Editor’s Note: In this special feature we’re sharing the Outreach 100 fastest-growing and largest churches. Published by Outreach magazine in partnership with LifeWay Research, this list is about celebrating what God is doing across the nation and keeping up to date with current trends in the church today.
Subscribe to Outreach magazine or purchase a single copy of this special issue to read more about the stories behind the numbers.
***
Churches on this year’s Outreach 100 lists of the Fastest-Growing and Largest Churches in America are pursuing many of the same growth strategies and values, including worship locations at multiple sites, breaking into smaller groups throughout the week, and intentional compassionate service to their local communities. Another widely held, and perhaps self-evident, value: Fastest-Growing Churches are seeking to create a welcoming environment for those outside the church. The lists appear in Outreach magazine’s recently released 2013 Outreach 100 Special Issue.
To survey churches for this report, Outreach partnered with LifeWay Research. Led by LifeWay Research President and Outreach columnist Ed Stetzer, researchers contacted more than 27,000 churches to gather the self-reported data used to compile the lists. The results are based on February and March weekend attendance averages, not membership. More information is available at Outreach100.com.
The common denominators of multisite, small groups and community engagement surface throughout the 2013 Outreach 100 Special Issue, including in-depth profiles of churches on the Fastest-Growing list and articles featuring leaders of churches on both Fastest-Growing and Largest lists.
The special issue also highlights trends reshaping the megachurch movement in America, including the rise of young leadership, a greater emphasis on personal spiritual development within the congregation, the continued growth of the country’s ethnic churches, and the leveraging of church resources for community development, among others.
This year’s Fastest-Growing list includes churches with attendance greater than 1,000—a numerical gain of 224 or more and a percentage gain of at least 7 percent. The rankings are determined by a formula that averages percentage and numerical gain. The Largest list includes all churches participating in the survey with attendance of 6,010 or more.
Fastest-Growing Churches Fast Facts
● Some 607,657 people are represented by the combined attendance of the Outreach 100 Fastest-Growing Churches in America. These churches added 105,662 people over their combined previous year’s attendance, an average of more than 1,000 per church, which represents a combined growth rate of 28 percent.
● The state with the most churches on the Fastest-Growing list is Texas (19). California and North Carolina have seven, followed by Virginia (six), and Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee, each with five.
● Fastest-Growing Churches continue to leverage a multisite strategy, generally offering live music but streaming the preaching by video to large screens at additional campus locations. Combined, the 100 Fastest-Growing churches represent 246 worship sites.
● The youngest churches on the Fastest-Growing list are Destination Church (No. 57) in Colonial Heights, Va., and Rock City Church (No. 17) in Columbus, Ohio, both founded in 2011. The oldest church is Traders Point Christian Church (No. 99), Indianapolis, Ind., founded in 1834.
Top Five Fastest-Growing U.S. Churches
(church name, location, pastor, growth by percent, by number)
1. Triumph Church, Detroit, Mich., Solomon Kinloch Jr. (+49 percent, +3,800)
2. NewSpring Church, Anderson, S.C., Perry Noble (+44 percent, +7,072)
3. Legacy Church, Albuquerque, N.M., Steve Smotherman (+49 percent, +3,300)
4. Celebration Church, Jacksonville, Fla., Stovall Weems (+44 percent, +3,396)
5. Northview Church, Carmel, Ind., Steve Poe (+50 percent, +2,201)
