Haven’t had a chance to read all the stories, but I thought you might be interested in the articles from USA Today on megachurches. It looks like because Lakewood has gone from 47,000 to 43,000 that they think the megachurch movement has “stalled” even though the number of megachurches continues to grow along with the attendance at those churches.
I love how reporters spin data. They’re better then politicians.
Yea, a less than 10% variation is really not a trend. Good grief we can drop 20-25% on a weekend. That’s pretty normal. Megachurches are just a different animal. I mean, think about it, if the average church dropped 1500-2000 in attendance on a weekend…they’d be closed.
Interesting that most of the churches they benchmarked with were still growing even though the article says the trend is not growth. Welcome to the Spin-zone.
the biggest number to me is the 32% who say they never attend church. WOW! I am excited that there are so many churches that are growing and have a renewed call to be a part of life change instead of political activity. That number points out how much work is left and how incredibly important it is.
peace.
Hi Tony
I just checked out the list on the OUTREACH website (http://outreachmagazine.com/docs/top100_2007_largest.pdf)
Have USA got their number’s wrong?
Willow was 23,500 in 2007. They claim they were 20,700
Any thoughts>
Mark, according to the article, USA Today got their numbers from Outreach. So, it’s a bit confusing to me as to why the numbers would be completely different. They came from the same source.
tony
The funniest/scary thing is the comments posted by “christians” about this article on usa today’s website. WOW! No wonder “unChristians” don’t attend church.