Featured The Largest IFB Church In America

The numbers game can be difficult to keep up with, since they are always changing. I gleaned the following numbers from the Database of Megachurches in the U.S. of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. They write that the "list has been on the web since 2000" and updated "in 2005 and again in 2010." This is of course now 8 years old, and they acknowledge "the list is not without errors" but "it is the best list that is publicly available on the web." They base the numbers on average attendance rather than membership. The average they give for First Baptist Hammond, Indiana is 13,426. I scanned through the list of Baptists -- and could have easily missed something -- but FBC Hammond's attendance was the largest for a church that I recognized as being IFB.

Some average attendance numbers of other Baptists might prove interesting. (At least these are categorized as Baptist by the Hartford Institute.)

• Fellowship Church, Grapevine, Texas: 24,162
• NewSpring Church, Anderson, South Carolina: 23,055
• Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, California: 22055
• Second Baptist Church, Houston, Texas: 20,656
• Woodlands Church, The Woodlands, Texas: 18,385
• Eagle Brook Church, Centerville, Minnesota: 17,091
• Prestonwood Baptist Church, Plano, Texas: 15,815