• From "mega" to "giga": There are more megachurches now than ever, and they continue to grow—so much that Outreach now categorizes congregations of more than 10,000 people as "gigachurches." Thirty-six of the top 100 fell in this category, while No. 100 on the list of largest churches still has an attendance of more than 6,000.
• Go forth and multiply: Going multi-site is becoming the norm among churches. In 1990, there were only 10 multi-site Protestant churches in the entire country; today 16 percent of all churches are currently considering expanding to an additional site. In addition, 25 percent of all megachurches today meet on multiple sites (that's five times what it was in 2000). Among multi-site churches, 60 percent plan on adding another site in the next year.
• Mega-mixture: With Hispanic and Asian populations on the rise in this country, so are the number—and size—of the churches predominantly made up of those segments of society. Obviously, most megachurches have a representation of both Hispanics and Asians within their congregation. Yet judging by the number of Hispanic churches on the fastest-growing list, it's clear that churches exclusively reaching these cultures are experiencing growth.

Though not particularly trend-related, I found a few other stats from this report both fascinating and telling.

• From 2006 to 2007, the average growth of the churches on the fastest-growing list was 1,385 attendees.
• Seventy-one percent of churches on the "biggie" list reported an increase in congregation size within the last year, while only 19 percent reported a decline.
• Of the 100 largest churches on this year's list, 47 were non-denominational.

YOUR TURN: What do you make of the two lists? Do you think it's helpful to list the 100 largest and fastest-growing churches, or does it fall into playing "the numbers game"? Where do you see megachurches going in the next 10 years?

# posted by Marcus Yoars : 9:24 AM