The Negro's church,.

10

The Negro's Church

have been removed and the Negro has begun to build up for
himself private concerns, thereby finding places of leadership
in business, the professions, journalism and other fields; but
these are comparatively recent developments, and came too
late to effect a change in the number of Negro churches
created in part by this desire for leadership and self-expression
which was denied in other areasj
Unrestrained Freedom and Idea of a "Call"
Owing also to these restraints in the environment and the
resulting strong desire for church leadership, the establish-! ment of churches by a relatively illiterate mass has been unrestrained. There is, for example, unrestrained freedom in the
Baptist church. Four laymen and three ordained ministers
can 'start a Baptist church. In many cases, even this loose
regulation is not observed. The streets are dotted with small
churches, some of them store-front and house churches, organized by illiterate ministers who say they are called of God to
preach.
The ideas that the church is God's house and the preacher
God's prophet have made the masses tolerant toward the
existence of many churches. Both the minister and the congregation have shared this belief, which made both of them
"things apart." Though rapidly on the wane, especially in
educated circles, the belief is still held by many people that
the minister, more than the men and women of other occupations, is God's ambassador on the earth, and that he knows
what he is about. The minister and the church are sacred;
and even if his conduct is not exactly what it might be, he is
nevertheless a man of God. Thus, he exercised and in some
cases still exercises almost unlimited freedom in starting a new
church.
In the majority of Negro churches there has been no standard allowing men to enter the ministry. If a man says he is
called to preach, he can usually be ordained. Once ordained