Over the last decade, America’s 100 largest churches doubled in size:
In 2000, the 100 largest churches in the United States all had average weekly attendance of 4,000 people or more.
In 2010, only churches with average weekly attendance of 8,000 or more made the 100 largest churches list, according to megachurch researcher John N. Vaughan.
About half the churches on the list (49 percent) are non-denominational.
Sixteen percent are in the Los Angeles area, while 7 percent are in Dallas and 7 percent are in Houston. (Atlanta finishes fourth with 6 percent of the megachurches.)
March 22nd, 2011 | 11:06 am
[...] The title and post hat tip go to First Thoughts. [...]
March 22nd, 2011 | 4:22 pm
[...] then, the whole “church growth” phenomenon has held court, resulting in another and related article at the same [...]
March 22nd, 2011 | 9:43 pm
Social interaction is a big factor in a layman’s decision where and whether to attend a church. I wonder if the atmosphere of the sheer largeness is a greater influence that any theological content (the anonymity which it grants perhaps?). I have scant personal experience with any mega church, so I wouldn’t know.
March 22nd, 2011 | 10:35 pm
so a Catholic church that hold 800 and holds six sunday Masses, has a school for 500 kids, and community outreach of all sorts is a megachurch?
Or does it only include a large church that holds 4000 at once?
the link wasn’t clear on this.
March 23rd, 2011 | 12:48 am
tioedong
The link was clear to those who have watch the whole thing unfold in detail.
It is addressing a cultural phenomenon that developed and grew out of mainly Calvinistic theology, but has since hidden its confessional roots to become, as Fr, Stephen put it on his blog, consumer christianity.
It was once called the “Church Growth” movement, but it has since ducked and weaved under various other titles, refusing to be pinned down precisely as to theology/doctrine.
You example, unless they have jettisoned matters churchly (which seems not the case), would just be another large church.
The mega’s are their own animal, so to speak.
March 23rd, 2011 | 6:34 pm
The deeper links note that Catholic churches are excluded from the survey.
March 24th, 2011 | 12:35 am
[...] at First Things comments on a recent update on the size of America’s largest megachurches [link] and gets nearly everything wrong. First of all he quotes a secondary source [link] rather than the [...]
March 25th, 2011 | 4:24 am
REPLY to Half ABridge –
From: John N. Vaughan, founder of Church Growth Today.
Personal thanks to the Catholic blog First Thoughts for sharing my research update from Church Growth Today about America’s 100 Largest Churches and the doubling in attendance during the past decade. Readers should be aware that because of limited space they were not able to print the full 3 page news release.
They were simply wantng you as a Catholic reading audience to know what is happening in cities where mutitudes of their Catholic readers live.
Reply to Tieodong: since the local church is Christ in His people – 4000 people is still 4000 people whether they meet in an 800 seat worship center seperately four six times or once in a 4000 seat worship center. When Katrina scattered the congregatons of metro New Orleans (some had attendance of more than 5000) they were still the same congregations. Some were temporarily scatter in several states though still linked by live Internet webcasts until they could return home. Some remained in other cities and became part of other congregations.
Reply to Half A Bridge: The only links used in my blogs about the 100 largest churches (non-Catholic) are to my own blogs and refer to my own research. I am the source.
Second, the “gigachurch” reference in the article title was the choice of First Things editorial staff. It did not appear anywhere in my press release and I personally don’t use the term.
As a past president of the American Society for Church Growth I know for fact that the term
originated from an editor of a magazine I shared my lists with from 2003-2005 and not from any church growth authority. It was a pet editorial insertion on her part. “Mega” is a real term used in the Greek New Testament multiple times but not “giga”.
I am impressed, however, that the editor of First Thoughts is aware of the 2003 term.
I suspect that most editors are not even aware of the term.
Since a large church just as healthy or sick as a smaller church my news release is simply
reporting on the increase in both th number and size of the churches. Global congregations
with 20,000+ attendance hae become much more common than when I wrote my 1985 book
about several ofthem in my book, The World’s20 Largest Churches.
There are now 5 U.S. churches (non-Catholic) with 20,000-45,000 weekend attendance and
nearly 60 with 10,000+ attendance. Though the largest churches in the U.S. are no longer Catholic, there may be 5000 U.S. Catholic megachurches compare to the nearly 1700+ non-Catholic megachurches of 2000+ attendance. We of all people, as Christians, don’t need to be apologizing for God’s churches of any size in a mega-city would being trashed by Satan.
I have researched and published the lists of America’s 100 Largest Churches an 100 Fastest Growing Churches (non-Catholic) in my newsletter Chuch Growth Today since 1985. The research is based on individual attendance.
Catholic attendance tends to be based more on households than individual counts. I know for fact of many large attendance Catholic churches in several cities. For more than two decades I have hoped to see some similar good Catholic large church research by Catholics. As a personal note, I attended Catholic schools for six years and am a
graduate of a Catholic Christian Brothers teaching order school.
March 25th, 2011 | 4:28 am
Content of the full news release can be found on my blog site:
http://johnnvaughan.wordpress.com
March 25th, 2011 | 4:54 pm
[...] Joe Carter has fascinating statistics on how the evangelical megachurch in the US is becoming the evangelical gigachurch. [...]
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