Two of the top 10 most influential churches in America are affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), according to a recent magazine report.
The SBC-affiliated Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., and Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, rank No. 2 and 3, respectively, on this year’s 50 Most Influential Churches in America study by The Church Report.
Bill Hybels’ Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., tops the list.
Rounding out the top 10 churches are: North Point Church in Alpharetta, Ga.; Life Church in Edmond, Okla.; Granger Community Church in Granger, Ind.; Lakewood Church in Houston; Mars Hill Church in Seattle; The Potter’s House in Dallas; and Seacoast Church in Mt. Pleasant, S.C.
The churches represent the “passion and sense of mission mandated in the New Testament,” the report said.
‘Useful to God’
Though they “do not all share the same view of all biblical doctrine, their recognition came from others, and they do not view themselves as better than other churches,” the report said. “Each just considers itself as a church wanting to be pleasing and useful to God and their understanding of His mandates to them.”
All told, 12 congregations affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and two that belong to the Baptist General Conference — a denomination of Swedish Baptist heritage with a membership concentrated in the Midwest and West — made the list of 50.
That’s up from 2006, when five of the churches on the list were SBC-affiliated. That year, Willow Creek and Saddleback also earned the first and second slots on the list.
Some other Baptist churches on the list include: Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas (22); Second Baptist Church in Houston (24); First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla. (29); First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga. (30); Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va. (34); Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn. (38); New Birth Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga. (44); Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis, Minn. (46); and First Baptist Church in Hammond, Ind. (48).
The 48-year-old Lakewood Church is the most venerable congregation in the top 10, while many others are relatively young.
According to the report, Mars Hill Church began with 12 people in 1996; Granger Community Church began with five people in 1986; Saddleback Church began with two people in 1980; Seacoast Church began with 65 people in 1989; and Fellowship Church began with 150 people in 1990.
The Church Report said the nature of the list — heavy on contemporary, new-paradigm and “emergent” kinds of congregations and lighter on traditional denominational churches — reflects recent decades’ rapid change in the ways churches grow and reach out.
“It appears to also affirm the new expressions of ministry by emerging churches while also affirming the best of churches that endure through eras of dramatic change,” the report said.
The Church Report, a national news magazine for Christian leaders, surveyed leaders of 2,000 Protestant congregations between the months of April and June. Participants recommended up to 10 churches as “the nation’s most influential.”
According to the report, 77 churches were recommended, and the top 10 churches received 65 percent of all recommendations. (BP)
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