{"id":254,"date":"2010-09-14T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-09-14T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/megachurch-list-bigger-faster-growing-better.html"},"modified":"2010-09-14T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-09-14T12:00:00","slug":"megachurch-list-bigger-faster-growing-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/megachurch-list-bigger-faster-growing-better.html","title":{"rendered":"Megachurch Rankings: Bigger, Faster (Growing), Better?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Outreach magazine <\/a>has come out with its list of America’s largest and fastest-growing churches.<\/p>\n

More than one million Americans attend the top 100 largest churches (at 384 worship sites). About half of these churches identify themselves as “nondenominational.” The top five:<\/p>\n

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1. Lakewood Church, Houston, Texas, Joel Osteen, (43,500) <\/p>\n

2. North Point Community Church, Alpharetta, Ga., Andy Stanley (24,325)<\/p>\n

3. Second Baptist Church, Houston, Texas, Ed Young Sr. (24,041)<\/p>\n

4. Willow Creek Community Church, South Barrington, Ill., Bill Hybels (24,000)<\/p>\n

5. Southeast Christian Church, Louisville, Ky., Dave Stone (19,230)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

More than 640,000 Americans attend the top 100 fastest-growing churches (at 373 sites), up 75,246 from last year’s estimate. The top five:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

1. 12Stone Church, Lawrenceville, Ga., Kevin Myers (30% growth of 2,226)<\/p>\n

2. Experience Life Church, Lubbock, Texas, Chris Galanos (60% growth of 1,061)<\/p>\n

3. The Rock Church and World Outreach Center, San Bernardino, Calif., Jim Cobrae (25% growth of 2,646)<\/p>\n

4. People’s Church, Oklahoma City, Okla., Herbert Cooper (58% growth, of 1,085)<\/p>\n

5. Faith Church of St. Louis, Fenton, Mo., David Crank (36% growth of 1,200)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Texas is the winner on both lists, with 17 of the largest and 16 of the fastest-growing churches. (California comes in second on the largest church list, with 16 churches; Florida and Illinois tied for second on the fastest-growing list, each with eight.)<\/p>\n

Prompted by these rankings, USA Today religion reporter Cathy Lynn Grossman asks: does size matter?<\/a> Also, check out Guideposts for more <\/a>on the rise of nondenominational megachurches.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.<\/p>\n

*Click here to <\/span>subscribe to Belief Beat <\/span><\/strong><\/a>and <\/span>click here to <\/span>follow Belief Beat on Twitter.<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Outreach magazine has come out with its list of America’s largest and fastest-growing churches. More than one million Americans attend the top 100 largest churches (at 384 worship sites). About half of these churches identify themselves as “nondenominational.” The top five: 1. Lakewood Church, Houston, Texas, Joel Osteen, (43,500) 2. North Point Community Church, Alpharetta, Ga.,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nMegachurch Rankings: Bigger, Faster (Growing), Better? - Belief Beat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/megachurch-list-bigger-faster-growing-better.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Megachurch Rankings: Bigger, Faster (Growing), Better? - Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Outreach magazine has come out with its list of America’s largest and fastest-growing churches. More than one million Americans attend the top 100 largest churches (at 384 worship sites). About half of these churches identify themselves as “nondenominational.” The top five: 1. Lakewood Church, Houston, Texas, Joel Osteen, (43,500) 2. North Point Community Church, Alpharetta, Ga.,…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/megachurch-list-bigger-faster-growing-better.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-09-14T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nicole Neroulias\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Megachurch Rankings: Bigger, Faster (Growing), Better? - Belief Beat","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/megachurch-list-bigger-faster-growing-better.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Megachurch Rankings: Bigger, Faster (Growing), Better? - Belief Beat","og_description":"Outreach magazine has come out with its list of America’s largest and fastest-growing churches. 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