Our annual megachurch listing is one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s most popular features. This year 347 churches participated, including 64 megachurches (those with 2,000 or more in weekly attendance) and 70 emerging megachurches (1,000 to 1,999). This chart also includes listings for scores of large churches (with average attendance of 500 to 999) and medium churches (250-499)
Click here to view and download the 2014 Charts, or click on them individually:
“¢Â 2014 Emerging Megachurches
As a bonus, we have searched through the lists to determine the average size of megachurches and emerging megachurches in our fellowship, average growth rates, fastest-growing churches, average total giving, etc. Read “But if Numbers Interest You.”
I used to be a big fan of large churches and looked forward to the mega church list every year. Now I think it”™s a symbol of and to some degree the cause for the decline of Christianity in America. As the number and size of mega churches has grown the best head count data we have, indicates there are actually fewer people in church on the average Sunday now than there were ten or twenty years ago. Things like the mega church list puts the focus on growing a church by addition rather than growing the Kingdom by multiplication. Where Christianity is growing it mostly involves the multiplication of leaders and churches. Todd Wilson, in Spark, reports looking for churches that were truly multiplying. He knew there were very few but he was disappointed. Hope Chapel, in Hawaii, was about the only one he found. (Hawaii is the only state where head counts show church attendance growing faster than the population””if you saw reports of decline in every state, surveys and head counts can produce different results.)
What would happen if Christian Standard started reporting and honoring leaders that multiplied themselves and their ministry? Of course, the problem would be finding such people. In America they are very, vary rare.
God Bless you,
Bruce Webster
Kingdom Expansion Consultant/Coach