List of the largest evangelical churches

This list of the largest evangelical megachurches contains evangelical Christian megachurches by weekly
attendance. Large churches from other denominations, like Catholicism, are not included as they are not
deemed to belong to the megachurch phenomenon which by definition is part of Protestantism. The list is
not exhaustive, there are large annual changes, and there are difficulties to compare the churches as
different methods to count can be used.

Characteristics
The term megachurch is used for churches with regular attendance of 2,000 people. When it has more than
10,000 people who gather together, the term gigachurch is sometimes used.[1][2]

Research institutes

Annual publications

Church Growth Today is a research center which publishes annually lists of evangelical Christian
megachurches in USA and the world.[3][4]

Lifeway research is a research center which publishes annually a list of evangelical Christian megachurches
in USA.[5]

Directories

The Leadership Network contains a directory of all Christian megachurches of the world (excluding
Canada and USA).[6] This global list has over 270 megachurches. The Hartford Institute has compiled
directories in Canada and the USA. The US list has more than 1,668 megachurches[7][8] and the Canadian
list 22.[9]

Data accuracy
The numbers reported are not accurate by any means, as attendance and membership may be defined very
differently.[10] Attendance may include people that are not legally members of the church, not baptised,
non-believers, children, and may even belong to other churches. Some churches include their, sometimes
loosely, affiliated churches in other places and even people that attend by electronic media. As many have
several services on one day, there may be some overlap, with people attending more than one service. The
exact number of people is seldom counted, thus estimation errors can occur. There is an obvious
psychological boost from reporting growing numbers, "success", for enhanced credibility and motivation to
support the work. The megachurches may quite be different from traditional evangelical congregations
where clear membership records are maintained, to define who has legal right to vote in the church
assembly, who can be appointed to public offices and who belongs to the flock under direct pastoral care,
and the pastor can often be replaced. The megachurches are often formed around a strong leader that stays
in charge for decades, it is often like his "own personal enterprise", many times with limited economic
transparency, a tendency that has been questioned in various countries.[11][12][13] In notable cases the
headship has been passed on from father to son, like in Lakewood Church. Many megachurches have had
an affiliation to a denomination, but have become independent, thus outside the denominational supervision
that is common for non-independent congregations. Thus, in cases of irregularities, a pastor may continue
without disciplinary measures, due to their sheer power, and any disappointed members may leave but new
people keep coming in, with reduced effect on attendance.[14]

Hence, due to inaccuracies, the same church can sometimes be reported to have attendance and
membership counts that differ 5-10 times, depending on how reporting is done and who is doing it, e.g.
Yoido Full Gospel Church can sometimes be mentioned with attendance numbers over 800,000.[15]

List
The list below is of the largest Evangelical megachurches with weekly attendance of more than 30,000
people.
 Average
Name Association Denomination City Country weekly
attendance

Yoido Full South

Gospel Church
Assemblies of God Pentecostalism Seoul
Korea 480,000[6]

Church of Signs Charismatic Jalandhar,

and Wonders
No
Christianity Punjab
India 400,000[16][17]

Nondenominational
Calvary Temple No
Christianity
Hyderabad India 350,000[6][18]

Nginden Bethany Indonesian Charismatic

Bethany Church Church Christianity
Surabaya Indonesia 140,000[6]

Every Nation Nondenominational

Victory (church)
Churches Christianity
Manila Philippines 80,000[6]

New Life
New Life Fellowship Nondenominational
Fellowship
Association Christianity
Mumbai India 70,000[6]
Association

Deeper Life
Bible Church
No Pentecostalism Lagos Nigeria 65,000[6]

Christ's
Christ's Commission Nondenominational
Commission
Fellowship Christianity
Pasig Philippines 55,000[6]
Fellowship
Lakewood Nondenominational United
Church
No
Christianity
Houston
States 52,000[3]

Church of the Nondenominational United

Highlands
No
Christianity
Birmingham
States 52,000[7]

Living Faith Church Charismatic

Faith Tabernacle
Worldwide Christianity
Lagos Nigeria 50,000[6]

Convenção Batista
Igreja Batista da Belo
Lagoinha
Nacional (Baptist Baptist
Horizonte
Brazil 50,000[6]
World Alliance)

Mision Cristiana
San El
Elim No Pentecostalism
Salvador Salvador 50,000[6]
Internacional

Redeemed
Christian Church No Pentecostalism Lagos Nigeria 50,000[6]
of God
Comunidad
Charismatic
Cristiana Agua No
Christianity
Lima Peru 42,000[6]
Viva

