New research shows 50 percent more megachurches in the United States than previously thought. Initial analysis of a cooperative project to survey all megachurches in the United States by Scott Thumma of Hartford Seminary’s Hartford Institute for Religion Research, and Dave Travis and Warren Bird of Leadership Network uncovered at least 1,200 Protestant churches that claim more than 2,000 weekly worship attenders.
This figure is nearly 50 percent more than the figure of 850 commonly assumed and quoted by both organizations and other researchers of very large churches.
“I would never have guessed that either of our groups could have missed so many additional megachurches,” said Thumma, a professor of sociology at Hartford Seminary who specializes in the study of such churches.
Many of the new congregations were uncovered when the two groups, which both keep separate lists of megachurches, compared their records. Each group knew of different sets of congregations, with the two lists overlapping on about 600 churches. It was the names of those that did not overlap that pushed the total list to just over the 1,200 mark.
“Our preliminary research for the major survey effort indicates there could very well be another 200 to 400 megachurches in addition to these,” Bird said. “We’ll have to see what information the questionnaires return to know for sure.”
The 2005 Megachurches Today questionnaires are being mailed and emailed to more than 1,700 very large congregations this coming week.
“We hope and pray that each megachurch that receives a survey will fill it out and return it so that we can help correct misperceptions and better network these churches with each other," said Travis.
