The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-05-02
cropping of Deadwood from Membership Rolls Follows Advent of Dr. Kemp Shifting of Population Largely to Blame.


 New York, May 2.-The action of Calvary Baptist church in dropping more than 1000 members from it's rolls as dead wood' continues to arouse comment in religious circles. While 1t is no where conceded that there is a deliberate attempt on the part of churches to Overca pitalize their membership, the record keeping is ac- koWledged to be extraordinarily difh- cult because of the shifting of pOpu- lation Other causes also contribute to an accumulation of names on the rolls.
 one church has the custom, for ex- ample of retaining a name on the boo. for five years after all trace of tie eorIsmun1cant has been lost It is universally agreed, however, that if a man pa $ money even though he does not come to church his name is en- titled to remain on the rolls
 One minister, who did not wish his name mentioned. said:
 ssChurehes need newer and more businessIike methods than they have. In justice,. however, it must be said that New York churches are in this respect ahead of others
 stBut even the chufches Of this city, perhaps in order to let their strength seem greater than it is. allow names of members not heard of or seen for years to collect on their rolls. Some of them have moved to other towns and Joined other churches, others have ceased going to or taking interest in church affairs and. in many cases, all though it does seem 1aughable, many : of the superf1uous members are in their graves.
 Most ministers will not admit that their membership rolls are oVercapi: taiized- These-lnen do not intend to lie when they say that their list of cSiv, Ny are ignorant of the truth. Although churches in general do not let names accurnu1ate in such large numbers as did pr. IKemp's, they do onot prune the list often enough to know what is what.
 I4ikened to .'Repeating.'
 @Dr. Kemp did just right It's wrong, false in fact, to have the name Of Ia member who has not attended a churc h for some time still on the rolls of thae church if at the same time his name is on the membership rolls of anotle- church. That is like repeat ing at the roils.''
 The Rev. M. H. Lynch of the Church of the Ascension said:
 We have practically no deadWood; at least, no more than should be ex-
 ..Our system is such that at every special occasion or holiday, our list of con1nnunicants is checked up by pos tals that we send them If they have movedi away the posta1s are returned Nto us and we strike their names off our list
 .fEven with our system, however, there is liable to be larger list of ce,11l1nunica than is warranted The reason that we have been able to cut these narnes down to a minimum is that We have as 1ayman who acts prae- A;., Tel has 8 slen1atized q the business end of OUT church.
 cno of the officers at the Church of the 9iessia1h said:e
 '.T don't think that pr. Kemp ex- aggerated matters in the statement he number of names that were allowed to accumulate on his list is exceptional. But the situation is the same in all churches, as far as having dead wood goes. The only difference between his church and ours is merely one of degree. Probably only 20 per cent of our list is made up of dead wood.
 Names Kept Five Years
 I've change our roll of names every so often But the names of members are permitted to remain on the list until the expiration of five year pe- riod after fheyA were last heard from. In this way it is obvious that more names are on the lists than we have members
 pr. Charles Lewis slattery of Grace Church said that the building of good character is far better accomplish Inent than getting large attendance at church.
 .sDr. Kemp did the proper thing he continued. but his generalization that the membership of the churches throughout the country is larger on paper than in actuality does not ap- ply to my institution Of course, I don't know what. goes on in other churches, first hand but from what hear cannot say that pr. Kemp is right.
 "In my church I really underrate the membership. There are hundreds of people that come to Grace Church that I do not even know. These peo- pie, do not want to be known They come to give little of their. time to prayer and, without being disturbed,