18 churches affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention on the annual Top 100 list of largest churches in America
Eighteen Southern Baptist churches are listed among the Outreach 100 Fastest-Growing and Largest Churches in America for 2023 released jointly by Outreach magazine, Lifeway Research, and Hartford Institute for Religion Research.
The effort is “our attempt to identify and learn from the country’s fastest-growing and largest churches in the hope of discovering principles that can be adapted for thriving churches of every size,” according to outreach100.com.
“In addition to profiles of some of these churches and their leadership, the Outreach editorial team conducted interviews with many of the pastors and reports on those conversations here and at Outreach100.com.”
Fellowship Church No. 10
Fellowship Church, in Grapevine, Texas, pastored by Ed Young, is a Southern Baptist-affiliated church and No. 10 on the list with more than 24,000 attendees. Fellowship is listed behind Life.Church in Edmond, Okla., which is No. 1 with 85,000 attendees, followed by Church of the Highlands, Birmingham, Ala., 60,000; Lakewood Church, Houston, Texas, 45,000; CCV Christ’s Church of the Valley, Peoria, Ariz., 37,049; Crossroads Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, 35,253; Christ Fellowship Church, Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., 32,500; Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, Calif., 30,000; Southeast Christian Church, Louisville, Ky., 25,917, and Gateway Church, Southlake, Texas, 25,805.
Other Southern Baptist churches in the Top 100 list and their ranking are Prestonwood Baptist Church, Plano, Texas, 19,600 (15); Woodlands Church, The Woodlands, Texas, 18,385 (16); Second Baptist Church, Houston, Texas, 17,998 (17); Lakepointe Church, Rockwall, Texas, 16,228 (22); Harvest Christian Fellowship, Riverside, Calif., 15,000 (25); Potential Church, Cooper City, Fla., 12,000 (47); Sandals Church, Riverside, Calif., 11,000 (53); The Summit Church, Durham, N.C., 10,311 (58); NewSpring Church, Anderson, S.C., 10,000 (64); Pinelake Church, Brandon, Miss., 9,604 (68); Church by the Glades, Coral Springs, Fla., 9,000 (69); Cross Church, Springdale, Ark., 8,103 (74); First Orlando, Orlando, Fla., 7,897 (79); Biltmore Church, Arden, N.C., 7,421 (85); Houston’s First Baptist Church, Houston, Texas, 7,105 (87); BattleCreek Church, Broken Arrow, Okla., 6,560 (94), and Liberty Live Church, Hampton, Va., 6,547 (95).
Nine SBC Churches ‘Fastest Growing’
Nine Southern Baptist churches are also listed as “fastest growing” in the survey. They are Second Baptist Church, Houston; LakePointe Church, Rockwall, Texas; The Summit Church, Durham, N.C.; Pinelake Church, Brandon, Miss.; Cross Church, Springdale, Ark.; First Orlando, Orlando, Fla.; Biltmore Church, Arden, N.C.; BattleCreek Church, Broken Arrow, Okla., Liberty Live Church, Hampton, Va.
Other Baptist churches not affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention listed in the Top 100 are Eagle Brook Church, Centerville, Minn., 20,923 (13), and also among the fastest growing, and Mount Zion Baptist Church, Nashville, Tenn., 12,000 (46).
Of the 100 churches listed in the survey, 59% are nondenominational. Other denominations represented are Evangelical Covenant, Independent Christian Churches, Assemblies of God, Evangelical Free, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Church of God in Christ, International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, Apostolic Church of God, African Methodist Episcopal, Pentecostal, and United Methodist.
The Lifeway Research team surveys churches, verifies the numbers, calculates the results, and compiles the lists. In preparation for this annual report, Lifeway solicits participation from more than 13,000 churches. Through the process, the churches are contacted multiple times by email and fax. The self-reported survey is based on attendance averages, not membership. Churches that participated answered questions about their 2023 in-person, weekend attendance averages for February and March compared to their 2022 numbers.
“Although we go to great lengths to confirm data, the information is reported by pastors, staff or church officers, or was publicly available at the time the information was collected,” the Outreach100.com website states.
Typo: Prestonwood is located in Plano Texas. Texas, unlike Missouri, does not have a town named Plato that I am aware of 😀
I'm always curious about what the fastest growing ones mean. Percentage of growth would seem to make sense... But the bigger the church the harder it becomes to grow at 15%. A lot of small churches can easily grow at 15% or more. That's why I don't put a lot of stock into the fastest growing metric.