Outreach magazine has released the 2007 – “100 Fastest-Growing Churches in America” list and has even added one more church to make it the “101 Fastest-Growing U.S. Churches of 2007”.
Here are the top 35:
1. Iglesia Cristiana Segadores de Vida (Hollywood, FL) :: Ruddy Gracia
2. Community of Faith (Cypress, TX) :: Mark Shook
3. Valley Bible Fellowship (Bakersfield, CA) :: Ron Vietti
4. Community Christian Church (Naperville, IL) :: Dave Ferguson
5. The Richmond Outreach Center (Richmond, VA) :: Geronimo Aguilar
6. New Life Church (Conway, AR) :: Rick Bezet
7. Living Hope Church (Vancouver, WA) :: John Bishop
8. Elevation Church (Charlotte, NC) :: Steven Furtick
9. Thomas Road Baptist Church (Lynchburg, VA) :: Jonathan Falwell
10. Flamingo Road Church (Cooper City, FL) :: Troy Gramling
11. The Church at Brook Hills (Birmingham, AL) :: David Platt
12. Heartland Community Church (Rockford, IL) :: Mark Bankord
13. Real Life Ministries (Post Falls, ID) :: Jim Putman
14. Church of the Highlands (Birmingham, AL) :: Chris Hodges
15. Fellowship Church (Grapevine, TX) :: Ed Young Jr.
16. Westside Family Church (Lenexa, KS) :: Dan Chaverin
17. Calvary Church (Charlotte, NC) :: John Munroe
18. NewSpring Community Church (Anderson, SC) :: Perry Noble
19. Bayside Covenant Church (Granite Bay, CA) :: Ray Johnston
20. Central Christian Church (Henderson, NV) :: Jud Wilhite
21. Woodside Bible Church (Troy, MI) :: Doug Schmidt
22. Trinity Evangelical Free Church (Redlands, CA) :: Gary Inrig
23. Mars Hill Church (Seattle, WA) :: Mark Driscoll
24. Calvary Community Church (Phoenix, AZ) :: J. Mark Martin
25. Redemption World Outreach Center (Greenville, SC) :: Ron Carpenter
26. Jubilee Christian Church (Boston, MA) :: Gilbert Thompson
27. Fellowship of the Woodlands (The Woodlands, TX) :: Kerry Shook
28. EastLake Community Church (Kirkland, WA) :: Ryan Meeks
29. Voices of Faith Ministries (Stone Mountain, GA) :: Gary Hawkins
30. The Potter’s House (Dallas, TX) :: T.D. Jakes
31. LifeChurch.tv (Edmond, OK) :: Craig Groeschel
32. Kensington Community Church (Troy, MI) :: Steve Andrews
33. Westover Hills Assembly of God (San Antonio, TX) :: Jim Rion
34. The Oasis Church (Loganville, GA) :: Troy Shaw
35. Celebration Church (Jacksonville, FL) :: Stovall Weems
To be considered for the list, a church must have:
1. Grown by at least 500 people in weekly attendance from ‘06-’07
2. Averaged over 1000 people in weekly attendance in ‘07
3. Grown by a measurable percentage between ‘06-’07 (usually 10%+ growth)
Churches meeting these criteria were ranked by numerical growth and then by percentage growth, and the average of the two ranks determined their final ranking. Each church was responsible for self-reporting their numbers, and consequently, some churches may not be included if they chose not to participate.
To see the rankings, numerical growth, and percentage growth of all 101 churches, view the PDF of the list on Outreach magazine’s website.
BONUS:
Speaking of churches. This just in from Digital.Leadnet.org: You can now watch YouTube Videos in Google Earth. The Google Earth team announced that users can now watch YouTube videos in Google Earth IF a video is geotagged with a longitude and latitude.
Why should this matter to you? This ability now gives churches the opportunity to embed a commercial for their church at its map location within Google Earth. The feature is located under the “Featured Content” folder in the left-side panel of Google Earth. Pretty cool.