 a megachurch is a protestant church having 2,000 or more people in average weekend attendance.usa churches : church sizes columbus:usachurches.org. retrieved 2011-02-05 the hartford institute's database lists more than 1,300 such protestant churches in the united states; according to that data, approximately 50 churches on the list have average attendance exceeding 10,000, with the highest recorded at 47,000 in average attendance. while 3,000 individual catholic parishes (churches) have 2,000 or more attendants for an average sunday mass, these churches are not seen as part of the megachurch movement. globally, these large congregations are a significant development in protestant christianity. in the united states, the phenomenon has more than quadrupled in the past two decades.http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=tflynn_26_5 it has since spread worldwide. in 2007, five of the ten largest protestant churches were in south korea. the largest mega church in the united states is lakewood church in houston, texas with more than 40,000 members every weekend and the current largest megachurch in the world is south korea's yoido full gospel church, an assemblies of god church, with more than 830,000 members as of 2007.in pictures: america's 10 biggest megachurches, forbes. ==history==  the origins of the megachurch movement, with a large number of local congregants who return on a weekly basis can be traced to the 1950s.{{cite web|url=http://hirr.hartsem.edu/bookshelf/thumma
Christian_terminology Megachurches