We turn now to our Church Work.
In every school we have an incipient church; in many of these are
organized churches. From all of them there is a continual going forth
of a predisposition towards Congregational Churches, which will make
for churches in the future.
The statistics are as follows:
Number of Churches South 131 Indian 5 136
Number of Missionaries South 102 Indian 13 115
Number of Church members South 8,065 Indian 397 8,452
Added during the year South 937 Indian 35 972
Added by profession of faith South 721 Indian 30 750
Scholars in Sunday-schools South 16,023 Indian 1,091 17,114
Four new Churches have been organized during the year. These are at
Decatur, Ala., Crossville, Deer Lodge and Pine Mountain, Tenn. A fine
church edifice has also been erected in Ironaton, Ala., which is soon
to be dedicated. The members have sacrificed nobly to secure it. The
church at Meridian has united with the Association in the
erection of a beautiful house of worship which, with the new school
and the teachers' home, will be ready in a few weeks for occupancy.
The church at Knoxville has been enlarged and is practically new. It
will soon be re-dedicated. The church at Pine Mountain is a year old;
is already the center of four Sunday-schools, with an attendance of
415 children, only 10 of whom had ever been in a Sunday-school before.
Revivals of religious interest have been reported from our churches in
Washington, Wilmington, Charleston, Talladega, Mobile, Athens, Marion,
Selma, Birmingham and New Orleans. Those of the churches which are
side by side with our educational institutions are most hopeful; but
wherever we have planted churches, they stand forth to represent the
ethics of Christianity, the purity and truth of character which must
be contained in a worthy discipleship. A large proportion of our
pastors are children of the A.M.A. Parsonages have been built for our
churches in Mobile, Ala., and in Dallas, Texas.