I’ve been around churches my entire life—specifically evangelical ones. There’s a certain kind of conversation that happens among pastors and denominational leaders, usually in almost hushed tones: “Did you hear about how [insert church name] added a thousand new attendees last year?” Someone will inevitably chime in with another example of a church experiencing rapid growth. Before long, the discussion circles back to the same question: “How in the world do they do that?”
For most pastors, leading a church through that kind of explosive growth will never happen. A good year might mean adding ten or fifteen new members. More often, the reality is stagnation—or even a slight decline. And there’s a good reason for that: most churches just aren’t that big. The FACT study (PDF) found that about 70% of congregations have fewer than 100 people in regular attendance. The National Congregations Study concluded that the average church has just 70 active members.
So when we hear about a church adding a thousand new members, it’s so rare it almost sounds impossible.
For the last decade, Outreach Magazine has published a list of the “fastest-growing churches in America.” They gather this data by contacting thousands of churches via email, asking them to report two numbers: their average attendance in February/March of the previous year and their current average attendance. Outreach then runs calculations and spot checks to confirm the numbers are accurate before publishing the Outreach 100 list.
Great article (see link), and I'm glad to be a teaching pastor at @MarinersChurch.
— Ed Stetzer (@edstetzer) October 30, 2025
Our growth last year was a great blessing, but this year's growth is even larger.
Lots of people coming to Jesus! The Spirit is moving!
Pray we might steward it well. https://t.co/p311oxhxIz pic.twitter.com/lGeTe179dM