Talk:List of megachurches

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• I'm planning to reorganize the US churches by region/state. If you think that's a bad idea, speak up. --Dystopos 06:25, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
• What a bad idea! - Patricknoddy 7:25am March 24, 2006 (EST)
  • OK. Any specific reason? It's been done now. What are the drawbacks? --Dystopos 14:24, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
    • I like my lists alphabetical. - Patricknoddy 8:01am, April 7, 2006 (EDT)

Contents 1 Canada? 2 United States 3 Organization within region 4 Cleanup List 5 Additions to US Lists 6 Church or association 7 International English Service - Jakarta, Indonesia 8 Cleanup 9 Attendance 10 Redirected to Megachurch

[edit] Canada?

I am quite certain that there are Canadian megachurches... ummm... for example 100 Huntley Street which is a megachurch and evangelical tv show out of Toronto. I am learning to edit and don't want to f*&#! up the page... so if someone could put Canada in that would be nice...

• If you could point me at a source for information on Canadian megachurches I'd be happy to help add them to the list. 100 Huntley Street appears to be a talk-show rather than a church. --Dystopos 01:28, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] United States

Somebody messed up the U.S. list, and put by Census Region! - Patricknoddy 6:07pm March 20, 2006 (EDT)

• I agree. This new formatting, while good intentioned, is confusing and frustrating. If no one objects, I am just going to reorganize it alphabetically by state. - User:Mobyrock 8:58am 28 April, 2006 (CST)

[edit] Organization within region

I organized the South Atlantic list by state, then by city. (The previous formatting was haphazard, or possibly just overgrown.) Any objections to doing this to the rest, or suggestions about a better way to organize? LukeDouglas 15:45, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup List

There is no apparent standardization of how this list is to be formatted. I would like to suggest that it be formatted in this manner: [Church Name] - [City, State] - [Senior Pastor/Minister] [External Web Link] User:Mobyrock 16:55, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

• I've updated all of the great state of Missouri to reflect this, in case you need an example. User:Mobyrock 17:06, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

• Some of these links go to the wrong person. This needs to be checked. I doubt many of the ministers actually have articles, or are noteworthy enough.

[edit] Additions to US Lists

I began adding to the US lists to include more churches that I knew of and could research to fit the list (M-BMor and 63.101.179.35). I've added a substantial amount I am going on either what they, their denomination, or what others (mega church data base) report some may be in the 1850-2100 people in attendance range as church attendance is fluid. I’m going by total attendance including worship bible study and small groups, I know that in many cases this could lead to over inflated numbers as some churches count SS and worship and folks may be in both, I took this into the best accounting that I could.

Also a couple of churches most notably Highview Baptist in Louisville, Ky. and Northside Christian in New Albany may appear in two states. Many churches may have members that cross a state line but these two have viable amounts of groups BASED on either side of the river as well as facilities on both sides of the river if there is evidence of this type of straddling I count them in both states. Again only if there is either significant activity in the other state and/or a campus in the other state.

As for format I am going to go through and try to get as much homogeny as possible on that front as well. (User M-BMor 08/27/2006)

[edit] Church or association

Greatest Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church - New Orleans - Bishop Paul S. Morton & Elder Debra B. Morton <--- does this group idetify itself as a single congregation or an assciation or denomination ? When I read about them or on their own "aout us" link it isn't clear. If they are an association not a single congregation this may not be the right list for them.

      After some further Research I was able to find a refernce to them as one congregation 
      on NOLA.com.M-BMor 03:20, 28 August 2006 (UTC)M-BMor

[edit] International English Service - Jakarta, Indonesia

In Jakarta Indonesia I think you should include International English Service, an English speaking church of about 3000, belongs to Assemblies of God - Indonesia. Pastor Dave Kenney

http://www.iesjakarta.org 07:47, 15 September 2006 (UTC)07:47, 15 September 2006 (UTC)~~ Oyan

[edit] Cleanup

• User:Arbustoo tagged this page for cleanup with the edit summary: "This needs serious clean up, criteria for a megachurch must be laid out and there must be sources to include these churches showing they meet criteria."

The best reference for megachurch research is the Hartford Institute for Religious Research which gives the following as general characteristics for their study of megachurches:

• 2000 or more persons in attendance at weekly worship
• A charismatic, authoritative senior minister
• A very active 7 day a week congregational community
• A multitude of social and outreach ministries
• and a complex differentiated organizational structure.

Of these, the first should be fairly easy to verify, even if only though the Hartford Institute's reports. For the rest, I'd imagine they pretty well follow from the first and might only need to be referred to to eliminate very exceptional churches, such as a pilgrimage church with only a small regular congregation. --Dystopos 21:49, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

I agree with you that it's a good criteria but I've noticed that the Hartford Institute lacks a good number of churches that are self reported and otherwise reported as mega-churches (2000ish+). On a lot of these churches websites you'll find links to news letters some have published numbers others don't. Some out and out state it in their web-site. Anything I add I do solely if there is something out there credible stating the size of the attendance or something similar. But format and consistency needs to be adressed here as well. I am sketchy about dropping a church from the list if I can't find a reason too, but others might.M-BMor 07:45, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

• I was proposing that we adopt their criteria, not their list. --Dystopos 14:31, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

• Agreed ;-) M-BMor 08:44, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Attendance

WHAT A GREAT IDEA !! I wish we'd thought of this sooner. I know it may be hard to get a general idea on each but if they can be listed here they must be verifuable right ? So why not !

• 41 US churches now show average attendance, more attendance records will be posted later.

[edit] Redirected to Megachurch

Note that following the result of Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of megachurches, this article redirects to Megachurch. The article's history is still available, if anyone wishes to use it in the course of work expanding the encyclopedia. Luna Santin 23:35, 23 January 2007 (UTC)