARsoN the rcason that the colored population 



98 



