Megachurches!
Big churches, for right or wrong, get a disproportionate
amount of attention. Below is a profile the latest megachurch statistics.
Keep
in mind that the average church globally numbers fewer than 100 in worship.
Across the world, there are almost 5 million Christian congregations; the
Center for the Study of Global Christianity’s Status for Global Mission – 2013
(line 42) puts the number at 4,629,000. In some countries,
especially those where Christianity is all but illegal, these gatherings of
Christians are almost exclusively house churches in form. In fact, today 5.1
billion people today live in countries with high or very-high religious
restrictions or hostilities, according to Pew Research Center. Thus
for better or for worse, only in some countries are large public churches free
to develop.
Megachurches – those Protestant
congregations averaging 2,000 or more in weekly worship attendance, adults and
children, all physical campuses – exist in at least 48 countries (see a list of global
megachurches here). Many nations, even giant ones like India, have
received minimal research in terms of how churches are growing and
multiplying. For now, megachurches in North America have been researched
more than those in other countries, so here’s what we know about very large
churches in the United States:
Scope and Size of U.S. Megachurches
5 million - Number of people who
worshipped in a U.S. megachurch last weekend (if it was a regular weekend, with
Christmas and Easter being much higher).
1,650 - Current number of
megachurches in the United States, according to church lists compiled by
Leadership Network.
0.5% - While almost 10% of
Protestant churchgoers attend a megachurch, these churches represent only about
half of one percent of the roughly 320,000 Protestant churches that exist in
the United States. For more breakdown by size, see these Hartford Institute for Religion
Research FAQs.
46 - Amount of the 50 states have a megachurch (not
yet in Delaware, Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont). Megachurches can be found in
Washington DC as well.
Almost all - Number of Protestant
denominations that have at least one megachurch from the biggest denominations
(Southern Baptists, United Methodists, Evangelical Lutherans, etc., which each
have many) to smaller denominations (Foursquare, Christian & Missionary
Alliance, Nazarene, etc.). Most denominational megachurches hold their
denominational affiliation lightly – Saddleback is Southern Baptist,
and LifeChurch.tv is Evangelical Covenant, for example –
and many are nondenominational, such as Lakewood, Willow Creek, North Point and Potter’s House.
21% - Amount of today's
megachurches founded in the last 20 years. Average (median) founding date of
all current megachurches is 1977.
22% - Amount of today's
megachurches founded by their current lead pastor. (Thus the current pastor was
the church's very first pastor.)
79% - Amount of current
megachurch pastors who led their congregation through its most dramatic growth
era occur -- i.e., under whose leadership it became a megachurch.
55 - Average (median) age
of today's megachurch lead pastor (5% are under age 40, 18% under age 45).
