megachurch

• mega-church

From mega- +‎ church.

megachurch (plural megachurches)

1. A church with an atypically large congregation.

   Coordinate terms: superchurch, megamosque

   • 2009 March 31, Michiko Kakutani, “Almighty Empire With a Global Reach”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 27 January 2018:

     This American style of religion has begun to spread around the world through the efforts of what the authors call pastorpreneurs, who have modeled themselves on their American counterparts, building megachurches and entrepreneurial empires.

   • 2013, Kate Bowler, Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 5:

     Millions of Americans fell in love with the prosperity gospel and its new kind of preacher. Charming though not effusive, polished but not slick, these favored few could as easily have appeared on Piers Morgan Tonight as behind their megachurch Sunday pulpits.

   • 2020 August 12, Daniel Burke, “California church defies public health orders, holds indoor services for thousands with no social distancing”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     The pastor told CNN on Tuesday that no members of his megachurch have contracted the virus. MacArthur also said he doubted the accuracy of California’s coronavirus numbers.

• The Hartford Institute for Religion Research defines a megachurch as any Protestant Christian church having 2,000 or more people in average weekend attendance.

• megachurch on Wikipedia.Wikipedia