The Negro's church,.

196 The Negro's Church
The Significance of this Financial Situation for Program
Building
The chapter on program reveals the fact that, though much
is being done, there is much to be done. This chapter makes
it clear that the expansion of the program of the Negro church
will, in the very nature of things, be slow. A church here
and there will be able to do effective teaching or community
service; but for many the pangs of debt will haunt them for
years to come.
THE CHURCH AND COMMUNITY WORK
Before expanding their programs by building gymnasiums,
hiring social workers, etc., these churches should first see to it
that pastors are well paid, trained secretaries hired to keep
adequate records, and that they prepare to do an effective job
in the church schools by hiring workers to direct religious
education. One of the weakest spots in the Negro church is
the comparatively few trained and spiritually qualified people
available for work in the church schools. The large proportion of the churches could reorganize their financial systems
through trained clerks and planned budget systems so as to
be able to attend to those things that are primarily the function of the church and cooperate with other agencies in the
community that are looking after social and recreational work.
It is more important, for example, that a church have its
recreational work carried on at the Y. M. C. A. (if there is
one) or that it cooperate with social agencies in matters of
relief and family adjustment, and that it concentrate on the
teaching function of the church, than it is for it to try to build
a gymnasium or pay a social worker while the task of raising
the religious intelligence of the young people goes neglected.
The church has no competition in the teaching of religion.
But in social and recreational work, many communities are
better organized to do it than the church; of course a high
degree of cooperation is imperative. Ministers should have