The Synod of New York has three membership rubrics: Communicants, Confirmed, Baptized. The first includes all members who actually commune within a year. The second adds to the communicants all others who are entitled to commune even if they neglect the privilege. The third adds to the preceding class baptized children and all other baptized persons in any way related to the congregation, provided they have not been formally excommunicated. The Swedish Augustana Synod has three rubrics: Communicants, Children, Total. "Communicants" may or may not be enrolled members of the congregation. This classification therefore is neither comprehensive nor exhaustive and may account in part, for the discrepancy between the number of Lutheran Swedes in New York and the number enrolled in the Swedish Lutheran Churches. None of the synodical reports take note of "families." Pastors seldom speak of their membership in terms of families. In the book of Jeremiah (31, 1) we are told: "At the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people." The captions of the five parts of Luther's Small Catechism proceed upon the assumption of the family as a unit. It is true we are living in an age of disrupted families, but it would seem that some recognition of the family should be made in the statistical tables of the Christian Church, especially when in the families with which we have to do, most of the individuals are baptized members of the church and have not been formally excommunicated. Until, therefore, we agree upon a common standard, our figures will be the despair of the statisticians. A reformation must come. Without it, we shall not be able to formulate needed policies of church extension. In view of the complicated character of our membership it will not be an easy task to reconstruct our statistical methods. But it is evident that our missionary and evangelistic work will be greatly furthered when we have exact information in regard to our parochial material. Our figures should include every soul, man, woman and child, in any way related to our congregations, classified in such a way as to show clearly in what relation they stand to the church. A church that does not count its members as carefully as a bank counts its dollars is in danger of bankruptcy. Church bookkeeping ought to be taught in the Theological Seminary. But if the pastor himself is not a good bookkeeper, almost every congregation has young men or young women who are experts in this art, who could render good service to the church by keeping its membership rolls.