An Abundance of Churches

 Jefferson County, Tennessee 

• 314 square miles
• population is 56,727
• churches - 75+
• 756 people per church
• 4 square miles per church

Each one of the churches requires a building and a parking lot and no doubt each one of these churches has a paid minister and staff.  

Some of the larger churches have more buildings for Sunday School, and more than likely each church has a basement in which there is one large room, tables, and chairs, with a kitchen for lunches and other celebrations.  

If the weather cooperates, there is probably an outside picnic area with a concrete floor and roof.

With a church every 4 square miles, there is a lot of duplication that is taking place and a lot of church members have donated money for these duplications.  

Additionally, all the outreach programs and missionary programs are duplicated by the members of each church donating money.

There are 95 counties in the state of Tennessee and while some are smaller and some larger than Jefferson County, Jefferson County is of average size.

This means that there are approximately 7,000 churches in the state of Tennessee or more.

Our large cities like Johnson City, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville, and Memphis are going to have more churches than in the counties that surround them, because the population is greater as is the wealth.

It would seem like to me that if these churches really want to help the poor, that they will get together and combine churches into one large church that has several services throughout the day to accommodate all of the people...  which would mean one parking lot as well.

This way, more money could go to the poor.