The Numbers are Out

Outreach magazine's annual list of the largest 100 U.S. megachurches is out although not readily available online. Maybe it is for the larger media agencies who can afford to purchase subscriptions. Alas, for little guys like us, we're relying on the Christian Post story. There's a lot of blog chatter about the decline in numbers at some of the big names like BC study subjects Lakewood, Willow Creek and Saddleback. A little background on the list. The data is culled from voluntary questionnaires. The principal researchers are Scott Thumma and Warren Bird from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. Thumma is the master of megachurch research so we're anxious to dig into the underlying data comparisons across the years he's been conducting the study.