The Negro's church,.

Financing Negro Churches

169

is the per capita indebtedness of the Negro church? How
rapidly does the Negro church rid itself of its indebtedness?
What is the method of financing the Negro church? What
is the average salary of the Negro urban pastor? What proportion of the churches furnish parsonages for the ministers?
Are church clerks and secretaries paid? What is the average
salary paid to organists and choir directors? What is the
source of income of the Negro church? Is the Negro church
self-supporting?
No promise is made that the questions raised will here be
answered satisfactorily and completely; but they will be discussed in the light of the data collected by the Federal Census
of Religious Bodies, as well as those gathered on 609 urban
churches; and it is the purpose of the writers to stimulate the
public, if possible, to further thought and intelligent inquiry
regarding the financing of Negro churches.
How Much Do Negro Churches Spend?
The Federal Census of Religious Bodies show that 39,245,
or 92.2 per cent., of all Negro churches, reported expenditures
in the year 1926; and that they expended $43,024,256. In
1916, 37,660, or 95.1 per cent., of all Negro churches reported expenses; and the total expenditures for that year
amounted to $18,529,827, an increase in expenditures of
132.2 per cent. in 1926 over those of 1916. This increase
in expenditures of Negro churches for the ten years is lower
than the average of 148.5 per cent. for all churches-Negro
and white.
Accepting as approximately correct the census figures as to
the number of Negro churches in the United States and the
amount that 92.2 per cent. of them expended in 1926, it is
safe to estimate that the 42,585 Negro churches spent in that
year $46,673,160; or an average of approximately $1,096 per
church, an increase of 122.8 per cent. over the average of