Elmer Towns is co-founder of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., and dean of its School of Religion. Towns is a longtime church-growth expert; he provided one of the earliest tallies of super-large churches, determining in 1969 that there were 16 congregations with 2,000-plus weekly worshippers.

Warren Bird is director of research and intellectual capital for Leadership Network, a nonprofit organization that works to foster Christian leadership, innovation and church growth. He has studied and profiled many of the nation’s biggest and fastest-growing churches and is a co-author of A Multi-Site Church Road Trip: Exploring the New Normal. Bird’s dissertation in 2007 examined whether megachurches foster […]

Read a 2001 article by the former pastor of a small Illinois church about his experience ministering in the shadow of a megachurch. It ran in the Enrichment Journal, a publication of the Assemblies of God.

Read a Sept. 17, 2003, Forbes magazine article on entrepreneurial and marketing activities of megachurches.

Read a Feb. 6, 2006, Christian Science Monitor article about the rise of megachurches.

Read a Nov. 15, 2006, article about product placement and other marketing strategies targeting megachurches. The article is posted at the University of Pennsylvania’s Knowledge@Wharton site.

Read a Nov. 23, 2007, New York Times article about megachurches’ entrepreneurial activities and the perceived benefits and drawbacks for the wider community.

Read a May 15, 2008, Christianity Today article about a shift by one of the best-known megachurches, Willow Creek Community Church in suburban Chicago, away from “seeker-centered” services in order to better meet the needs of more spiritually mature believers.

Read a March 10, 2009, blog post by Duke University professor Mark Chaves about how congregational size is changing America’s religious landscape.