Megachurches

“Even the largest churches stay at the top of the list for only about twenty years. Each generation has its own group of biggest congregations or fastest-growing congregations.” - Sam Rainer

“The average Christian congregation…[has] just 65 members, about a third of whom are age 65 or older, according to a 2020 pre-pandemic survey. By contrast, a separate 2020 study found that three-quarters of megachurches were growing, many at a rapid clip.” - NPR

“The problem of Hillsong arises with the desire to be an extraordinary church led by extraordinary communicators and extraordinary musicians creating an extraordinary experience. When it comes to church, we don’t need to be entertained. We don’t need to be wowed.” - RNS

“MacDonald was once pastor of what had been one of the largest churches in the Chicago area and the voice of Walk in the Word, a broadcast Harvest shut down in 2019.” - RNS

“Many megachurches are doing large-scale events. But some relatively smaller congregations, like Beaverdam Baptist Church in central Virginia, also have a chopper booked to fly overhead during Easter weekend—the church’s first egg drop event.” - Roys Report

“… trimmed its staff by 153 through ‘voluntary resignations’ to save $9.47 million annually, implemented a new gifts and honorarium policy, adopted a new culture focused on more effective mission-focused ministry and launched a third-party evaluation of the church’s financial structure and processes.” - CPost

“To close out another rough year for Hillsong Church, [last] week a fourth episode dropped in the Discovery+ docuseries ‘Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed.’” - C.Leaders

“Ortlund declined to comment to CT on the allegations, but in the state filing, the church said that Hyland was fired because of ‘her unwillingness to grow out of insubordination and lack of performance.’” - CToday

“Churches with budgets under $2 million saw giving go down by 8%, while those with budgets of more than $20 million saw giving go down by 2.5%.” - RNS

“On the same weekend that former Hillsong Church global senior pastor Brian Houston preached his first sermon since his resignation, Hillsong’s interim pastor Phil Dooley publicly responded to a lawsuit against the global megachurch, which was filed by a former employee who alleged that Hillsong misled donors and evaded taxes.” -