The Exponential Church
Learning From America’s Largest and Fastest-Growing Congregations

By Bill Easum

In each issue of Outreach, we share the inspiring ideas, insights and stories of churches of all types and sizes. However, once each year Outreach unapologetically reports on the largest and fastest-growing churches in America. We don’t look to these churches as “the best,” the “most spiritual” or any other qualifier; they are simply the largest and—because of their size—command our interest and attention.

Beginning with this report, Outreach is pleased to partner with Dr. John N. Vaughan of Church Growth Today to exclusively publish the lists of America’s largest and fastest-growing churches (pages 52-55). Dr. Vaughan is known internationally as the definitive researcher in the area of church growth and is the nation’s leading expert on megachurches. We’re grateful for his work and insightful analysis of the trends indicated by this research.

We have again asked veteran church consultant and author Bill Easum, a man with both vision and perspective about the American church, to lend his voice to this year’s church profiles, introducing us to some ministries we think will challenge you.

Twenty years ago American megachurches (more than 2,000 attendance) numbered just over two dozen. Today, they exceed more than 830, with more than 30 now exceeding 10,000 worshippers—launching a whole new category we call the “gigachurch.” This growing number of large churches is also indicative of a shift in church attendance. Today, fully 3 million church attendees go to a megachurch vs. 897,000 only 10 years ago. Thirty-five of these churches are less than a decade old. The landscape of the Christian church is changing faster than at any other point in American history.

In this report we will introduce you to five churches taken from within the ranks of the top 100 largest and fastest-growing churches. Like all the churches on the list, they are growing rapidly. However they are also exceptional examples of what I call “faithful” churches. Each has a high rate of conversion growth, adding people to the Kingdom of God rather than just relying on transfer growth from other churches or reconnecting “de-churched” people. These five are by no means the only “faithful” churches on the list, or the only ones with significant conversion growth. They are simply solid, representative ministries, each one offering a unique ministry focus that will challenge our own churches as we learn from them.

A biblically faithful church exists to transform both individuals and the society around it. A faithful church grows because of its faithful, transformational approach to people and society. A faithful church is a disciple-making church, including both conversion of non-believers and maturity of its fold. Specifically at issue: How much life-changing impact a church has on the
surrounding community.

The churches we’ve profiled, Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas; Christ of the Valley in Peoria, Ariz.; The L.A. Dream Center in Los Angeles, Calif.; Calvary Chapel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.; and our “One to Watch,” Christ the King Community Church in Skagit Valley, Wash., were all chosen as examples to represent the ever-increasing number of faithful churches growing up across our country. Enjoy reading their stories and the accompanying report. We hope they will be a catalyst for dialog and reflection at your own church.
 

MISSION CRITICAL
Trends for the 21st Century Church

We are living in a new and exciting “Great Commission” kind of decade.

Over the last 20 years, I’ve researched America’s church landscape and have watched churches grow larger and faster at an unprecedented rate. The two lists in this issue of Outreach—the 100 Fastest-Growing U.S. Churches of the 21st Century and 100 Largest Churches in America—reflect data collected from 1999 to March 2004. The information used to compile these lists comes as a result of years of gathering attendance information from non-Catholic, Christian independent churches and denominations, as well as two national censuses on non-denominational churches.

In each case, I asked churches and denominations to submit their attendances for several areas: inside and outside the worship center, Sunday school classes and home groups. These are key questions to help gauge the future growth and health of the 21st century church.

MEGATRENDS
These lists and the research I’ve gathered for the past 20 years indicate several sweeping and important trends or “megatrends” for our churches.

The secular media frequently stereotypes today’s churches as congregations huddled in secluded church buildings and insulated from the hurting communities around them. Increasingly, these churches experiencing rapid growth are churches that have a passion for reaching the unchurched.

MEGATREND No.1: Rapid Growth
One of the most important and visible changes in church growth over the last 20 years is the size and rate at which churches have expanded and will continue to grow.

From indications I have received from Catholic sources and major media leaders, the largest U.S. churches today are no longer Catholic churches. They are evangelical, Pentecostal, denominational and independent churches. Sixty of the churches on the Largest list are denominational churches while 40 are independent. Twenty-three are Baptist, 20 are non-charismatic independent churches, and 20 are charismatic independent churches.

Since 1970, we’ve seen the number of megachurches grow from 10 to now 835. And congregations are reaching mega-church status in less time. Since the late 1950s, the time it has taken for a church to grow large has been cut in half almost every decade. Ten of the churches started in 1990 reached attendances of 5,000 to 18,000 in one decade.

What’s driving this growth? The factors are many, including the migration of people to urban centers, word-of-mouth, sharpened leadership skills, churches becoming multigenerational and most recently, Web site access, TV exposure and megachurches teaching other churches through seminars, books and curriculum.

MEGATREND N0. 2: Small Groups
The most significant church growth event in the U.S. Church today and for decades to come is the explosion of small groups— meeting both in Sunday school classes and during the week outside the church.

Research shows that one-tenth of the U.S. adult population is involved in a Sunday school class and/or home group. This represents a real opportunity for Kingdom growth—plus a large amount of responsibility, specifically in the area of equipping leaders to handle this influx.

Right now, we don’t have enough small group leaders who know what they’re doing, and not enough pastors equipped to train and mentor their small group leadership. As a result, any “viruses” in these groups are multiplying when churches continue to add more small groups.

To continue to grow safely and prevent people from drifting away, a church must be intentional about equipping group leaders before they begin; monitoring the size of individual groups (not more than 16); and structuring its existing groups to birth new ones.

MEGATREND No. 3: Multi-Service
As churches grow larger they are becoming more creative in their use of time and space.
Taking a cue from our neighbors to the East in Seoul, Korea, U.S. churches are holding as many as six to seven worship services on Sundays and on other days like Friday, Saturday and Monday—giving worship centers a “small feel.”

These U.S. church leaders are learning from one another and even from smaller churches. For example, North Coast Church in Vista, Calif. (No. 43 Fastest-Growing church)has modeled an up-and-coming “video venue” approach to weekend services that Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. (No. 15 Fastest-Growing church) recently adopted. The concept encourages multiple worship styles while maintaining a single pastoral message in multiple on-site congregations.

As a result, Saddleback’s attendance has grown from 18,000 to more than 20,000 each week. The future potential to build a larger worship center is still there, but the video venues allow Saddleback to multiply its ministry while maximizing smaller space —with diversity.

The video venues also conserve the physical resources of the pastor, allowing him or her to preach to sometimes 10 congregations at one time.

MEGATREND No. 4: Diversity
Our churches are not the anemic church profiles portrayed in much of today’s media projection of America’s churches and their leaders. Approximately 30 of the nation’s 100 largest churches are heavily ethnically mixed. Twenty-eight are African-American, and about 42 are mostly white congregations.

However, to keep up with the exploding number of Hispanics (now the largest min-ority group in the U.S.), the U.S. Church will need to be intentional about the evan-gelization of new Latino generations. That means birthing thousands of new congregations to encourage Kingdom growth.

I see this as one of the greatest challenges facing the Church today. U.S. churches will need to help Latino churches grow larger and multiply congregations. In the next decade, 1,000 Latino churches would not be too many.

The future belongs to the church that’s alert to these trends and is open to change; honors God’s Word; is concerned for souls; and organizes for assimilation and growth.

The big challenge for all of our churches is to be sure that we keep our focus on the Great Commission mandate Christ gave to His churches. Let’s encourage and learn from each other. Our compass is still the Word of God, and the source of our best ideas is still the Holy Spirit as He works among His churches.


 

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