Numbers can mean a lot of things to a lot of people within the ministry space. For some it suggests that God has blessed this particular ministry and for others it suggests something fundamentally wrong.
Isn’t it strange how we can interpret numbers so differently?
Regardless of where you land, it would be a fascinating study to see whether ministries see an increase of attendance based on their initial impression via their web property.
Now that would be a neat study. To get us started, here’s a list of the top 10 biggest churches in the US, according to Outreach Magazine and a look at their online properties…
#1 – Lakewood Church
Website: Lakewood Church
Location: Houston, Texas
Total attendance: 43,500
Pastor: Joel Osteen
#2 – LifeChurch.tv
Website: LifeChurch.tv
Location: Based in Edmond, Oklahoma
Total attendance: 26,776
Pastor: Craig Groeschel
#3 – Willow Creek Community Church
Website: Willow Creek Community Church
Location: South Barrington, Illinois
Total attendance: 23,400
Pastor: Bill Hybels
#4 – North Point Community Church
Website: North Point Community Church
Location: Alpharetta, Georgia
Total attendance: 23,377
Pastor: Andy Stanley
#5 – Second Baptist Church
Website: Second Baptist Church
Location: Houston, Texas
Total attendance: 22,723
Pastor: Ed Young, Sr.
#6 – Saddleback Church
Website: Saddleback Church
Location: Lake Forest, California
Total attendance: 22,418
Pastor: Rick Warren
#7 – Fellowship Church
Website: Fellowship Church
Location: Grapevine, Texas
Total attendance: 18,355
Pastor: Ed Young, Jr.
#8 – Southeast Christian Church
Website: Southeast Christian Church
Location: Louisville, Kentucky
Total attendance: 17,261
Pastor: Dave Stone
#9 – Woodlands Church
Website: Woodlands Church
Location: The Woodlands, Texas
Total attendance: 17,142
Pastor: Kerry Shook
#10 – Calvary Chapel of Fort Lauderdale
Website: Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale
Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Total attendance: 15,921
Pastor: Bob Coy
Woodland and Willow Creek seem the most inviting to me… just based on initial appearance… what do you think?
Very interesting. Second Baptist’s is shocking. Almost scary, but it definitely gets your attention! LOL (Power up!)
I agree. I like the screen coverage on 2nd Baptists but content almost made me think I’d click away pretty quickly.
Wow, Saddleback’s design is busy! And who knew Andy Samberg sang for Willow Creek!
I agree with both of you. I’m actually surprised how busy most of them are!
I think I was more surprised at the lack of African-American headed churches in the list. All of these churches are predominantly white. Just an interesting sociological thing. I think the more interesting study would be the Saddington effect, how one guy is changing how Christians blog and use technology. Maybe I should write that…
Good Point about AA headed churches. For example, how many people are at T.D. Jakes Potter’s House?
*** There are tons of AA-headed large churches…here are a few with websites in case anyone is interested in seeing what the “other” Largest Churches look like… #minimal-research ***
TD Jakes, The Potter’s House: 30,000 members (per wiki). http://www.thepottershouse.org/
Creflo Dollar, World Changers International: 30,000 members- GA; 6,000- NYC (per yahoo answers).
http://www.worldchangers.org/
I.V. Hilliard, New Light Christian Center: 20,000 members (per bNet)
http://www.newlight2.org/
Ok, so if those churches have such high membership, why aren’t they on the list? John can you help us out on where you got this top ten list?
Each year Outreach Magazine publishes a list of the 100 largest churches and the 100 fastest-growing churches, based on average weekend attendance, not on membership. Any church can choose to participate. Numbers are self-assessed. T D Jakes’ Potters House did not participate in 2009, but came in at #10 in 2008 with 17,000 attenders. Kent Shaffer lists the top 16 for 2009:
http://churchrelevance.com/100-largest-churches-in-america-for-2009/
If you want the full list you have to buy it from Outreach Magazine:
http://www.outreachmagazine.com/resources/outreach100/2009-outreach100/
Most of them look the same.
I would agree on this, too busy if you ask me. We are reworking our site now and I hope the layout suits and looks something totally different than these.
I love seeing all of these together and to see my new ministry home at #6 on the list gives me some warm fuzzies! Fascinating to notice the diversity of approaches, proving that multiple methods are workable.
I’m working on a study very much like the one you mention, John.