General Council of the

New Life
Assemblies of God of
Assembly of
India (Assemblies of
Pentecostalism Chennai India 40,000[6]
God
God)
North Point
Nondenominational United
Community No
Christianity
Alpharetta
States 38,589[5]
Church

See also
Christianity portal
 List of the largest evangelical church auditoriums
List of megachurches in the United States
Worship service (evangelicalism)

References

Citations
1. Alicia Budich, cbsnews.com, From Megachurch to "Gigachurch" (http://www.cbsnews.com/n
ews/from-megachurch-to-gigachurch/), USA, April 6, 2012
2. Ed Stetzer, Newspaper christianitytoday.com, Megachurch Research - Terminology (http://w
ww.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2008/october/megachurch-research--terminology.html),
USA, October 9, 2008
3. Ruth Gledhill, Newspaper Christian Today, Church growth: World's largest churches are
getting bigger (http://www.christiantoday.com/article/church.growth.worlds.largest.churches.a
re.getting.bigger/94955.htm), USA, September 08, 2016
4. Dr. John Vaughan, Church Growth Today, About (http://www.churchgrowthtoday.com/About.h
tml) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20161031030000/http://www.churchgrowthtoday.c
om/About.html) 2016-10-31 at the Wayback Machine, USA, retrieved February 15, 2020
5. Lifeway research, Largest Churches List (https://outreach100.com/largest-churches-in-ameri
ca/2020), outreachmagazine.com, USA, retrieved January 16, 2021
6. Megachurches spread across the world - Leadership Network (https://leadnet.org/world/)
7. Hartford Institute Database of megachurches in the US (http://www.hartfordinstitute.org/mega
church/database.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20160429182702/http://www.h
artfordinstitute.org/megachurch/database.html) 2016-04-29 at the Wayback Machine,
hartfordinstitute.org's website, USA, retrieved February 15, 2020
8. Rick Noack, Lazaro Gamio, Newspaper washingtonpost.com, How US-style megachurches
are Taking Over the World, in 5 maps and charts (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wor
ldviews/wp/2015/07/24/how-u-s-style-megachurches-are-taking-over-the-world-in-5-maps-a
nd-charts/), USA, 24 July 2015
9. Hartford Institute Megachurches of Canada (http://www.hartfordinstitute.org/megachurch/can
adian-megachurches.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20160306075806/http://w
ww.hartfordinstitute.org/megachurch/canadian-megachurches.html) 2016-03-06 at the
Wayback Machine, hartfordinstitute.org's website, USA, retrieved February 15, 2020
10. Do Pastors Exaggerate Attendance Figures? (http://www.crosswalk.com/blogs/dr-ray-pritcha
rd/do-pastors-exaggerate-attendance-figures-11529586.html)
11. Senator Probes Megachurches' Finances (https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?stor
yId=16860611)
12. Controversial Megachurch Pastor Won't Discuss Finances Because of Jesus (http://www.ch
arismanews.com/us/53191-controversial-megachurch-pastor-won-t-discuss-finances-becau
se-of-jesus)
13. Are Prosperity Preachers Destroying the Traditional Black Church? A Review of 'Black
Church Inc' (http://www.christianpost.com/news/are-prosperity-preachers-destroying-the-trad
itional-black-church-a-review-of-black-church-inc-121694/)
14. Will Europe's Third-Largest Church Punish Pastor for Multiple Affairs? (http://www.christianit
ytoday.com/gleanings/2016/may/will-embassy-of-god-punish-sunday-adelaja-multiple-affair
s.html)
15. The Economist: O come all ye faithful (http://www.economist.com/node/10015239)
16. "Ankur Narula Ministries -The Church of Signs and Wonders 4th Largest Church in World"
(https://web.archive.org/web/20200606112411/https://blogsyear.com/ankur-narula-ministries
-the-church-of-signs-and-wonders-4th-largest-church-in-world-2/). May 8, 2020. Archived
from the original (https://blogsyear.com/ankur-narula-ministries-the-church-of-signs-and-won
ders-4th-largest-church-in-world-2/) on 6 June 2020.
17. ankurnarula.org/about-ankur-narula-ministries (https://ankurnarula.org/about-ankur-narula-m
inistries)
18. calvarytemple.in/about (http://www.calvarytemple.in/about/)

Sources
Content on this page has been translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at
fr:Liste de megachurches évangéliques; see its history for attribution.
"Megachurches" (http://hirr.hartsem.edu/megachurch/megachurches.html). Hartford Institute.
2016. Retrieved 2016-06-26.
"World Megachurches" (http://leadnet.org/world). Leadership Network. 2020. Retrieved
2020-02-15.

Further reading
Sébastien Fath. Dieu XXL, la révolution des mégachurches. France: Édition Autrement,
2008.

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