those which
contain parts of, or border on, large town or city parishes, there remain
1,170 townships which may be classed as strictly rural. These rural
townships have in all 6,060 churches and nearly 1,700,000 persons. Each of
them has on an average a population of 1,448 persons, with five churches,
or one church to every 280 persons. If we include with the strictly rural
townships the rural sections of townships not exclusively rural, there are
in Ohio no less than 6,642 country churches.

As these facts would indicate, the country churches of Ohio for the most
part are small and weak. According to data gathered by the earlier survey
made under the direction of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, the
churches whose membership is less than 100 as a rule do not prosper, and
the smaller the membership the greater the proportion of the churches
which are on the decline. In Ohio more than 4,500, or 66 per cent, of the
rural churches have a membership of 100 or less; more than 3,600, or 55
per cent, have a membership of 75 or less; more than 2,400, or 37 per
cent, a membership of 50 or less.

The membership in these country churches is distressingly small, but the
attendance is smaller still. The data available indicate that ordinarily
it is less than half the membership.

In six churches taken at random, it was found that the figures ran as
follows:

_Membership_ _Average attendance_
125 34
300 136
173 30 to 40
150 Less than 30
300 - 40
----- -----
1,048 270

In one township it is reported that the average attendance in each of its
eight churches is less than 25.

One of the most striking facts is the shortage of resident ministers.
While a reasonable degree of interchurch cooperation should result in the
maintenance of a resident pastor in nearly every township, yet in 317, or
27 per cent, of the strictly rural townships, no church has a resident
pastor. (See Map 11, page 49.) More than 4,400, or about two-thirds, of
the churches in rural Ohio, and 39 per cent of the villages are without
resident ministers, while in the open country only 360, or 13 per cent, of
the 2,807 churches have resident pastors.

The efforts of the ministers are so scattered over fields more or less
widely separated that much of their effectiveness is lost. (Consult the
county maps, pag