Researchers Launch Extensive Survey on U.S. Mega Churches

A new study found there are at least 1,200 MegaChurches in the United States – 50 percent more than previously thought by most religion researchers – and the number may be growing.

By Pauline J. Chang, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, July 27, 2005

A new study found there are at least 1,200 MegaChurches in the United States – 50 percent more than previously thought by most religion researchers – and the number may be growing.

“Our preliminary research for the major survey effort indicates there could very well be another 200 to 400 megachurches in addition to these,” said Warren Bird, the Director of Leadership Community Intellectual Capital Support at the Leadership Network.

Earlier this year, the Leadership Network – the foremost networking and resource organization for very large churches - joined with the Hartford Institute for Religion Research for one of the most extensive mega-church project ever undertaken. Together they found there were at least 1,200 Protestant churches claiming more than 2,000 weekly worship attendants.

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In the past, each organization held a database of around 850 “very large churches” in the U.S. When the two groups compared their records, they found only 600 churches overlapped on both list, leaving hundreds of churches unaccounted for.

“I would never have guessed that either of our groups could have missed so many additional megachurches,” said Scott Thumma, a professor of sociology at Hartford Seminary who studied megachurches since 1988.

Last week, the two groups sent a survey to each of those 1,200 church plus 500 more to “know for sure” how many super-sized churches there really are.

“We hope and pray that each megachurch that receives a survey will fill it out and return it so that we can help correct misperceptions and better network these churches with each other," said Dave Travis researcher at Leadership Network.

The 2005 Megachurches Today questionnaire, which can also be completed online, asks a series of questions regarding the theological identity, political affinity, evangelistic vigor and the worship style of the church.

The two groups hope to repeat the survey every two years in order to “shed new light on the megachurch phenomenon that generates such attention from the media and the religious world alike.” The last such survey was conducted in 1999, but included results from only 153 megachurches.

Preliminary analysis of the project shows that the 1,200 churches account for more than four million weekly attendants and possibly as many as eight to 12 million members, though they make up only three-tenths of one percent of all congregations.

That means "the largest 10 percent of congregations contain about half of all churchgoers,” according to Mark Chavez, author of Congregations in America.

One of the largest megachurches, the Lakewood Church in Houston Texas, claims over 30,000 weekly attendants. The church, led by mega-pastor Joel Olsteen, just recently opened its new sanctuary in the old Compaq Convention Center in Houston. It invested nearly $100 million to renovate the basketball court into a chapel that features cascading seats, special effects lighting, and waterfall displays.

Lakewood is only one of over 170 megachurches in Texas – the state with the most megachurches in the U.S. There are 56 megachurches in Houston and Dallas alone.

In terms of affiliation, the greatest number of megachurches is non-denominational or Southern Baptist, followed by the Assemblies of God, the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. and the United Methodist Church.

According to researchers at the Hartford Institute, these figures represent preliminary data, and “much more will be known with certainty as the questionnaires come in.”