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Megachurch Attendance in America
Data from the Hartford Institute for Religious Research ^ | 3/31/06 | Dangus

Posted on 03/31/2006 4:39:47 PM PST by dangus

Yesterday, I posted an article about new data from the National Council of Churches about the decline of mainline Protestant churches. The NCC had no data to report about non-denominational churches. Several posts referred to "non-doms" and megachurches.

Turns out there was a very recent study by the Hartford Institute for Religious Research, that found 1336 "megachurches." (Although the study supposedly defined "megachurches" as having more than 2,000 attendees per weekend, 124 churches did not meet this definition.) This is a substantially greater number than has been tossed bout in research; a 2001 study found only about 800.

Most of these "megachurches" are not non-denominational, although non-denominational churches make up the largest number.

299 churches defined themselves as Non-denominational. 131 simply reported "none" and 58 reported "Christian." (Are these the same people who fill out "human" on their census form when it asks their race? I mean... duh! Or are they calling everyone else non-Christian?) Together, these totaled 1.85 million attendees. (200,000 answered they were Christian; 400,000 did not answer.)

The next biggest numbers were Baptist, with over 1.1 million attendees. Most were Southern Baptist (216 congregations with 692,000 members); with many simply answering "Baptist" (123 congregations with 376,000 members).

Other sizeable groups included Assemblies of God (257,000 members in 90 congregations), United Methodists (231,000 attendees in 68 congregations), and the Church of Christ (108,000 in 29 congregations). And yes, there are Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Seventh-Day Adventist. Only one Catholic church was included, although I know of several which are easily large enough to be included.


TOPICS: Catholic; Charismatic Christian; Current Events; Evangelical Christian; General Discusssion; Mainline Protestant; Ministry/Outreach; Religion & Culture; Worship
KEYWORDS: dangus; megachurch; ncc; topten
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1 posted on 03/31/2006 4:39:47 PM PST by dangus
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To: dangus

I presume "CAL" stood for Calvinist? There were 250,000 attendees in 51 "CAL" congregations.


2 posted on 03/31/2006 4:41:31 PM PST by dangus
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To: dangus
A church is to be measured by the yield of its collection plate, not by attendance. A mega-church has mega-collection. What definition could be simpler?
3 posted on 03/31/2006 4:45:06 PM PST by GSlob
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To: dangus
I presume "CAL" stood for Calvinist? There were 250,000 attendees in 51 "CAL" congregations.

CAL stands for Calvary Chapel.

4 posted on 03/31/2006 5:22:35 PM PST by Alex Murphy (Colossians 4:5)
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To: Alex Murphy

Now that I know what to look for, I can plainly see that you are absolutely correct...


5 posted on 03/31/2006 5:55:33 PM PST by dangus
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To: GSlob

So in your view a church of 50 that gave a 1,000 each week totaling 50,000 aweek would be a megachurch? And a church of 1,000 people in a poor area giving 10 a week totaling 10,000 would be a small church?


6 posted on 03/31/2006 8:15:29 PM PST by John 6.66=Mark of the Beast?
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To: dangus
Words have meanings. Define mega-church and when everyone accepts that definition, we'll know how many there are.
7 posted on 03/31/2006 8:20:06 PM PST by DocRock
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To: John 6.66=Mark of the Beast?

Church with collection in the thousands would be a kilo-church. Like kilotons and megatons. Verstehen?


8 posted on 03/31/2006 8:47:17 PM PST by GSlob
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To: GSlob

How much money do you think the mega chuch is receving each week?


9 posted on 03/31/2006 9:36:09 PM PST by John 6.66=Mark of the Beast?
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To: John 6.66=Mark of the Beast?
To qualify as a mega-church one million is a threshold. [and NOT one million pennies - that's cheating].
10 posted on 03/31/2006 9:38:46 PM PST by GSlob
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To: dangus
Only one Catholic church was included, although I know of several which are easily large enough to be included.

Some (many) Catholics would be inclined to remind that there IS only one Catholic church. And I would add that it is quite mega.

11 posted on 03/31/2006 9:50:40 PM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: GSlob

I've never measured my wealth in megabucks. I'd be happy with a few kilobucks.


12 posted on 03/31/2006 9:51:56 PM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: Larry Lucido

Well, a kilobuck these days does not go as far as it used to, say, about 100+ years ago. Then $1000 was real money.


13 posted on 03/31/2006 10:30:27 PM PST by GSlob
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To: GSlob

Do you have any proof to back this up with? Your saying they take in a million each sunday?


14 posted on 03/31/2006 10:42:17 PM PST by John 6.66=Mark of the Beast?
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To: John 6.66=Mark of the Beast?

Nope. What i said is that to be a proper mega-church they NEED to be taking in at least a million in one sitting. Otherwise they are not a mega-church but impostors.


15 posted on 03/31/2006 11:09:22 PM PST by GSlob
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To: GSlob

Mega-churches are to small independent churches as Costco or Sam's are to the local supermarket or Mom & Pop store.

There were organizational management professionals in the last 30 years who believed a larger number of people could be served in both evangelism and in Bible study via a centralized 'mega-church' vice numerous local churches.

Just as there are small churches that might have drifted away from fellowship, there are more public spectacles of 'mega-churches' that have given 'church' a bad name.

A church is merely a body of believers. A mega-church is a large body of believers, colloquially associated with gleaning from economies of scale.

In either church, the believer only advances in spiritual growth by sanctification from the Holy Spirit, a very personal and equal opportunity for all believers.


16 posted on 04/01/2006 3:09:50 AM PST by Cvengr
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To: GSlob; Larry Lucido

Sorry, but 1 Megachurch=1 million CHURCHES.

Larry's right... There is only 1 denomination with a megachurch... and if that denomination has only 1 Mchurch, it would still have at least 1 Kparishioners per church!

That's right folks... Catlicks got a gigaparishioner, worldwide!

(Yes, Larry, I know that's not what you meant!)


17 posted on 04/01/2006 6:25:33 AM PST by dangus
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To: dangus

... now checking to see if my library has 2 KMockingbird


18 posted on 04/01/2006 6:30:36 AM PST by dangus
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To: dangus

... The Christian Church, now installing 1 TPacem.

(That would be 1 Terra Pacem... :^D ( ~Peace on Earth))


19 posted on 04/01/2006 6:42:36 AM PST by dangus
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To: dangus

that's good, 'cause there are a lot of Mlomaniacs out there.


20 posted on 04/01/2006 6:50:20 AM PST by Nihil Obstat
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