Articles for tag: Megachurch

May 8, 2014

Christian Standard

A Closer Look at the Numbers*

By Kent Fillinger   AVERAGE SIZE Megachurches: 4,810 Emerging Megachurches: 1,354 Combined average weekly attendance: 382,144 The three largest megachurches account for more than 20 percent of all megachurch attendees.   GROWTH RATES Megachurches: 5.6 percent (up from 3 percent in 2012); overall, 73 percent of megachurches grew. Emerging Megachurches: 2.4 percent (down from 4 percent in 2012); overall, 52 percent of emerging megachurches grew.   FASTEST-GROWING CHURCHES 2|42 Community Church, Brighton, MI, 112% Third City Christian Church, Grand Island, NE, 31.6% Eastside Christian Church, Anaheim, CA, 26.3% Current””A Christian Church, Katy, TX, 22.1% Ten Mile Christian Church, Meridian, ID,

May 7, 2014

Christian Standard

Megachurches Break New Ground

By Kent Fillinger The annual survey of attendance and trends in the fellowship of Christian churches and churches of Christ always yields interesting facts, but our study for calendar year 2013 also identified three notable “firsts”: “¢ For the first time, three churches averaged more than 20,000 in weekly worship attendance. Joining Southeast Christian Church, Louisville, Kentucky, and Central Christian Church, Henderson, Nevada, both of which surpassed 20,000 for the third consecutive year, was Christ”s Church of the Valley, Peoria, Arizona. “¢ For the first time in the 18-year history of this list, Southeast Christian did not have the highest

April 3, 2014

Christian Standard

New Conference for Associate Ministers

By Jennifer Johnson There are conferences for senior pastors, executive pastors, youth ministers, worship pastors, and even administrative assistants. Now Tim Anderson, associate director at CrossRoads Missions (Louisville, KY), is creating a conference for associate ministers. “I”ve been an associate minister for 26 years, in three churches””everything from the small church where I had a hand in everything to a large megachurch where I had more focused responsibilities,” he says. “It”s a unique role with unique challenges, and I wanted to do something that could help this group.” He “pitched” the idea to Bob Russell more than a year ago

October 3, 2013

Christian Standard

A Conversation with Becky Ahlberg

Meet Our Contributing Editors: This month, in our ongoing series of interviews with CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s contributing editors, we speak with one who is leading a dynamic urban ministry. Interview by Jennifer Johnson  A lot has happened since the last time we talked about your ministry. Fill me in on the latest. Anaheim [California] First Christian Church started My Safe Harbor in 2008. We discovered that 70 percent of kids who join gangs, drop out of high school, commit suicide, run away, and get pregnant are from single-mother homes, so our goal is to make a difference now and in future generations by

January 24, 2013

Christian Standard

The Meat of the Matter

By Mark A. Taylor  Ben Cachiaras, senior pastor with Mountain Christian Church in Joppa, Maryland, is one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s 12 contributing editors. Like all of them, he has great insight into human nature, great passion for the gospel”s potential to change lives, and great ideas for the church channeling God”s blessings to our troubled world. He met with us in our annual contributing editors retreat last week and wrote about it in his blog this week: At dinner one night we passed through a buffet line and when it was my turn at the meat counter the guy cutting

September 27, 2012

Christian Standard

Connected?

It”s the theme for a whole semester”s chapel sessions, and I decided to make it the title for the sermon I”m preaching at that chapel today. But I made one small change. “Connected” is the theme chosen by Bryan Sands, campus minister at Hope International University, Fullerton, California. I added a question mark for my one-word title, because some are saying our society is less connected now than ever. Jacqueline Olds and Richard S. Schwartz, for example, have written a book called The Lonely American. The conclusion of these two Harvard Medical School psychiatry professors? “Our society is in the

September 9, 2012

Christian Standard

Spreading the Gospel, Unleashing Compassion

By Justin Horey This summer, as Eastside Christian Church celebrated five decades of dynamic ministry in Southern California, senior pastor Gene Appel emphasized “Eastside”s second 50 years” as much as its first. Later this year, Eastside is scheduled to complete one of the largest, most expensive, and most ambitious relocation projects ever undertaken by a Christian church””with a total project cost of more than $50 million. The church”s leaders believe the project will “carry forward the congregation”s spiritual passion by positioning Eastside for exponential impact in its second 50 years.” Shortly after Eastside Christian Church began meeting in 1962, the

June 6, 2012

Christian Standard

What About Southeast?

By Darrel Rowland A renowned church leader wonders if Bob Russell stayed a little too long at Southeast Christian Church. The rapid growth of the megachurch in Louisville, Kentucky, plateaued a bit in Russell”s final two years there””he stepped down in June 2006″”and successor Dave Stone”s first two. Russell seemed a little slow to move to a multisite model, which in the past few years has sparked renewed growth to nearly 21,000 a week meeting in three facilities. And, frankly, near the end of his 40-year run at Southeast, Russell didn”t show as much energy as he did before. Who

May 16, 2012

Christian Standard

Canyon Creek: Reaching Thousands

By Kent E. Fillinger Not all megachurches are exactly alike. But after studying those on this year”s list, a church growth analyst will see several similarities. This description combines them into one hypothetical story. Managing a growing staff and an expanding ministry is an exciting and sometimes exhausting challenge for megachurch senior minister Brian Roberts. Some days, he”s not sure this is what he originally signed on to do when he came to Canyon Creek Christian Church in 1998. In the beginning, Canyon Creek was a small church with a limited vision. Several faithful families who had moved to a

