The Negro's church,.

Membership in Urban Churches

105

new pastor, a roll had been given containing 1,462 names.
The new pastor requested that he be given six months to
comb the roll and locate the members of his church. At the
end of the stated time, he sent to the office a roll of 687 members. Another minister was called to the pastorate of a church
that reported 1,200 members. After making a thorough investigation, he found 400 people. In the interview, he gave
400 and not 1,200.
For the most part, the memberships reported by pastors,
membership clerks, and secretaries were accepted by the
workers. With the cooperation of ministers and secretaries,
however, further checks were made in 106 churches, in which
cases duplicates of church rolls were given; or the rolls were
made accessible to the workers; or the number that had registered during the first six or eight months of the year was
given. The result of this checking is referred to in another
section of this chapter. Though accepting in the main the
memberships as reported, this analysis should prove more
accurate than those church reports collected through the mail
where no method of checking is employed. In this study, the
interviews were personal, and direct checks were made in the
106 cases.
TABLE IV-MEMBERSHIP SIZE OF 609 CHURCHES
Number of Churches Per Cent.
Less than 200.................................. 217 35.6
200- 400................................... 141 23.2
400- 600................................... 74 12.1
600- 800................................... 47 7.7
800-1,000................................... 34 5.6
1,000-1,200................................... 18 3.0
1,200-1,400................................... 13 2.1
1,400-1,600................................... 18 3.0
1,600 and above............................... 47 7.7
Total.................................. 609 100.0
More than half of the churches, 358, or 58.8 per cent., have
fewer than 400 members; whereas 96, or 15.8 per cent., of
the 609 churches report memberships of 1,000 and above.