THE COUNTRY CHURCH 431 



THE CHURCH SITUATION IN OHIO x 



C. O. GILL 



THE rural church survey of Ohio now complete is the first 

 church survey covering an entire state. The state contains in 

 its area of 40,000 square miles some 1,388 townships. Reports 

 are at hand from every one of these. If we exclude the town- 

 ships in which the population is urban, those in which there are 

 villages of more than 2,500 inhabitants and those in which are 

 parts of large town or city parishes, there are in the state about 

 1,200 townships which may be classed as rural. In these town- 

 ships there are more than 6,000 rural churches and more than a 

 million and three quarters persons. In each there is on an aver- 

 age a population of 1,470, while there are five churches, a church 

 to every 286 persons. 



It must not be inferrred, however, that there is an even distri- 

 bution of the churches. As a matter of fact, in many districts, 

 there are not enough of them. How excessive the overchurching 

 is in some regions may be well illustrated by the condition in 

 Morgan County. Meigsville Township with a population of 846 

 persons has nine churches or one church to 94 persons. Union, 

 another township in this county with a population of 1,048 per- 

 sons, also has nine churches. Neither township has a resident 

 pastor. This is true of seven townships in the county. In these 

 seven townships there are 41 churches or one church to 142 

 persons. 



The significance of the excessive number of churches can only 

 be appreciated by coming into close contact with the communities 

 themselves. Very rarely have I visited an overchurched com- 

 munity in the country without finding a condition of harmful 

 competition often resulting in an anemic condition of the religious 

 institutions. In most of the communities several churches are 

 trying to do what one church, if left to itself, could do far more 

 effectively. Under present conditions the churches commonly 

 constitute the greatest obstacle to progress they themselves have 



i Adapted from a preliminary report of a state wide survey made by the 

 Commission on Church and Country Life of the Federal Council of Churches 

 of Christ in America in cooperation with the Ohio Rural Life Assn. Pub. 

 Missionary Edu. Movement of the U. S. and Canada, N. Y. 