April 25, 2012

Christian Standard

Missional and Attractional

By Rick Grover Versus is such a compelling word. It immediately communicates conflict, and it ushers concerned parties to set up camp on which side of vs. they believe to be correct. With a basic understanding of missional as to go and be the church and attractional as to come and see the church1, I”ve been on both sides of the vs. I prefer to see it as faith development. When my family and I moved to New Orleans to plant a church, we did so with great clarity on what kind of church we believed God was calling us

January 6, 2012

Christian Standard

In Just One Year: Pundit Predictions

Nothing challenges us to think about changing times more than the transition from one year to the next. On this first day of 2012, we asked six Christian leaders to think about the church a year from now and to draw a picture of our progress””and our problems””then.  * * * By Paul Boatman To predict what we”ll be saying about the church one year from now is difficult, and it”s easy to see why: The January 2013 evaluators of our predictions will have the benefit of hindsight. With information that was simply not available to us at the dawn

August 10, 2011

Christian Standard

Feed My Sheep

By Bill D. Hallsted The dream came again that night. It was always the same dream, with minor variations. In the dream, I was asked by some friends to care for their animals while they were gone. I don”t remember whether the dream even included why they were gone, or for how long. What was clear was my failure. The request, or my agreement, was not at all foreign to my experience. With my background in ranching, it was natural. I knew how to take care of animals. I was also the preacher. Who better to ask for a favor

July 18, 2011

Christian Standard

The Holy Spirit Today

By Chris Seidman Let me begin with some good news. Our imperfect understanding of the work of the Spirit does not serve to limit his actions in our churches. For thousands of years, humans enjoyed the benefits of oxygen without the slightest idea of its chemical properties or how it works in our bodies. When scientists began to better understand oxygen, however, their ability to work in partnership with it also grew. That increased knowledge has improved everything from fighting fires, to saving lives, to optimizing the performance of athletes. Jesus likened the Spirit to wind in John 3, and

April 20, 2011

Christian Standard

The Church Size Matrix (Part 2)

By Kent E. Fillinger The Church Size Matrix looks at six types of organizational change that take place as a church grows. In Part 1 of this article (April 10/17), we looked at two of these changes, Orientation and Structure. This week we consider the remaining four. Minister”s Role In his book One Size Doesn”t Fit All, Gary McIntosh wrote, “As the size of a church increases, the perception of a pastor changes from an emphasis on relational skills, to functional skills, to leadership skills.” It is essential, therefore, to understand the progression of roles required by the senior minister

April 17, 2011

Christian Standard

Interview with Justin Miller

By Brad Dupray At an annual growth rate of 65 percent, Real Life Christian Church of Clermont, Florida, was the fastest-growing megachurch in Christian Standard”s survey a year ago. Justin Miller came to Christ at age 9 at First Christian Church, as Real Life was formerly known. As Justin describes it, he came into ministry “through the “˜doggie door” of church leadership.” Asked to serve the youth of the church as a volunteer, he eventually was called to serve as senior pastor in 2002. Since that time the church has grown from about 200 to its current attendance of about

April 10, 2011

Christian Standard

The Crossing, A Christian Church

By Kent E. Fillinger An apple doesn”t fall far from the tree. The Crossing, A Christian Church, located in the southwest quadrant of Las Vegas, Nevada, embodies this idiom. The Crossing was planted by Canyon Ridge Christian Church on September 24, 2000, and is the youngest megachurch with an average worship attendance of 2,224 last year. Canyon Ridge, located in the northwest valley of Las Vegas, was birthed by Central Christian Church in 1993 and averaged almost 6,000 in attendance last year. Central Christian, also in Las Vegas, averaged close to 18,000 in worship last year. Those are some great

March 9, 2011

Christian Standard

Why We Won”t “˜Lose Our Light”

By Gary Tiffin Christian church colleges and universities could be in trouble in ways we have not considered. Books about similar institutions in the last few years raise quite a few questions. Here is how the story often plays out: a Christian group founds a college, but over decades the relationship weakens and eventually the college frees itself from any obligation or actual alignment with its founding group. Then the college becomes independent and more secular than religious, with few if any remaining traces of its religious roots*. This scenario is not ours! We are not in danger of “losing

November 3, 2010

Christian Standard

From the Served to the Servant

By Chuck Booher Recently, God called a very popular pastor from our staff to start a new church. When it was announced, our people responded with excitement and cheers. I was sure his departure would cause our attendance to plunge, but it didn”t. I think I know the reason why, and that”s what I want to tell you in this article. Basic Training As I came to the office today, I walked by 10 young adults on our campus picking up trash, pulling weeds, and trimming trees. I could not help but smile because they exuded joy in the midst

April 11, 2010

Christian Standard

Megachurches: A Year in Review

By Kent Fillinger Studies, books, and articles that examine high-performing or fast-growing churches abound, and each one seeks to uncover the reasons for their success. The same is true in the business world. Successful companies frequently are profiled in an attempt to ascertain the secrets of their greatness. Recent research from the business world demonstrates that “the “˜great” companies . . . are mostly just lucky.”1 A study of 287 high-performing companies in 13 major success studies showed “that only about one in four of those firms was likely to be remarkable; the rest were indistinguishable from mediocre firms catching

February 7, 2010

Christian Standard

Memoirs of a Young Preacher

By Dale Tinsley I am quietly staring at a computer screen at 3 in the morning. Almost five years have passed since my first encounter with the church I am writing about. These past few years have deeply matured my understanding of God, ministry, and life, and reflecting on this time has led me to new convictions. As I open my heart and tell this story, my hope and prayer is that you hear a calling to live and act according to Christ, and that you might gain insight into how the church should look. VITAL, BUT OVERLOOKED I never

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