World's Largest Churches

While in the Czech Republic I was asked about the world's largest churches. Following is a very interesting article about this very subject.

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DAWN Fridayfax 2004 #36News from around the world
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In this issue: Special report: The World's largest churches

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WorldThe World's largest churchesEven though influence is more important than size today, taking a look at the attendance numbers of the world's largest churches gives an impression of the developments in recent years. Much is changing: churches which had an attendance of 300,000 a decade ago, such as 'Ondas del Luz y Amor' in Buenos Aires, now have 'only' 70,000. Completely new models are popping up, such as the Indian University which became a church, regularly seeing 80,000 people attending. The membership of mega churches fluctuates strongly, so the numbers here are the attendance, not members. Yonggi Cho's church in Seoul claims a membership of 773,000, but an attendance of 'only' 253,000 in the main church and most important satellites. What is church?The church is starting to see itself completely differently ? that is one trend which is growing stronger. It is no longer understood as a single organised fellowship (with a pastor, a building, a programme and a more or less creative name), but as an organic community of Christians in towns and regions, the sum of the members of related house churches, cells, groups and fellowships. This gives the church, as in the times of Acts, a regional instead of denominational identity. "The church in Corinth", Ephesus, Antioch or Jerusalem corresponds today to "The church in Berlin", Boulder, Beijing or Brasilia. Regional house church networks are replacing mega churchesSuch regional churches are not led by a 'Senior Pastor', but by regional teams, generally formed by the coalescing of the fivefold ministry. It is very noticeable that the traditional pastoral ministry tends not to play the key role, but rather people with an apostolic or prophetic gifting, as hinted at in 1. Corinthians 12:28 and Ephesians 2:20. Christian community and unity is formed by belonging to the same region or town; unity is lived out in networked house churches and large celebrations, or at least in leaders' meetings in places where Christians are heavily persecuted. One of the smaller(!) house church networks in southern China has an attendance of 400,000, larger networks number several million. The twenty largest regional (not national) house church networks in China, Vietnam and northern India would completely change the list below. For security reasons, we cannot publish any names or other details, with the exception of V. Choudhrie in India, because most if not all such large regional house church networks exist in nations which persecute or repress Christians. They generally belong to the group which missiologist Prof. David Barrett calls 'Crypto-Christians' -- underground Christianity. We believe that there are around twenty regional house church networks around the globe with an attendance of over 250,000. Hence, the list below starts with the world's previously largest known church, the Yoido Full Gospel Church, ranked 21st. Which are today's trend-setting nations?These developments started outside the West (North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand), so many Western pastors and Christian leaders find it difficult to take seriously. Many still understand the West to be the centre of Christianity, as in 1700, from which missionaries are sent out to complete the Great Commission. Traditionally, the USA, Britain or Germany have been the trend-setting nations in the church. That is where the influential publishing houses have their headquarters; the overwhelming majority of Christian conference speakers, authors, seminars and concepts for pastor training originate there, but is seems that many are asking "What good thing can come out of Vietnam, Northern India, China, Indonesia, Nigeria, Nicaragua, Honduras, Trinidad or Argentina?" And yet exactly these -- and other non-Western nations -- are home to the most important trends in missionary Christianity. Are we listening? What about the USA?Up until now, megachurches were a typically American phenomenon. It is striking, then, that not one of the world's forty largest churches is in the USA or another Western nation. The really significant church growth is taking place basically outside the West. The Washington Post recently published a study by church researcher John N. Vaughn revealing 840 mega churches in the USA, with a weekly attendance of over 2,000 (figures of 13th May 2004). The top 5 are:

Leader Church Average attendance J. Osteen Lakewood Church, Houston, Texas 25,060
Creflo Dollar World Changers, College Park, GA. 23,093
Rick Warren Saddleback Community Church, Lake Forrest, CA 20,100
T.D. Jakes The Potters House, Dallas 18,500
Ed Young Fellowship Church, Grapevine, Texas 18,129

The world's largest churchesRank Leader Church Average attendance

21. Yonggi Cho Yoido Full Gospel Church, Seoul, Korea 253,000
22. Dijon Roberts Works and Mission Baptists Church, Abidjan, Ivory Coast 150,000
23. Javier Vasquez Yotabeche Methodist P. Church, Santiago, Chile 150,000
24. C. Castellanos Mision Carismatica Internacional, Bogotá, Colombia 150,000
25. William Kumuyi Deeper Life Bible Church, Lagos, Nigeria 120,000
26. Mario Vega Elim Church, San Salvador, El Salvador 117,000
27. Nambu Full Gospel, Seoul, Korea 110,000
28. Yong Mok Cho AOG Grace and Truth, Kyanggi-do, Korea 105,000
29. Hong do Kim Kum Ran Methodist, Seoul, Korea 80,000
30. Omar Cabrera Vision de Futuro, Santa Fe, Argentina 70,000
31. Hector Gimenez Ondas del Luz, Buenos Aires, Argentina 70,000
32. Pastor Oh Young Nak Presbyterian Church, S. Korea 60,000
33. David Oyedepa Winners Chapel, Ota, Nigeria 50,000
34. R.B. Lal Yesu Darbar, Allahabad Agricultural Institute, India 40,000-80,000
35. Yi Hoon-Moon Soong Eui Methodist, Inchon, Korea 47,000
36. Misael Argenal Ministeria La Cosecha, San Pedro Sula, Honduras 35,000
37. V. Choudhrie Chattisgarh/Madhya Pradesh House Church Network, India 30,000
Source: Wolfgang Simson

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