The country churches held seventeen meetings, averaged four new members each, and made 20 per cent. of the total gain. The village churches held five meetings and the town churches held four meetings, both averaging five new members each, the village churches making 8 per cent. of the total gain and the town churches 6 per cent. The city churches held only four meetings, averaged about fifty-seven new members each and realized one-third of the total gain made.

Children and the Churches

Sunday schools are the big hope of this country. Young people and older people are not so much interested in the Church and religion because so many have grown up without it, but the children have had more chance to know the Church. Sunday schools are to-day the most frequent form of church work in these Western counties. They are especially hopeful because so many of them over-ride denominational lines and unionize; also because they persist when all other church spirit seems to be dead.

Fifty-six churches have Sunday schools of their own, and one city church has a mission Sunday school in addition to its own. Two groups of two churches each combine their Sunday schools. Only three churches neither maintain their own Sunday schools nor help with a union school.

Thirty-seven union Sunday schools are being carried on in the four counties, nine of which have the assistance of church organizations meeting in the same building. Three are located in mining camp villages, the rest in small hamlets or open country. These union schools have a fourth of the total Sunday school enrollment. People on ranches and far from town start Sunday schools under local leadership without waiting for churches to be organized. When a newcomer sends his children to Sunday school it is often the only contact made with religious activity in the new country. The independent Sunday school has, therefore, in a sense, a greater responsibility than the church Sunday school.

The importance of the Sunday school is brought out in a comparison between Sunday school enrollment and resident church membership.

Country Village Town City Total
Number of churches 34 14 13 9 70
Number of Sunday schools 56 14 12 10 92
Total resident church membership 745 563 1,389 2,272 4,969
Total enrollment of church Sunday schools 897 731 1,430 1,475 4,533
Total enrollment of all Sunday schools 2,373 829 1,430 1,475 6,107
Average enrollment of all Sunday schools 42 59 119 147 67
Average attendance of all Sunday schools 28 40 79 104 50

The enrollment of church Sunday schools is larger than the total church membership in Union County, and larger than resident church membership in Beaverhead, Hughes or Union. The total enrollment of all Sunday schools is 23 per cent. higher than the total resident church membership. Without the Union County Sunday schools this enrollment equals only 91 per cent. of the resident church membership. Thirty-five churches have a larger Sunday school enrollment than resident church membership; all nine churches helping with Union Sunday schools have a smaller membership than the Union school enrollment. This discrepancy is high in some churches. For example, a country church has thirty-five enrolled in the Sunday school and only eight church members; a village church with sixty-five enrolled in its Sunday school has seven church members; a town church has fifteen church members and 150 enrolled in its Sunday school.

Country and village Sunday schools show the best record. The total enrollment of all country Sunday schools, including the Union schools, is more than three times as high as church membership. The enrollment of all village Sunday schools is about 47 per cent. higher than village church enrollment. There are no Union Sunday schools in the towns or city. Except in the city the average Sunday school enrollment exceeds average resident church membership, the advantage being twenty-two for the country schools, nineteen for the village, and twelve for the town schools. The average city church membership, however, exceeds average Sunday school enrollment by 105.

When Sunday school enrollment is higher than church membership, it is ordinarily encouraging as a promise of future growth. But the large discrepancies between village and open country church membership and Sunday school enrollment, coupled with the low percentage of young people in their church memberships, show that these churches are not recruiting new members from their Sunday schools as they might. Nor are the churches relating themselves to any extent to the separate Sunday schools in outlying sections. This can be done, and is most successful in a few cases. For example, the Apache Valley Sunday School, which meets on Sunday afternoons at a schoolhouse in Union County, is being “fathered” by two ministers from Clayton, six miles away, who go out on alternate Sundays. This Sunday school is live and flourishing. It maintains a high percentage of attendance and carries on various activities.