Once a church reaches 2,000 in weekly attendance, its sheer size becomes a self-generating attraction. Massive facilities, a sprawling campus, and numerous attendees give these large congregations more prominence than other churches. Megachurches receive more media attention than smaller churches. Their physical campuses can dominate their surrounding community. Megachurch pastors tend to have charisma, and their churches can offer a wide variety of programs appealing to a broad base of people.
One can understand why a smaller church would feel threatened by the megachurch down the road. But this threat is more perception than reality.
The new reality for megachurches
The megachurch movement is beginning to wane. The number of megachurches increased exponentially in the 1980s and 1990s, but by about 2010 this exponential growth stalled. The megachurch movement reached an inflection point with about 1,600 megachurches in the United States. Over the next 10 years, up to the pandemic of 2020, the number of megachurches dropped to about 1,200. New worship spaces were also significantly smaller — about 20% on average — during the same timeframe. The pandemic then caused many megachurches to drop below 2,000 in average weekly attendance.
END TIMES PROPHECY WATCH 
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