Fastest-Growing Churches

The Christian Post reports on the Outlook100 fastest growing churches in the United States. Here are some excerpts from the article:

Topping the fifth annual list again this year was Lakewood Church in Houston with 43,500 attendants, followed by Second Baptist Church in the same city with 23,659 and then North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga., with 22,557.

Overall, the combined attendance of all 103 churches was 1,128,451 which is an increase of 111,527 people from 2007.

While some of the most well-known churches still rank highest in the report, some showed a drop in attendance over the last year. Lakewood, led by Pastor Joel Osteen, saw a dip from 47,000 attendants in 2007. Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., experienced a drop from 23,500 people to 22,500, placing the megachurch at No. 4 this year.

Also, Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., led by Pastor Rick Warren, went down from 22,000 weekend attendants to 19,414. Saddleback is ranked as No. 8 this year after ranking No. 4 in 2007.

...

What brings meaning to the numbers are the stories behind them – the changed lives and transformed communities."

Nevertheless, Stetzer pointed out that pastors can still learn from larger churches.

"Nothing can replace the work you do in your own church, your own community, among the lost in your own neighborhood," he said. "A pastor has to have a passion and a fire to reach, teach, and disciple those near. But we can also learn from others – many of whom were small churches themselves a few years ago."

You can buy a copy of the magazine for 5 bucks at the Outlook magazine site if you're interested.

The numbers are interesting if nothing else just to see how large some places are. Something the article mentioned was the fact that many churches (Willow Creek included) are moving to multi-site setups. Oftentimes the sermon portion is broadcast to all the services with everything else being run in house. Anyone go to a multisite church?

Any thoughts?

HT: FaithBasedBlog

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Comments (5)

Doesn't a multi-site church just become its own denomination?

I'm part of a "new" multi-site church formed less than two years ago. My "campus" was an independent church which was struggling (the "why" is a bit embarrassing), but we came across a new congregation in a town about 20 miles away which shared the same vision. So we merged. We're still small, and experiencing some growing pains, specifically with the technology streaming the message between campuses each Sunday.

We are "one church" with one budget and one board of elders, and we have learned a lot by cooperating (worship team, choir, missions committee, etc.). But we have a campus pastor at each campus, and each retains its own character with some unique ministries at each.

We specifically wanted to avoid the "mega-church" model, and we're already in the planning stages for a third campus in another town about 15 miles in the other direction.

Concerning the comment about being "our own denomination," I think there is a legitimate concern about that. However, we come from an independent fundamental tradition (in doctrine, but we hope without some of the negative traditional baggage), and our vision statement and doctrinal statement are up front for all to see.

In general, America is experiencing a shift in population away from small towns and rural locals to cities. Might the mega-church phenomenon be a parallel or in some way reflect what is happening in our society?

I'd be interested to know why there has been a drop in attendance eg Saddleback lost over 2,500 people, why? Did they go to other churches or what?

The only issue about mega-churches for me is the loss of the personal touch. The 'distance' that grows between the head pastor and his people. I realise that it's important to protect our pastors from 'burn-out' which would most certainly happen in a large church if the pastor tried to minister to each family let alone each person, however it becomes an institution and in my experience, and I'm not sayingthis is always the case, I've seen the pastor's head get quite large when he looks at all the faces each Sunday. One pastor in particular has become quite superior and will not even allow "his" church to be involved in combined church out-reaches unless "his" church runs the show. He no longer allows anyone over 25 to sing or play in the worship team. Each to their own but give me a small (20 -100) church anyday. At least I can get to know every as well. Anyway that's just me.

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