Just under a year ago, I received a phone call from Warren Bird at Leadership Network. Warren was having a party and I was invited to join the fun.

It has been a long time since I have been invited to "parties." This one involved flying to Dallas, staying overnight, and meeting some new friends.

Warren had just finished his Ph.D. dissertation and the folks at Leadership Network threw him a soirée. We had dinner with toasts by Bob Buford at a fancy restaurant. (I don't mean to sound like a yokel here, but it was VERY fancy.)

In honor of Warren's dissertation (which I will share later this week) they brought together a who's who of megachurch research, including:

o Elmer Towns
o John Vaughan
o Carl George
o Bill Easum
o Scott Thumma
o Mark Chaves
o Samuel Chand
o Gary McIntosh

In addition, the fine folks from Leadership Network (Bob, Dave Travis, Linda Stanley, and Greg Ligon) were there.

You probably recognize many of the names, but I want to point out three of them who are most active in megachurch research. To do that, a short history may be helpful.

The first person who started listing megachurches was probably Elmer Towns, which he did as a column in Christian Life magazine. The editor indicated it grabbed people attention. He would list the largest Sunday Schools (since they had larger attendance than churches until the mid-60s) and later the largest churches. Among his many books on themes of church growth were America's Largest Sunday Schools (1969) and America's Largest Churches (1972).

He turned that mantle over to John Vaughn. John has devoted his life to studying megachurches. He speaks and consults on the subject. His organization is called Chruch Growth Today, and the tagline puts it well, "America's Megachurch Research Center... since 1985." (It is important to note that he also does research on international megachurches.)

When you are in a megachurch, there is a very good chance John has already been there... and a pretty good chance he has consulted with the church. Megachurches are a labor of love for John-- and this is his specialty. Be sure to visit his site. You can't really know megachurches without some of the resources on John's site. See Church Growth Today.

Warren Bird and Scott Thumma are also frequently engaged in megachurch research. I mentioned them earlier this week related to research they just released.

They recently completed an in-depth 12 church study that includes questionnaires from 25,000 megachurch attendees which they will begin releasing in February 2009. This data parallels other broad national data so we will be able to compare small evangelical churches to the large evangelical megachurches. The study will also have considerable information about where mega attendees are coming from and the depth of their spiritual life and personal practices.

Warren jokes that he attends a support group for people who can't resist stopping anytime he spots a big church. He usually co-publishes with others, co-authoring 21 books to date, many of them with megachurch pastors. Warren works for Leadership Network, which works with many megachurches and releases a lot of research on megachurches, all for free download. Check out leadnet.org/megachurch and leadnet.org/salary. He wrote his dissertation on megachurches that I will share soon.

Scott's interest is more academic as a seminary professor and researcher at the Hartford Institute. Scott has a very helpful web page here and a searchable database here. He co-authored a book with Dave Travis, Megachurch Myths, which is one of the most comprehensive analyses of the phenomenon.

If you want to know megachurches, hearing from these three is important.

And, if you are a megachurch, I would encourage you to submit your data to John Vaughn and the Hartford Institute.