Youngest Megachurch Pastor?

Posted on 5/8/2012 by Warren Bird in the Learnings Blog

For U.S. churches with 2,000 and more attenders – commonly known as megachurches – the typical senior pastor is age 51. That average almost obscures the amazingly wide range from youngest to oldest.

In the “most senior” department, Chuck Smith Sr., one of the early leaders of the Jesus Movement, has been at Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa since 1965 – and being born in 1927 he’s 84. Charles Stanley came to Atlanta’s First Baptist Church in 1971. Born in 1932, he’s 80. Likewise born in 1932 is Anne Gimenez at Virginia Beach’s Rock Church International, where she succeeded her husband John after he died  four years ago. Chuck Swindoll and Jack Hayford were both born in 1934, Ed Young Sr in 1936, Tommy Barnett in 1937, and John MacArthur in 1939. (All these dates have been published in newspapers and other media, so I’m not letting out any secrets!)

What about the youngest eaders? Here’s my sense of the dozen youngest megachurch pastors, again taken from published reports:

The answer? Currently Chris Galanos seems to be the youngest megachurch senior pastor in the United States! The two photos in this blog are of him and the church he leads, which was founded in 2007.

For more blogs in this  “megachurch” series, see also “World’s First Megachurch?”,  "Megachurch Languages?", "Biggest Megachurch Sanctuaries?" , "Megachurch Books?" and "How Many Megachurches?".