We know how much you love lists ranking churches, so how about the top 100 Fastest Growing U.S. Churches in 2006? Outreach magazine offers the list, compiled from a Church Growth Today study.
Some interesting facts about this list:
- 52 of the 100 churches are new to the list (they didn’t appear on the 2005 list).
- Texas is the state with the most growing churches at 19. California, Florida and Georgia are tie for second with eight. (Apparently church growth only happens in warm climates. Wimps.)
- The oldest church on the list is 165 years old; the youngest church is 3 years old.
- You can also check out the top 25 churches plotted out on a Google map.
JD
August 6, 2006
Look at the 2005 list and some of the fastest growing churches have actually declined. Not sure where they are getting their numbers … must be that new math. Seems these churches are gaining a lot of new people but they leak – they are also losing a lot.
A.B. Dada
August 7, 2006
While I think it’s great to see some churches growing, I am sort of sick of the “this is how we got so big” book-deal mentality. I really want to read a book about the top churches that have shrank significantly — that would be something to learn from.
Many churches that explode in number have done so due to reasons that others can’t mimic. Sometimes they’re just in the right place at the right time with the right assembly of people looking for what they’re providing.
Big Mike
August 11, 2006
A lot of these churches have grown simply because their “pastors” have been on TBN too much.
I wonder how many new Christians they have been growing instead of swapping people who already believe.
JD
August 12, 2006
I couldn’t even imagine going to a church like Joel Osteen’s. It’d be like a major sporting event every Sunday. How do you even begin to run an operation like that?
Look at that, another JD…
Paul Urban
September 12, 2006
Lots of great churches on that list. I wonder what it would look like if it truly was the “fastest growing churches in the US” list? Shouldn’t they go by percentages? I know a number of churches that grew by 60-90%, but only added 100-200 people because they are a newer or smaller church. They are truly some of the fastest growing churches around.
Carl
September 12, 2006
I agree with Paul; I think they should be done by percentage, not sheer numbers. I mean, the number 98 church on the list (COR), grew by 650, but their membership is over 12,000. That’s less than 1%. My church grew by 24% last year, but we didn’t make the list because that accounts for “only” 68 people.
Marian
October 23, 2006
I don’t think church “growth” can really be measured. It is not how many people you can fit in a building to entertain, but how many true disciples you are making. How deep are the roots of your members going? Are you just filling your building with a bunch of passionless people or are you really making a difference? And, this really can’t be measured because it is a matter of the heart. If you are really doing OUTreach, many times these people don’t make it into the walls of your church, but you direct them to a place where they can grow the best. When people do surveys like this it is like they are trying to make church into a competition about who is doing it best. People just need to hear God and obey and work together in unity. There is one church in america with many congregations.
Tommy
April 8, 2007
Who Cares really? Wheres the list for churches who most positivly effected their community. Ive been inside staff meetings as a staff member of one of the Top 100 Largest churches in America and it honestly felt like being in a Corporate meeting for Wal-Mart it was very plastic, and stuffy during those meetings, NUMBERS NUMBERS and MORE NUMBERS. Seriously come on, at our leadership conference Pastors from churches all across america would come and walk around asking eachother how are your numbers? Seriously I felt like I was in a Junior High again you know where boys claim to be so well endowed, if you know where Im going with this. When are pastors going to stop walking around saying “Mines bigger than yours.” And start focusing on things that truly matter?
Phillip Santillan
April 14, 2007
Tommy,
I totally agree with you, but I also have to chime in and ask you a question. How do we know how many people ot saved on the day of pentecost, or how many people gathered in the “upper room” to pray? Because someone counted. You sound a little jaded from YOUR esperience with pastors, but when I go to our pastor’s conference here in the southeast, I don’t here any of the type of “Junior High” talk.
I’m not advocating this list of fastest growing churches, but I’m not throwing the baby out with the bath water too. While this list doesn’t fit what I see to be what I would consider “fastest growing”, numbers is a part of the equation for determining if what you’re doing is effective. It’s like the old saying, “He who no one follows takes a walk by himself.”