Lakewood Church is a non-denominational evangelical Christian megachurch located in Houston, Texas. It is among the largest congregations in the United States, averaging about 45,000 attendees per week. The 16,800-seat Lakewood Church building, home to four English-language services and two Spanish-language services per week, is located at the former Compaq Center. Joel Osteen is the senior pastor of Lakewood Church with his wife, Victoria, who serves as co-pastor.
Joel Scott Osteen is an American pastor, televangelist, businessman, and author based in Houston, Texas, United States. Known for his weekly televised services and several best-selling books, Osteen is one of the more prominent figures associated with prosperity theology and the Word of Faith movement.
A vigil, from the Latin vigilia meaning 'wakefulness', is a period of purposeful sleeplessness, an occasion for devotional watching, or an observance. The Italian word vigilia has become generalized in this sense and means 'eve'.
Angelus Temple is a Pentecostal megachurch in the Echo Park district of Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded by Aimee Semple McPherson in 1923, it is considered the first U.S. megachurch.
Hillsong Church, commonly known as Hillsong, is a charismatic Christian megachurch and a Christian association of churches based in Australia. The original church was established in Baulkham Hills, New South Wales, as Hills Christian Life Centre by Brian Houston and his wife, Bobbie Houston, in 1983. Hillsong was a member of the Australian Christian Churches – the Australian branch of the US-based Assemblies of God – until 2018, when it separated to form a new denomination. The church is known for its contemporary worship music, with groups such as Hillsong Worship, Hillsong United and Hillsong Young & Free with many musical credits and hits and a series of scandals and criticisms.
The Meeting House was an Anabaptist church located in the Greater Toronto Area suburb of Oakville, Ontario. A member of the Be in Christ Church of Canada, the Canadian branch of the Brethren in Christ Church, at its height it consisted of nineteen regional sites that met mostly in cinemas, each of which had a lead pastor with a team of elders and part-time staff. It was started in 1985 by Craig and Laura Sider and a board of overseers. From 1997 its senior teaching pastor was Bruxy Cavey during whose tenure the congregation grew to an average weekly attendance of around 5,000—ranked by the Hartford Institute of Religion as the third-largest church in Canada—and expanded to multiple sites in southern Ontario. Cavey stepped down in late 2021 after claims of sexual abuse were substantiated against him. The church paused all public ministry in late June 2024 as it had been denied coverage for abuse liability insurance and employment practices liability. It ceased operations at the end of August, with its remaining sites rebranding as the "BIC Church Collective", a loose association of churches that that shared preaching and support functions.
TBN Inspire is an American Christian broadcast television network owned by the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). It is carried on the digital subchannels of TBN's stations.
Wallie Amos Criswell Jr., was an American Baptist pastor, author, and a two-term elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1968 to 1970. As senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas for five decades, he became widely known for expository biblical preaching at a popular level, and is regarded as a key figure in the late 1970s "Conservative Resurgence" within the Southern Baptist Convention.
A candlelight vigil or candlelit vigil or candlelight service is an outdoor assembly of people carrying candles, held after sunset in order to pray, show support for a specific cause, or remember the dead, in which case, the event is often called a candlelight memorial. Such events may be held to protest the suffering of some marginalized group of people. A large candlelight vigil may have invited speakers with a public address system and may be covered by local or national media. Speakers give their speech at the beginning of the vigil to explain why they are holding a vigil and what it represents. Vigils may also have a religious purpose that contains prayer and fasting. On Christmas Eve many churches hold a candlelight vigil.
Jack N. Graham is the pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas.
Elevation Church is an Evangelical non-denominational multi-site megachurch based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Weekly church attendance was 14,000 people in 2023. Elevation has 20 locations. Its senior pastors are Steven Furtick and Holly Furtick.
Christ Fellowship is a non-denominational evangelical multi-site megachurch based in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida with more than 28,000 in attendance each week on eleven locations throughout South Florida.
First Baptist Dallas is a Baptist megachurch located in Dallas, Texas established since 1868. It is affiliated with the SBC. The Downtown Dallas Church is historically considered influential as a denominational leader among Protestant Churches in the United States serving as a successful model through its involvement of several legacy community missions.
Robert Morris is a former American televangelist pastor who founded Gateway Church, a megachurch based in Southlake, Texas, in 2000. He served as senior pastor at the church until 2024, when he resigned after allegations that he engaged in sexual misconduct with a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s.
Gateway Church is a non-denominational, evangelical Christian multi-site megachurch based in Southlake, Texas, near Fort Worth. As of 2023, it was ranked as the 9th largest in the United States, with attendance of 25,805. In 2024, its founding pastor, Robert Morris, resigned after allegations of past sexual abuse of a minor. Max Lucado, of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, became the interim teaching pastor, and Joakim Lundqvist of Sweden also has interim pastoral duties.
Robert James Jeffress Jr. is an American Southern Baptist pastor, author, radio host, and televangelist. He is the senior pastor of the 14,000-member First Baptist Church, a megachurch in Dallas, Texas, and is a Fox News Contributor. His sermons are broadcast on the television and radio program Pathway to Victory, which is broadcast on more than 1,200 television stations in the United States and 28 other countries, and is heard on 900 stations and broadcast live in 195 countries.
Park Cities Presbyterian Church (PCPC) is a Presbyterian Church in America megachurch in Dallas, Texas with about 5,500 members.
Timothy Bruce Cavey, known as Bruxy Cavey, is a Canadian author and former pastor. He is the author of The End of Religion and Reunion. Cavey, along with Greg Boyd, has been an important voice in recent discussions of Christian nonviolence theology in North America. Cavey has been a guest professor teaching university-level courses around North America, particularly Tyndale University, Messiah College, and Fresno Pacific University Biblical Seminary. He was a pastor at The Meeting House church in Oakville, Ontario, for 25 years, but was asked to resign from his role as teaching pastor in March 2022 after a third-party investigation revealed his years-long sexual abuse of a member of his church. According to the Toronto Star, a church official stated that the investigation found his conduct to be an abuse of power and that it amounted to sexual harassment. In June 2022, Cavey was arrested and charged with sexual assault.
Akron Baptist Temple was a Baptist house of worship located on Manchester Road in Akron, Ohio. The congregation first met in 1934 and the church was officially organized a year later. In the years that followed, Akron Baptist Temple grew to be one of the first megachurches in the United States, and at its peak was considered the largest church in North America. The church building was sold in 2019 and the congregation moved to Coventry Township and renamed themselves as Connect Church.
