The Outreach 100 Largest and Fastest Growing Churches

This week, Outreach Magazine released The Outreach 100, its annual report of the largest and fastest growing churches in America.

The top 5 largest U.S. churches are:

(church name, location, senior pastor, attendance)

1 Lakewood Church Houston TX Joel Osteen 43,500

2 North Point Ministries Alpharetta GA Andy Stanley 30,982

3 Willow Creek Community Church South Barrington IL Bill Hybels 24,200

4 Phoenix First Assembly of God Phoenix AZ Luke Barnett & Tommy Barnett 22,500

5 Southeast Christian Church Louisville KY Dave Stone 22,496

The top 5 fastest growing U.S. churches are:

(church name, location, senior pastor, percent growth)

1 New Direction Christian Church Memphis TN Stacy Spencer 42%

2 Flatirons Community Church Lafayette CO Jim Burgen 38%

3 Mars Hill Church Seattle WA Mark Driscoll 37%

4 Sun Valley Community Church Gilbert AZ Scott Ridout & Chad Moore 47%

5 Newhope Church Durham NC Benji Kelley 56%

Some discoveries from the study:

• 47 of the largest churches are nondenominational; 41 of the fastest growing churches are nondenominational.
• The majority of churches on the list have multi-site campuses.
• Average age of the largest churches: 47 years.
• Average of the fastest-growing churches: 42 years.
• States with the most largest churches 1 Texas (18), 2 California (17), 3 Georgia (8), 4 Florida (7), 5 Tennessee (5).
• Average tenure of current senior pastor in largest churches: 20 years; Average tenure of current senior pastor in fastest-growing churches: 13 years.

You can download the 2012 list here.

See also: Ed Stetzer’s Building the Kingdom Beyond the Campus.