World Megachurches
Welcome!
Click here to download the internet’s most complete, current and sortable list of the world’s largest-attendance churches, containing 1,600 North American entries and over 1,000 entries from elsewhere in the world – and growing weekly. You can sort the list by continent, country, city, church size, pastor name, year pastor started, year the church was founded, theological family, whether it’s multisite, whether it has branches in the U.S., and more. You will also see a growing number of links to photos and videos from each church.
I’ve been researching global megachurches since 1991, contributing to a North American megachurch list (click here to open it) since 2006, and posting this global version online since 2010. I’m the first to quickly acknowledge that it’s a nearly impossible task without help from readers like you who are warmly invited to offer suggestions, additions and corrections. Please contact me, Warren Bird, Ph.D., at research@leadnet.org.
The list is not based on membership but on actual worship attendance -- adults and children, all services, all physical campuses on an average weekend for the year. It is limited to Protestant congregations. Multisite churches are counted as part of one congregation if they are all under the same leader and governance, adhere to the same doctrine, identify together under a similar name or association, and share finances at some level.
Click to View the World Megachurches List
(To download a copy to your computer, click the image above, then choose File --> Download as)
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Feel free also to publicize or cite this listing. The shortcut link is www.leadnet.org/world. Also if you’d like to receive news and information on resources of interest for leaders of growing churches, please subscribe to our free twice-monthly newsletter: Leadership Network Advance.
Why is a list like this important?
1. Accurate data allows us to see the larger picture of what God seems to be doing. For starters, you’ll observe that the world’s biggest churches are not in the United States. You’ll also see which countries have the newer growth of larger churches (and as this list grows, I’m convinced that we’ll document that there are far more megachurches outside the United States than in it). You can explore everything from average pastor age to the widespreadness of Pentecostal/charismatic theology in these large churches.
2. Churches on this list tend to be innovators. This ranges from how they use technology to how they impact their communities for Christ. For example, by visiting the websites of these churches, reading their mission and vision statements, and perusing the ministries they list, you can sense the heartbeat and future directions of these pacesetters.
3. A list like this invites a level playing field for helpful conversation about global movers and shakers. For good or bad, larger churches are influential, both in their communities and also in influencing other churches.
4. It also helps churches who are listed to network with each other. Churches have more in common by size (attendance) than by most other factors. People always like to know who their peers are, and they’re often stretched by hanging out with their peers.
5. This list serves as a starting point for additional research. The possibilities are innumerable.
Trivia Test
Who are these leaders of the world's largest churches? (They’re randomly ordered here.) Put your curser over each photo to see if you guessed correctly. Then go to the link above to learn more about them.