It’s about two-thirds done, in a series called Church Demographics and Congregational Websites. It’s looking primarily at small- and medium-sized ELCA congregations’ websites, and it’s a relatively large-N study (about 100 churches). It focuses less on design aesthetics and more on accessibility and basic content. You might find it interesting.
I like 1, 7 and 10.
They seem like websites I’d like to go back to.
I especially like 10, since it seems like a website I’d like to get involved in. It reminds me of the abort73 website. Perhaps that is what it was based off of.
I don’t like 4. Its an otherwise good design, but on the left it says married, singles, etc.
Well for what? If I click on married couples, what will I get? Devotionals for married couples? Devotionals for singles?
I guess it really depends on the person. For me, the #10 website is great because it has a lot of functionality. Other people might be turned off by the vast amount of information presented.
Also, I don’t know how long I would stick with it, because it is very ingrained with BEING there. Since I don’t go to the school or the church, I don’t think I would feel very welcome at the website.
Anyways, I don’t think people realize how important first impressions are. I don’t know about other people, but when I look for a website, I google a couple of different phrases, and then click the first 6 or so that come up, letting them sit in tabs. I end up getting about 20 or 30 tabs, and then I sort through them. A quick 5 second glance will determine if I hit ctrl+w(close) or if I leave it and click the next one.
I just looked at saddleback again, it looks like something I’d like. Something I can easily add to google reader.
It has community resources, and it also has “many locations” at the top which sounds nice. Not sure what it means, but it makes me think I can go to saddleback even if I don’t live near the main one.
a big image on the home page seems to be in right now.
saddleback is kind of a shocker. busy.
I’d love to see the Facebook landing page & metrics for each of these. The website is one thing, but I’m curious to see how people are communicating with the church & about the church.
does it seem odd that none of these sites have a mobile version? is a phone-ready version of a church site unnecessary? a luxury?
LifeChurch just updated there site. But I’m really surprised at how many of these look “blocky” and while I really like the full image of 2nd Baptist you can’t like pause the video and it left me anxious just to get off the site.
Well I sought an answer to a question, so if you want to know something as trivial as would I wear a “”follow@Jesus” hat? To be honest I have no problem wearing a “follow Jesus” hat. I’d be handing out to everyone I know or come in contact with a hat that said like;” Seek the Truth in all you do,say, and think- begin your relationship W/JESUS! Or:”Seek the truth, and the door Shall be opened”.
Sounds familiar; the Father and Son do not control the truth, they are the TRUTH. Just as God is also known as LOVE, and how have we thanked him for sacrificing is only Son to the brutality of man, so we might know the power of Forgiveness, and MORE? By poisoning the land, water, we’re killing the ocean, mothers killing their children, Fathers killing whole families, killing for the $20 in the register, children killing children. Time is over: Seek the Truth From God and Christ. This is a personal journey between you and God: not you, the church, and GOD. So, if the hat promotes any church on line, and not the Truth, I’ll never put that on my head. God& Jesus are not a business, and yet mankind pays billions to churches who openly ask for their money. Jesus did not just whip the money changers out of the temple, for setting up a for man profit on God’s holy ground. The Catholic church is looked on with scorn from many of the other ‘Christian ministries’, you will be unhappy that God will soon reveal the TRUTH, and my ‘good judgement’ says you also will not be happy with the truth, and it’s consequences for us all. The low high, and the high, very low. War, civil process shall stop,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, stay tuned
John, I think you have completely misrepresented Second Baptist. The image you have included here was taken from a video sequence, not a static image.
David Drinnon
i’m not sure what you mean david! the website looks great and you still do have a video that plays in the beginning.
http://cl.ly/439e0a463649d887223d
love the site!
Thanks John for a better screenshot, but I would encourage your readers to visit the site since a screenshot does fully communicate the 1st impression experience….at least that is true for our site given its current design.
Thanks for the kudos.
Hi, just wanted to know if there were any african american chuches that had a least 20,000 members?
Fellowship Church looks the most inviting, just from the screenshot. Not sure why people are shocked by Second Baptist…holding hands? Not sure why that is shocking. Calvary looks pretty good too, love the Hebrew on its page.
Saddleback, is emergent, and their screenshot is indicative of that, I would definitely not look at any emergent church.
CCD
What? Saddleback emergent? I would never have used that term to describe Saddleback. Been there many times and personally know staff… I dont understand that comment…