The Negro's church,.

The Negro Ministry

47

man who is more able to give a certain type of preaching, to a
more highly trained man who has had college and seminary
training. This argument has made some impression upon
students of Negro colleges and seminaries. Many of them
believe that a college graduate does not have an even chance
in the ministry with a man of less training. The findings of
this study do not sustain this opinion.
Of the 591 pastors whose training is recorded, 118, or 20
per cent., have college degrees. All things being equal, it
would be fair to assume that in each grouping of churches
by size of membership, as in Table 14 in the Appendix, the
college men would be approximately 20 per cent. of the total.
This is not so. Instead of the college men having 20 per
cent. of the smallest churches with memberships less than
200, they have less than their share, 12.4 per cent. Less also
in the group from 200 to 400-17.0 per cent. rather than
20 per cent. From 400 and above, they have more than 20
per cent. in every instance save one, the 800 to 1,000 group.
The percentage of college men serving churches with mem.
berships between 1,000 and 1,400 doubles the 20 per cent.
of college men for the entire study. In other words, there are
251 churches with congregations of 400 members and above.
Of this number 67, or 26.7 per cent., have college graduates
for pastors instead of 20 per cent.; or 6.7 per cent. more than
their share. There are 358 churches with memberships less
than 400. Of this number 51, or 14.2 per cent., are under
the ministry of college men, 5.8 per cent. less than their
share. Therefore the college man has more than an even
chance of being called to a large church. These facts show i <
that Negro congregations, especially the larger ones, are more
in favor of trained leadership than is currently believed.
Pastors in the North Are Better Trained
Of the 591 pastors, 252 are in the North and 339 are in