July 30, 2005
Column #1,248
The 50 Most Influential
Churches
Quick, who would you say is America's most influential pastor?
If you guessed Dr. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in
Lake Forrest, CA, you were
right. His book, "The Purpose-Driven Church," sold millions of copies
before he wrote "The
Purpose-Driven Life," which has sold 23 million copies and is the best
selling non-fiction book
of all time.
Following a pattern set by thousands of other churches,
hundreds of inner-city Philadelphia churches will kick off a 40-day study of
"The Purpose-Driven Life" this fall.
Warren launched Saddleback in 1980 with only one
family. Today a stunning 50,000 are
members of the Southern Baptist Church. It has baptized 9,200 new believers
during the past seven years and helped launch 34 daughter churches. And 250,000
pastors and church leaders from more than 125 nations have attended its
seminars.
The second most influential pastor and church? Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church. Hybels planted the congregation in 1975 with 125 people who met
at the Willow Creek Theater in Palantine, IL. The church grew so fast that it
bought 90 acres of farmland in South Barrington, IL, and hit 2,000 members
by year three.
Willow Creek is the opposite of a typical church. There
are no steeples, no crosses, no pews, no stained glass windows, and no organ or even a choir if
my memory of a visit ten years ago is correct. The traditional church
bored many Americans.
Hybels created the first "seeker friendly" church which
made the traditional worship hour inviting to non-believers. Its worship
center was constructed next to a beautiful lake that can be seen from the
plush comfortable theater-style seats that replaced pews.
The "service" is entertaining. Instead
of opening with a Charles Wesley hymn, the service I saw began with a play
that made a strong moral point. Hybels' sermon seemed to grow out of the play.
Today nearly 22,000 attend each weekend, making it
among the sixth largest in America.
In a walk through the lobby, one passes rack after rack of information on
interactive, fun ministries such as Father-Son Kayaking. Some 35,000 events
are held on the property annually.
The church launched a Willow Creek Association to
provide networking with interested churches to share training and resources
with 10,500 member churches in 90 denominations and 35 countries.
The "Top 50 Most Influential Churches" were selected in
a survey of 2,000 church leaders conducted by "The Church Report," a
magazine for church administrators. Half of all nominations were of either
Saddleback or Willow Creek and 75 percent centered on five churches. All of the other top three churches are led by sons of famous clergy, two of
whom
have founded churches larger than their fathers:
Northpoint Church in Alpharetta, GA, a suburb of
Atlanta, which attracts 18,000 weekly founded by Andy Stanley, son of
Charles Stanley, the long-time pastor of First Baptist Church of Atlanta
with 6,000 attending (and #22 on the list).
Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX, with 22,000
attending was founded by the son of another famous preacher, Ed Young, Jr.,
whose father, Ed Young, Sr., is pastor of Second Baptist of Houston, TX,
which is ranked as #33 in influence.
Lakewood Church, located in one of the poorest
sections of Houston, was created by
Dr. John Osteen in a feed store, and has been led by his son, Joel Osteen,
since his father's death in 1999. Joel added three more worship
services, and has seen attendance rise from 11,000 to 25,000 at present and
is America's fastest growing church.
California is where 21 of the top 50 churches are
located (such as Church on the Way in
Van Nuys and Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside). Texas had 13 and
Georgia, 9. Ted
Haggard of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, #10 on the list, is better
known as the
President of the National Association of Evangelicals.
Left in the dust: Mainline denominations with few
churches on the list, such as the National Cathedral (#16) and Fifth Avenue
Presbyterian in New York (#42). (Catholic churches
were not even considered by The Church Report.)
However, the bottom line is this. If there are
now tens of thousands of seeker-friendly
churches, who are attracting the unchurched, why has the number of
unchurched Americans
nearly doubled, according to pollster George Barna, from 39 million in 1991
to 75 million in
2004?
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