Put on your Sunday best and get ready for the biggest churches in Asia. I remember going to church every week in Catholic school. It was actually really fun because we got out of class. I still remember where my seat was in the church–within view of this really cool candelabrum. I mean, not that I wasn’t paying full attention. Don’t tell the nuns!
Still, there are all sorts of reasons to visit churches today–including to worship or practice your religion. These places also are often beautifully constructed, or at least can help you understand a different culture or belief system. But what are the biggest churches in Asia? Well, we have the list for you below. You may also be interested in the 10 Biggest Churches in New York City.
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Asia is the largest continent in the world, and home to some of the most diverse cultures and countries. Christianity is not the major religion in Asia, but the continent is home to about 3 billion people and there are a significant number of Christians in Asia.
For our list today we took help from the website Leadnet. There we found a document managed by Warren Bird Ph.D, that had great statistics about churches in the world. To make a list, we could have taken several approaches, we could have gone for the largest church by area or by cost, but instead we opted for the average number of attendees per week–since religion is all about the people who follow it. Without further ado, let’s get started with our list of 10 biggest churches in Asia.
10. Kwanglim (Burning Bush) Methodist Church
Weekly attendance: 35,000
Country: South Korea
City: Seoul
Start year: 1953
We would like to start off our list with Kwanglim (Burning Bush) Methodist Church, founded by Sun do Kim. However, the current pastor of the church is Chung Suk Kim the founding pastor’s son. After the establishment of the church back in 1953, the church had some initial difficulties, and it took until 1977 to reach attendance exceeding 2,000. However, the church has grown immensely in popularity since then, and it now boasts around 35,000 weekly attendance.
9. New Life Assembly of God
Weekly attendance: 40,000
Country: India
City: Chennai
Start year: 1973
The founding pastor of the New Life Assembly of God Church in Chennai is Dr. David Mohan. The New Life Assembly of God has over 8,000 member churches, and it also operates a college at Bangalore, India. The church headquarters in Chennai has the worship seating capacity of 4500, but still, it sees over 40,000 average weekly attendees.
8. Bethany Church of God
Weekly attendance: 50,000
Country: Indonesia
City: Surabaya
Start year: 1978
At number 8 position of our list today, we have Bethany Church of God, which sees a weekly average of 50,000 thousand attendees. The founding pastor of the church is Abraham Alex Tanuseputra, a highly celebrated pastor in the region. Although the headquarters of the Bethany Church of God is in Jakarta, Indonesia but the church located at Surabaya Indonesia made our list due to the high number of average attendees each week, which is well over 50,000. Approximately the church has about 2.5 million members spread across 5,000 churches in several countries.
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7. Yeshu Darbar (Royal Court of Jesus)
Weekly attendance: 50,000
Country: India
City: Allahabad
Start year: 2000
The founding pastor Rajendra B. Lal use to hold small bible studies weekly, but in the year 2000, it sudden became a massive open-air meeting, and the Yeshu Darbar (or in English, Royal Court of Jesus) was founded. Since then it has gained a lot of popularity in India, and it has established several branches throughout the entire country. As you can see from the stats, Yeshu Darbar receives about 50,000 people weekly for services; some even come from very remote villages to participate in the church’s services during weekends.
6. Pyungkang Cheil Presbyterian Church
Weekly attendance: 60,000
Country: South Korea
City: Seoul
Start year: 1964
We are half way through our list of biggest churches in Asia and at this crucial juncture, we have a church from South Korea, the Pyungkang Cheil Presbyterian Church. Which was founded by Abraham Park Yoon-sik in 1964. The church weekly receives an average of 60,000 people, and it has a seating capacity of 17,000 people as well.
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5. Victory Metro Manila
Weekly attendance: 65,000
Country: Philippines
City: Manila
Start year: 1984
This church is located in Manila, Philippines the capital city of the country. Naturally, the church has a pretty busy time there as many people live in Manila. It was founded in 1984 by Pastor Steve Murrell, and it has churches and campus ministries in about 69 nations. Its membership count is as high as 110,000. It provides services to 65,000 people on a weekly basis on average. Therefore, it is ranked in the top five of our list of biggest churches in Asia.
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4. New Life Church
Weekly attendance: 70,000
Country: India
City: Mumbai
Start year: 1968
The church was founded in India by Graham and Pamela Truscott from affiliated with New Life Churches of New Zealand. However, since its inception, it has become a megachurch by its own right, as you can see it receives more than 70,000 weekly attendees on average. It has multiple branches throughout India, and it has plans to expand in other countries.
3. Onnuri (All Nations) Community Church
Weekly attendance: 75,000
Country: South Korea
City: Seoul
Start year: 1984
Let’s begin at the church building, which is considered to be one of the 25 mega structures in South Korea, and needless to say one of the most expensive buildings to build as well. As you can see, despite it being a local church of Seoul, it sees an average attendance of 75,000 people on a weekly basis. The church was founded back in 1984 by the pastor Yong Jo Hah. However, the current pastor of the Church is Jae Hoon Lee.
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2. Calvary Temple Church
Weekly attendance: 130,000
Country: India
City: Hyderabad (Kukatpally)
Start year: 2005
This church located in Hyderabad (Kukatpally) is relatively a new church on our list of biggest churches in Asia. It was founded merely a decade back in 2005 by pastor Satish Kumar. In this very short time, it has managed to become a mega church serving more than 130,000 people on an average every week. The church also operates a Bible College for the preparation of ministry.
1. Yoido Full Gospel Church
Weekly attendance: 200,000
Country: South Korea
City: Seoul
Start year: 1958
At the top position of our list, yet again, we have a South Korean church founded back in 1958 by David Yonggi Cho. It is the largest church in Asia by the number of weekly attendance, and in South Korea as well. The church has about 480,000 members and sees about 200,000 weekly attendees on average. Given that the primary religion in South Korea is Christianity, it should come as not surprise that the country has the biggest church in Asia.
Hopefully, you found our list of biggest churches in Asia article helpful. If you did then do leave us a comment down below. Also, if you have any suggestions or tips, do not hesitate to put them down in the comments section as well.
