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THE ST. LOUIS CHURCH SURVEY A RELIGIOUS INVESTIGATION WITH A SOCIAL BACKGROUND BY H. PAUL DOUGLASS WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND CHARTS NEW SJr YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY INTRODUCTION THE SURVEY AND THE CITY SURVEY MOTIVE The basic reason for a survey of any city is the difficulty which practical men find in determining what is wise and right amid the confusions of so vast and complicated a phenomenon of civilization. This difficulty includes the church. The churches of St. Louis have long been aware of it. This Survey is primarily the result of their attempt to meet and conquer it. 1 The church has long been acutely conscious of its urban problem, has spoken much of it in general terms, has defined some of its typical problems those for example of the foreigner, of the down town section, of transient population, and of the rural emigrant has had many heart-searchings on the desertion of the most needy population by Protestantism, and has ended with something of the sense of awe and bafflement which beset the rurally-minded Hebrew prophet, Jonah That great city who is sufficient for it and how shall the church learn to serve and to master it at once Here and there, to be sure, exist shining examples of con spicuously successful city churches. But no one knows how to transfer the secret of their success to other situations. The analysis of the situation into its permanent elements is incomplete. The science of city churchmanship does not exist. Very little indeed is at hand constituting a dependable basis for action, very little that shows how to make a local church program which shall be funda mental rather than temporary or imitative which shall grow out of an understanding of urban people and situations and not depend upon the fluctuation and risks of personal insight. Yet in the city of St. Louis alone there are nearly four hundred Protestant churches continuously engaged in making decisions. Their pastors plan, their boards of deacons and trustees confer, their congregations debate and finally vote. These discussions involve a wide range of problems, and the decisions ought to be made only in the light of well-ascertained facts. 1 For a hiitoricml narrative of the Survey in detail tee Appendix, Section 1. V vi INTRODUCTION Shall a church be organized Where shall it build and what sort of a building shall it have What types of service shall it attempt When once established what changes of program will it need to consider How shall it secure funds Ought it perhaps to move How should it cooperate with its neighboring churches and in what specific place ought it serve the community These are not academic problems but simply the types of specific issues that are always coming up. Almost all of them involve decisions in the denominational realm as well as within that of the local congregation. Denomina tional policy has to decide when there shall be another church where it shall be located how it should get its building where the funds are to come from how it should be related to the other churches of the same community and what effect a given major policy or critical decision, such as that of removing a church, will have upon the fortunes of the ecclesiastical group. National denominational policies are involved, both on the finan cial side and in regard to strategy, because cities are centers in which church work is keenly watched by national leaders. At the same time the other constructive forces of the city the several denominations as cooperators or competitors, the social agencies doing work which lies near to that of the church all of these and the welfare of them all are involved, implicitly or ex plicitly, in the decision of these manifold practical issues. Finally, as the church in its great divisions, Catholic, Protestant and Hebrew, seeks to relate itself to the total life of humanity, the major decisions of churchmanship touch and are sometimes merged with the great constructive purposes of the city as a whole…

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