Large congregations rely on conservative values, strong pastors, study finds
By JOHN BLAKE
Cox News Service
Wednesday, February 15, 2006

ATLANTA — As megachurches continue to sprout across the country, a new study concludes that many of the common assumptions about these large houses of worship are simply not true.
The study, Megachurches Today 2005, also concludes that they are not a passing religious fancy. The number of congregations of over 2,000 members has increased by nearly 50 percent since 2000.

"I was surprised at just how many megachurches are out there," said Scott Thumma of the Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, who performed a similar study in 2000 before undertaking the current survey.

Georgia has 73 megachurches, behind only California, Texas and Florida.
"I thought I had a halfway decent handle on it," Thumma said. "We had about 850 megachurches in our database when we started but now the list is up to 1,210. Who knows, there could well be up to 1,300."

The conclusions were based on an eight-month survey of 400 megachurches undertaken by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research — a research arm of the seminary — and the Leadership Network, a church growth consulting firm based in Dallas. The findings are based on answers supplied by the churches themselves.

The survey reveals that virtually all megachurches share common traits of a dynamic senior pastor, emphasis on conservative values, and building small groups to offset its size. The rest