Big Fat American Churches!

The top 10 largest churches in America, and links to their websites:

1. Lakewood: Joel Osteen Houston TX (30,000 people)
2. Saddleback Valley Community Church: Rick Warren Lake Forest CA (22,000)
3. Willow Creek Community Church: Bill Hybels South Barrington IL (20,000)
4. Fellowship Church : Ed Young Grapevine TX (19,500)
5. Southeast Christian Church: Robert Russell Louisville KY (18,757)
6. The Potter's House : T.D. Jakes Dallas TX (18,500)
7. Calvary Chapel : Robert Coy Ft. Lauderdale FL (18,000)
8. New Birth Missionary Baptist : Eddie Long Lithonia GA (18,000)
9. Crenshaw Christian Center : Fred Price Los Angeles CA (17,000)
10. Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa : Chuck Smith, Sr Santa Ana CA (16,500)

These stats came from a blog that did some fun and interesting analysis on the 1,300 largest churches on a report from Hartford Institute for Religion Research.


Other fun facts from the above mentioned blog:

Number of pastors named George- 15

Number of pastors named Dick- 3

Number of pastors named Benny Hinn- 1

Congregations with the word “church" in their name- 965

“center”- 79

“fellowship”- 67

“family”- 24

“temple”- 26

“tabernacle”- 15

“Baptist”- 349

“missionary Baptist”- 18

“Abyssinian Baptist”- 1

“Christian”- 147 (as opposed to the churches on the list who are Buddhist)

“Christ”- 107 (see above)

First Baptist- 81

Second Baptist- 5

Third Baptist- 1

“victory”- 11

“defeat”- 0

"A church may have a very short muster-roll, and yet it may be very dear to God, who thinks more of quality than of quantity, more of obedience than of numbers." - C.H. Spurgeon