The Negro's church,.

Membership in Urban Churches

109

adequate records, would show a much wider discrepancy between the number of reported and of actual members than
the 39 per cent. to which reference has already been made.
For example, one church reported a membership of 3,000.
The church roll contained exactly 1,549. It was an old
church roll which carried the names of the dead, names of
those no one could locate, and the names of many who were
known to have lived in other cities for years. Even church
rolls are not necessarily adequate checks as to actual membership. It is the opinion of the writers that on the basis of the
106 churches checked, and the experience gained in the
study, it would be a rather conservative act if the total reported membership were reduced 39 per cent. This discrepancy of 39 per cent. between the actual and reported membership leads one to infer strongly that a thorough check of
the church statistics accepted by the Federal Government in
compiling the material for the religious census would reveal
similar discrepancies, and that the reports as now given are
highly padded.
'THE FINANCIAL LOAD IS CARRIED BY LESS THAN HALF OF THE
MEMBERSHIP
Of the 586.5 members, which is the average per church in
the 609 churches, the average number of regular contributors
is 256.7 persons, or 43.8 per cent. of the reported membership. On this basis, the financial load of the churches is
carried, in the main, by less than half of the membership;
or 56.2 per cent. of the membership cannot be relied upon
for any dependable financial help.
MORNING AND EVENING ATTENDANCE RELATIVELY SMALL
The reported membership is 357,169. The combined average attendance at the regular eleven o'clock service of the 609
churches is 151,745, giving an average attendance of 249.2
persons per church, or 42.5 per cent. of the total membership.