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Protestant churches have ever reached the 1,000-member point. Now, rapidly and dramatically, that pattern is changing with the rise of superchurches that boast mammoth memberships and facilities to match. Forty-three Protestant congregations in the U.S. claim 5,000 or more Sunday worshipers, says John N. Vaughan of Missouri's Southwest Baptist University in his Church Growth Today newsletter. Moreover, 116 congregations in 28 states say their attendance jumped by 300 or more in just one year. Such centralization is unprecedented...
Once a church reaches the critical mass of 1,000 members, sheer size alone enables it to lure more followers. But what is it that gets growth going in the first place? Not glitz, Vaughan insists, but "a biblical vision of reaching a city for Jesus," plus plenty of old-fashioned evangelistic toil and mass-media savvy. Geography also helps. Big-growth churches develop mostly in Sunbelt states or near limited-access highways in growing suburbs with zoning boards that are willing to foster expansion...
...most serious weakness of big churches is that they are inherently impersonal. Perhaps some recruits join precisely because they want to get lost in the crowd. But Vaughan thinks the key to long-term prosperity is steering as many members as possible into intimate groups such as Sunday-school classes or at-home Bible studies. Lawyer Larry Jones says he and wife Linda were initially "scared off" by Houston's Second Baptist, thinking it would be "some stale place that has no heartbeat." Instead they found all kinds of opportunities for close-knit fellowship and joined last December...
CREDIT: [TMFONT 1 d #666666 d {Source: John N. Vaughan, Church Growth Today newsletter, figures for 1989-90}]CAPTION: Biggest U.S. Protestant Congregations
...David LaPointe 14 5-8 .625 1-2 .500 3-4 .750 4 0.3 5 4 0 14 1.0 William Curry 6 0-2 .000 0-2 .000 2-2 1.000 0 0.0 2 0 0 2 0.3 Matt Vaughan 7 0-2 .000 0-2 .000 0-0 ### 1 0.1 0 0 0 0 0.0 TOTALS 26 691-1572 .440 137-387 .354 441-636 .693 931 35.8 354 147 14 1960 75.4 Opponent Totals...