Received my July/August issue of Outreach Magazine today. The newest issue includes the top 100 largest and fastest-growing churches in the United States. This is the second year for the listing in cooperation with Dr. John Vaughan at Church Growth Today.

Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Florida jumped 4,330 people in 2004 to top the list of fastest-growing churches. Joel Osteen’s church, Lakewood Church, in Houston, Texas is the largest church in America with 32,500 attending each weekend.

Granger Community Church landed at number 62 on the list of fastest-growing churches with a gain of 729 people in the last year. We’re still a mini-megachurch because we haven’t cracked the list of the top 100 largest churches. That list includes all the churches averaging 6,000 or more each weekend.

And, yes, on page 81 of the new Outreach Magazine you’ll find an article adapted from Simply Strategic Stuff, my first book with Tim Stevens. The article is titled "11 Surefire Ways to Wake Up Your Church." I’ll let you decide whether or not you like the article, but the illustrations done by Dennis Jones are hilarious. Forget the top 100 list. It’s worth $5.95 for the new edition of Outreach just to see the picture of the pastor reading a copy of Seventeen.

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