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Suppose leaders at your church were asked to identify the nation's most influential churches. Which churches would they choose? And, would their opinions be shaped by your church's size?
To find out, Leadership Network commissioned the Barna Research Group to ask a random sample of U.S. pastors, "What do you think are the most influential churches in America?" They allowed up to five responses. Barna did this in late 2006 with 613 pastors representing a cross-section of all U.S. churches, with a median attendance of 125.
Leadership Network then asked me to compare Barna's findings with my own surveys, during which I asked the same question of megachurch pastors in 2005, 2006 and 2007. (A megachurch is defined as a congregation with 2,000 or more in average weekend attendance.)
Most-Named
Interestingly, both groups--megachurches and the Barna cross-section group of churches--named the same three churches as most influential, in this order:
From this point, the respondents tend to diverge based on church size. An amazing 50% of the nominations from megachurch pastors centered around five churches--the three listed above plus:
Media Personalities
Pastors in Barna's random sample (a mix of all church sizes) tend to identify more churches whose pastors make heavy use of media, especially television and radio. Influential churches named frequently by this group include: |
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Andy Stanley, Senior Pastor of North Point Community Church |
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First Baptist (Charles Stanley), Atlanta, GA |
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Coral Ridge Presbyterian (James Kennedy, died 9/5/07), Ft. Lauderdale, FL |
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Crystal Cathedral (Robert H. Schuller, Robert A. Schuller), Garden Grove, CA |
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Thomas Road Baptist (Jerry Falwell, died 5/15/07), Lynchburg, VA |
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Cornerstone Church (John Hagee), San Antonio, TX |
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Shadow Mountain (David Jeremiah), El Cajon, CA |
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Grace Community Church (John MacArthur), Sun Valley, CA |
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Moody Church (Erwin Lutzer), Chicago, IL |
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World Harvest Church (Rod Parsley), Canal Winchester, OH |
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Moody Church in Chicago, IL |
| Don't Know or Don't Like the Question
Another intriguing finding was that 3 out of 10 pastors (29%) in the Barna Poll, despite repeated probing by interviewers, were unable to or declined to identify any "influential" churches. Barna's team speculated two reasons: some pastors simply could not think of any such churches; others said that every church is influential or that they avoid labeling any specific congregations as "influential."
Conference and "Innovation" Personalities
Megachurch leaders tend to identify other megachurches that sponsor national and regional conferences, and also churches whose pastors tend to speak at such conferences as the most influential. Megachurch leaders also named church leaders who write books centered around church leadership, discipleship, evangelism and new ministry related issues. |
By contrast, church leaders in the Barna survey (with the wide mix of church sizes) named many of these churches, but at a different priority level. Examples of churches either omitted by mixed-size church leaders or ranked low by them, but included and ranked higher on the megachurch leader's lists, are:
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Life Church (Craig Groeschel), Edmond, OK |
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Granger Community Church (Mark Beeson), Granger, IN |
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Mars Hill Church (Mark Driscoll), Seattle, WA |
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North Coast Church (Larry Osborne), Vista, CA |
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Calvary Chapel (Bob Coy), Ft Lauderdale, FL |
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Community Christian Church (Dave Ferguson), Naperville, IL |
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New Hope Christian Fellowship (Wayne Cordeiro), Honolulu, HI |
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Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa (Chuck Smith), Santa Ana, CA |
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Christ Fellowship (Tom Mullins), Palm Beach Gardens, FL |
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NorthRidge Church (Brad Powell), Plymouth, MI |
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Fellowship of the Woodlands (Kerry Shook), The Woodlands, TX |
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Wooddale Church (Leith Anderson), Eden Prairie, MN |
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New Light Christian Center Church (Ira Hilliard), Houston, TX |
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McLean Bible Church (Lon Solomon), Vienna, VA |
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Fellowship Bible Church (Tim Lundy), Little Rock, AR |
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Menlo Park Presbyterian Church (Jon Ortberg), Menlo Park, CA |
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Real Life Ministries (Jim Putman), Post Falls, ID |
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Craig Groeschel, Founder & Senior Pastor of Life Church |
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The Bottom Line
Collectively, the churches identified by pastors of every size spectrum reach hundreds of thousands of people in person every week with the gospel of Jesus Christ. If the use of television, radio, podcasts, CDs, and other media is factored in, these churches collectively reach millions every week.
The missional DNA of these churches may be misunderstood or questioned by some, but is celebrated by the multitudes of the unchurched and unconverted whose lives are changed as they begin to follow Christ. The outreach–and influence–of each church should be celebrated and encouraged.
Dr. John N. Vaughan is author of Megachurches & America's Cities, The Large Church, The World's 20 Largest Churches, and an upcoming 20-volume book series, America's Most Influential Churches. Volume 1 was released in 2006 and Volume 2 will be available soon. Since 1985, John has published numerous "largest" and "fastest growing" church lists through his Church Growth Today newsletter, also available at his website. |
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