How big is a big church?

[chiguirre]

I was just reading another thread and kbutton mentioned that her church is large and has about 800 people. I was very surprised. The church dh and kids belong to has almost 6,000 families on the parish roll (so probably about 20,000 people who officially belong to this parish although they don't all attend except at Christmas and Easter).

 

So, is 800 people really a large church for most people?

 

Are Catholic parishes so much larger than other churches? I never would have guessed that based on the size of the buildings they own, but I guess I was way, way off in my estimation of relative membership.

[Ripley]

My Catholic parish has 1500 families and is considered large. But I'm in Texas, which is overwhelmingly not Catholic so a parish grows this size to serve a greater geographical area.  I grew up where there was a parish on every corner, so they ran much smaller. LOL 800 would have felt large back then.

[Twigs]

From what I understand, Catholic churches have multiple times for each service, including Saturdays. Most protestant churches that I know of had only 1 or 2 services until recently when a Saturday pm service was added (only for the very large churches). The more service times a church has, the larger a membership the building can handle.

[KarenNC]

At about 250 members, we are considered having just tipped over to a medium sized church in our denomination (UU). I don't believe that I've ever belonged to a church with more than 1000 families (between Presbyterian, Assembly of God, Episcopalian, and UU). Here are some articles on church sizes in the US:

http://hirr.hartsem.edu/research/fastfacts/fast_facts.html#sizecong

http://eclecticchristian.com/2009/07/18/what-is-an-average-sized-church/

 

Here's how it works in our denomination: http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/188538.shtml  Large for us starts at 550 members.

 

This link talks about the changing sizes of Catholic parishes

http://ncronline.org/news/faith-parish/us-catholic-parishes-growing-size-and-diversity  

 

 

[Cosmos]

For me--

 

< 100 is small

100-300 is medium

300-1000 is large

>1000 is huge

>5000 is hard to comprehend

 

[mytwomonkeys]

Our church is considered large for our area. We are "one church with multiple locations". The campus I attend averages around 1,000 people and has three services. My campus has over 30% of our county as members though, so it is considered large here. Our other campuses are in neighboring counties.

 

The church I attended in Atlanta had about 10,000 members. So IME, a "large" church is somewhat relative to population.

[Ripley]

From what I understand, Catholic churches have multiple times for each service, including Saturdays. Most protestant churches that I know of had only 1 or 2 services until recently when a Saturday pm service was added (only for the very large churches). The more service times a church has, the larger a membership the building can handle.

 

I think we're seeing an interesting blending of technology and organized religion.  The physical building is no longer necessarily the parameter for butts-in-seats; one can now profess membership from anywhere in the world, by watching online or on television!

 

But yes, Catholic churches tend to have at least two Mass options; more if there is a need.

[NicAnn]

Wow y'all have way different definitions of large than I do! Our congregation has 100 people, and I consider that large. To me it's a large congregation if I can't know all the families by name!

[QueenCat]

I would consider under 200 in attendance on an average Sunday somewhat small. 200-500ish to be medium. 500-1000 large. Over 1000 is a mega church to me.

[Dandelion]

We live just down the road from a massive mega church which is said to have over 10,000 members. They have 4 services every Sunday.

 

As for the question in the OP, I would still consider a church with 800 members large.

[chiguirre]

I think we're seeing an interesting blending of technology and organized religion.  The physical building is no longer necessarily the parameter for butts-in-seats; one can now profess membership from anywhere in the world, by watching online or on television!

 

But yes, Catholic churches tend to have at least two Mass options; more if there is a need.

 

Yes, all of the parishes around me have 5 or 6 masses on Saturday night and Sunday. One group leaves the parking lot and the next one pulls in 30 minutes later.

 

[Starr]

Large in an international context, national context or local ? We don't have any *large* churches within hours of us according to some of your standards.

[Ellie]

For me--

 

< 100 is small

100-300 is medium

300-1000 is large

>1000 is huge

>5000 is hard to comprehend

 

And statistically, that's just about right. :-)

 

Mr. Ellie and I attended three churches over the years that had more than 1000 people. Now we're a divided family, lol: he attends an Assembly of God that has less than 60 on a regular basis; I go to a Catholic church with over 5,000 families (which translates to lots of people attending Mass on weekends).

[umsami]

Growing up, 800 would have been big for me.  Heck, 300 would have been big.  But then I moved down South, where we have megachurches.  5,000 and 10,000 are not uncommon.  So my view has changed a bit.

 

I think it probably really depends on the size of your city/location.

 

I always envied my Catholic friends who had a chance to go on Saturday once or twice, plus numerous times on Sunday.  When I grew up, it was either the 9 a.m. or 11 a.m. service period. :)

[Whereneverever]

My church has about 700 people. For our denomination it's large.

[kiwik]

I think there were 30 to 40 people today, there would have been 20 to 30 at the early service and there were 20 to 30 kids around. I consider that a reasonable size.

[scrapbookbuzz]

I grew up in a Methodist church with two Sunday services and a roster of about 4000 people. Average attendance at each service may have run about 800-1000.
Now, living in a different state, and a larger city, I attend a Bible church, with an average weekly attendance of about 150 at the ONE Sunday service. I think "large" depends
on your perspective.

[GSOchristie]

Our church in Louisville had 6000 people, but compared to Southeast Christian with 20,000+, it was small. Our first church in Greensboro had about 2000. Both of these churches were the "one church, multiple location" type, so I rarely saw the people at the other locations even though we were all members. The church we attend now has 150 attending members and I actually love it! I know all of the families with young kids and quite a few that don't. I would consider anything over 1000 a large church.

[Ottakee]

I grew up in a small/medium rural Baptist church. About 150 in attendance on Sunday mornings with 100 or so for evening service.

 

We are now attending what I consider a large church, larger than I would have normally considered. It runs 750-800 on an average Sunday split between 2 morning worship times. For Thanksgiving we had 955 but had lots of out of town family members, college students, friends, etc. attend as well as they offered a turkey dinner after each service.

 

This is honestly a bit bigger than my comfort zone but I am learning. My idea would likely be 200-250 or so----big enough to have lots of different people there but small enough to get to know them.

[LizzyBee]

I think it depends on the locality and denomination.  In the northeast, 500 members is a large Baptist church, but in the south 5-10k or more is a large Baptist church.

 

Funny story about large churches. When my husband lived in Dallas, he visited Prestonwood Baptist. While transitioning from Sunday School to church, he got swept up in a crowd and couldn't do anything but move along with it.  Next thing he knew, he was in the choir loft, LOL.  He decided he needed to find a smaller church.

[Crimson Wife]

Are Catholic parishes so much larger than other churches? I never would have guessed that based on the size of the buildings they own, but I guess I was way, way off in my estimation of relative membership.

Yes, because there has been a shortage of priests for a long time. The bishops have been consolidating parishes while other denominations have been establishing new churches to keep up with population growth.

 

Our parish is way bigger than I'd like (5000 families). There are 2 Masses on Saturday and 5 on Sunday. My DS is making his First Communion this year and there are so many kids that they have to hold 4 different ceremonies.