This list of the largest evangelical megachurches contains only

evangelical Christian Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual exper ...

megachurch A megachurch is a church with an unusually large membership that also offers a variety of educational and social activities, usually Protestant or Evangelical. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research defines a megachurch as any Protestant C ...

es related to the following currents:

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

Pentecostalism Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

, the

evangelical charismatic movement The charismatic movement in Christianity is a movement within established or mainstream Christian denominations to adopt beliefs and practices of Charismatic Christianity with an emphasis on baptism with the Holy Spirit, and the use of spirit ...

neo-charismatic movement The Neo-charismatic (also third-wave charismatic or hypercharismatic) movement is a movement within evangelical Protestant Christianity that is composed of a diverse range of independent churches and organizations that emphasize the post-biblical ...

and

Nondenominational Christianity Nondenominational Christianity (or non-denominational Christianity) consists of churches which typically distance themselves from the confessionalism or creedalism of other Christian communities by not formally aligning with a specific Christian d ...

, in a single place, and not the assistance of affiliated campuses. Large churches from other denominations, like

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, 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.

Research institutes

Annual publications

Church Growth Today is a research center which publishes annually lists of

megachurches in USA and the world.

Ruth Gledhill Ruth Gledhill (born 1959) is an English journalist and is a former religion affairs correspondent for ''The Times'', a post she left in 2014. Gledhill was the last full-time newspaper journalist dedicated to religious affairs in the UK. She is c ...

, Newspaper

Christian Today ''Christian Today'' is a non-denominational Christian news company with its international headquarters in London, England.Christian Today > Contact Us/ref> History The website was established in 2000 to report on news in the global church a ...

Church growth: World's largest churches are getting bigger
USA, September 08, 2016Dr. John Vaughan, Church Growth Today

USA, retrieved February 15, 2020 Lifeway research is a research center which publishes annually a list of

megachurches in USA.Lifeway research
Largest Churches List
outreachmagazine.com, USA, retrieved January 16, 2021

Directories

The Leadership Network contains a directory of all

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

megachurches of the world (excluding Canada and USA).Megachurches spread across the world - Leadership Network
/ref> This global list has over 270 megachurches. The

Hartford Institute Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

has compiled directories in Canada and the USA. The US list has more than 1,668 megachurchesHartford Institut
Database of megachurches in the US
, hartfordinstitute.org's website, USA, retrieved February 15, 2020 and the Canadian list 22.

Data accuracy

The numbers reported are not accurate by any means, as attendance and membership may be defined very differently. Attendance may include people that are not legally members of the church, not

baptised Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

, 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. In notable cases the headship has been passed on from father to son, like in

Lakewood Church Lakewood Church is a non-denominational evangelical Christian megachurch located in Houston, Texas. It is one of the largest congregations in the United States, averaging about 45,000 attendees per week. The 16,800-seat Lakewood Church building, ...

. 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. 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 Yoido Full Gospel Church is a Pentecostal church affiliated with the Assemblies of God on Yeouido (Yoi Island) in Seoul, South Korea. With about 480,000 members, it is the largest Pentecostal Christian congregation in South Korea. Founded by Da ...

can sometimes be mentioned with attendance numbers over 800,000.The Economist: O come all ye faithful
/ref>

List

The list below is of the largest Evangelical megachurches with weekly attendance of more than 30,000 people.

References

Citations

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. * * {{refend