The Negro's church,.

Financing Negro Churches

195

Summation
1. That the average member gives little to the church in
that the average expenditure per church totals sixteen cents a
week for each reported member.
2. That 386, or 71.3 per cent., of the churches have in-,
debtedness; and that on the basis of the payments in 1930, it
will take 13>2 years for these churches to free themselves of
debt.
3. That debts are high when compared with property evaluations and with church indebtedness for the country as a
whole; that debts are high, in many churches, when considered in the light of the memberships' earning power; that
section (North and South) makes a difference relative to
church indebtedness and the amount of money raised; that
salaries vary according to the region of the country; that a
few of the outstanding churches are free from debt.
4. That the buying of ready-built churches in the North
during the migratory period strained church race-relations
and hobbled the congregations with excessive debts.
5. That the larger the congregation the greater are the probabilities that the contribution per member will be less.
6. That the necessities of the church for salaries, interest,
debts, heat, light, and the like, consume so much of the money
raised that little is left for a church expansion program.
7. That Negro pastors, in the main, are meagerly paid.
8. That the vast majority of churches have no systematic
way of raising funds.
9. That church records are poorly kept in the majority of
the churches, almost wholly because paid secretarial help is
inadequate; but in those churches that pay secretaries fair
salaries and have their books audited, the records are betterkept.
10. That the Negro church, on the whole, is a self-supporting institution.