Megachurch Research

Profile of all U.S. Megachurches
Information from the online database of megachurches.

Megachurch 2020: The Changing Reality in America’s Largest Churches - New Report
by Scott Thumma and Warren Bird

• Summary Report in .PDF format
• Detailed Frequency data and questionnaire*
  
  
• Summary Report on Protestant churches 500-1800 in size coming soon

This research is a joint effort of Scott Thumma of Hartford Institute and Warren Bird of ECFA Released October 29, 2020

Recent Shifts in America’s Largest Protestant Churches: Megachurches 2015 Report
by Scott Thumma and Warren Bird

• Summary Report Summary Report in .pdf*
• Detailed data and questionnaire*

Open the Doors and See All the People: Profile of Large Protestant Churches 500-1,799 in Attendance
by Scott Thumma with Warren Bird

• Summary Report in .pdf*
• Detailed data and questionnaire on survey of Protestant churches 500-1799
  

This research is a joint effort of Scott Thumma of Hartford Institute and Warren Bird of Leadership Network of Dallas, Texas. Released December 2, 2015

A New Decade of Megachurches: 2011 Profile of Large Attendance Churches in the United States
by Warren Bird and Scott Thumma

• Summary Report download in .pdf*
• Detailed data and questionnaire*

This research is a joint effort of Scott Thumma of Hartford Institute and Warren Bird of Leadership Network of Dallas, Texas.

Not Who You Think They Are: A Profile of the People Who Attend America's Megachurches (a research report summarizing the findings of a survey of 24,900 megachurch attendees, June 9, 2009)

• Summary Report download in .pdf*
• Detailed data and questionnaire*
• A press release on the project

This project is a joint effort of Scott Thumma of Hartford Institute and David Travis and Warren Bird of Leadership Network of Dallas, Texas.

Megachurches Today 2008 - Changes in American Megachurches

• Summary Reportdownload in .pdf*
• Detailed data*
• A press release on the project
  

This project is a joint effort of Scott Thumma of Hartford Institute and David Travis and Warren Bird of Leadership Network of Dallas, Texas.

 

Megachurches Today 2005

• Summary Reportdownload in .pdf*
• Detailed data*
• A press release on the project
• Summary of the collection method
• A comparison of the 2000 and 2005 study

Listen online to the audio interview with the principal investigators of this research.

This project is a joint effort of Scott Thumma of this Institute and David Travis and Warren Bird of Leadership Network of Dallas, Texas.

 

Megachurches Today 2000

A study of 153 megachurches from the Faith Communities Today project conducted between 1999-2000 at Hartford Institute for Religion Research with Scott Thumma as the Primary investigator.

• Summary report by Scott Thumma, Ph.D.
• Detailed data*  
• Press release on this study

Dr. John Vaughan of the Megachurch Research Instituteassisted in the collection of the 2000 information about megachurches.  Additionally, The Leadership Network and its representative Dave Travis sponsored and supported the research project.

*Note: You must have the free Adobe reader installed on your computer to read pdf files.

Reading for my outstanding students

If you are interested in megachurches, you might find this 2007 book co-authored by Hartford Institute professor, Scott Thumma, interesting.