Break out the Bibles it’s time for the biggest churches in America! Let’s see who is leading the pack of the most righteous and who needs to have a new crusade set of proselytizers swept through the country. We are a man on a mission–figuratively, unless you are one of America’s more than 125,000 missionaries sent around the globe to spread the word. Which is weird, because everybody’s heard that the bird is the word.
It takes a lot to maintain big numbers week after week–just ask network television executives. So congrats to these churches. I wonder what they are doing to keep the faithful in the pews? I hope good snacks are involved. Really good snacks can get people to do almost anything. So which are the biggest churches in the US? Well, first you might also be interested in the 11 Biggest Churches in Africa.
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In order to create our list, we took statistics from Outreach to find out which are the churches with the biggest number of attendees on a weekly basis. Since the statistics are from 2013, we researched the biggest 22 church congregations from Outreach’s list separately to find the latest statistics.
We sorted the churches by their numbers of attendees every week. In addition to the number of people who visit the church every week, we also included the location of the church, the lead pastor as well as the year it was founded. Please enjoy the biggest churches in America, Amen.
11. Eagle Brook Church
Eagle Brook Church is located in Centerville, Minnesota. The lead pastor of Eagle Brook Church is Bob Merritt. The church was founded back in 1948 and the number of attendance has increased significantly. By the latest statistics, the number of attendance in Eagle Brook Church is 22,000 weekly. This church is not only one of the biggest in Minnesota, but in America as well. Since pastor Bob Merritt became the lead pastor, he contributed to the church to have as more visitors possible making it one of the biggest churches in America.
10. Saddleback Church
Saddleback Church is located in one of the most beautiful states in America, Lake Forest, California. The lead pastor of this growing church is Rick Warren, who also founded this church with Kay Warren back in 1980, and now Saddleback Church is one of the biggest churches by the number of attendance. The number of attendance on a weekly basis in Saddleback Church is more than 22,055. Saddleback Church has 13 regional and four international campuses. According to Rick Warren, a few more campuses are planned in the next few years. Also, according to Rick Warren gay marriage is terrible and people shouldn’t use condoms to prevent AIDS–so, you know… he’s dumb.
9. Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale
The Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale is located in you guessed it Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In the Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale the lead pastor until 2014 was Bob Coy himself and from 2014 the lead pastor is Doug Sauder. This church was founded back in 1985 and it is an affiliated movement with Calvary Chapel movement. The Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale has a weekly attendance of more than 25,000 and nine regional campuses. Bob Coy, who was only 24 at the time left the music industry to become a pastor of the Calvary Chapel. Five years after this, Bob Coy went to South Florida where he founded the Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale.
8. Christ’s Church of Valley
Christ’s Church of Valley is one of the most visited churches as well and because of it, it found its way on our list of 11 biggest churches in America. Christ’s Church of Valley is located in Peoria, Arizona. The Christ’s Church of Valley was founded back in 1982 by Don Wilson who was the lead pastor and Richard Bloodworth. The growth of the attendees in Christ’s Church of Valley is growing more and more every day. The number of attendance by the latest statistics is 25,000 on a weekly basis. As of this year, the new lead pastor is Ashley Wooldridge after Don Wilson announced his retirement on January 28, 2017.
7. Willow Creek Community Church
Willow Creek Community Church is one of the biggest in America as well, and it is located in South Barrington, Illinois. The Willow Creek Community Church was founded by Bill Hybels. Bill Hybels is also the lead pastor, and he founded the Willow Creek Community Church back in 1975. This non-denominational church and multi-generational Evangelical Christian megachurch has three weekend services where more than 26,000 attendees are attending. Also, the Willow Creek Community Church has new ministries designed to allow people from different age and groups to attend. The church organization’s leadership is divided into three sections: teaching pastors, the board of governance and the leadership team.
6. Gateway Church
Another non-denominational evangelical, charismatic Church which found its way on our list of biggest churches in America is Gateway Church. It is located in Southlake, Texas and the lead pastor of this church is Robert Morris. The Gateway Church was founded 17 years ago, in 2000 and the number of attendance is growing way faster than expected. In 17 years the church managed to attract more than 28,313 attendees on a weekly basis and 51,859 over the Easter weekend. This church currently has 27-weekend services at six different locations.
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5. Christ Fellowship Church
Christ Fellowship Church is megachurch located in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The lead pastors in Christ Fellowship Church are Todd Mullins and Julie Mullins. This megachurch was founded back in 1984 by Dr. Tom Mullins who was the senior pastor. The teaching pastor at Christ Fellowship Church is John C. Maxwell. This church grew a lot in the previous years and came with the average number of attendance of even 30,000 every weekend. The Christ Fellowship Church also has two services in Spanish and it has seven South Florida campuses. Also, the services are being streamed live and you can watch them on the “Christ Fellowship App.”
4. NewSpring Church
The NewSpring Church is located in Anderson, South Carolina. The founder of NewSpring Church is Perry Noble. It was founded 17 years ago in 2000, but the growth in a number of attendees is impressive. The senior pastor Clayton King along with the founder Perry Noble managed to attract more than 32,000 people to visit their services every week. But, Perry Noble was removed as Senior Pastor in 2016 because of personal problems with alcohol by the church’s leadership team. Also, more than 7,200 people are connecting to NewSpring Church online to watch their services live.
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3. North Point Community Church
North Point Community Church is located in Alpharetta, Georgia and it is non-denominational, evangelical Christian megachurch. The church’s senior pastor is Andy Stanley, while the lead pastor is Clay Scroggins. Andy Stanley is also the founder of North Point Community Church, he founded it back in 1995. North Point Community Church has incredibly high number of attendees every week which contributed for it to found its place on our list among the biggest churches in America. The number of attendance in North Point Community Church is more than 36,000 on a weekly basis on all six campuses.
2. Church of the Highlands
Church of the Highlands is a megachurch located in Birmingham, Alabama. This non-denominational, Christian church was founded by Chris Hodges who is also the senior pastor in it. The Church of the Highlands wasn’t founded that long ago, in fact it was founded 16 years ago, but it managed to gain many of attendees. The number of attendees in Church of the Highlands is 42,000 every week which is a pretty high number of attendees for a newly founded church. This is why Church of the Highlands found its way on the second place of our list of biggest churches in America.
1. Lakewood Church
Lakewood Church is located in Houston, Texas and it is a non-denominational charismatic Christian megachurch. This church is the biggest church in America by the number of attendees. The founder of Lakewood Church is Joel Osteen. Joel Osteen founded the Lakewood Church on May 10, 1959. The senior pastors of Lakewood Church are Joel Osteen himself and his wife Victoria Osteen. Lakewood Church has four English services and two services in Spanish every week. The number of attendance in Lakewood Church is growing more and more each day, and by the latest statistics, Lakewood Church is being visited by 52,000 people every week. Joel Osteen preaches an antigay message to his more than 50k followers, but his church does make a fair bit of money as his house is worth $10.5 million dollars and his net worth is estimated at over $60 million. That’s like $1,150 per church member.
This is our list of 11 biggest churches in America. If you want to visit one of these churches, you can check their websites and see when they have services.
