What is the Biggest Church in the World by congregation?

Yoido Full Gospel Church. It’s the mother of all megachurches, with the largest church congregation in the world. It outranks even the biggest church in Nigeria. On a typical day, 200,000 Christians will attend one of the seven services of the biggest church in the world along with another two or three hundred thousand watching them on TV in adjoining buildings or satellite branches. Really big figures!

The biggest church in the world by congregation

Yoido Full Gospel Church is a Pentecostal church affiliated with the Assemblies of God on Yeouido (Yoi Island) in Seoul, South Korea. With about 480,000 members (2015), it is the largest Pentecostal Christian congregation in South Korea. It was founded by David Yonggi Cho in 1958.

Membership continued to grow rapidly, reaching ten thousand in the early 1970s.

Believing that he had got his calling from God, Cho and the other leaders of the church decided to purchase a plot of land on Yoi Island.

Economic problems delayed construction of the new auditorium. However, it was finally finished in 1973 and its inaugural worship service was held on 19 August of that year. A month later, Full Gospel Central Church, as it was known, hosted the 10th Pentecostal World Conference at the Hyochang Stadium. Fifty-five thousand attended, including five thousand foreigners.

Membership of Full Gospel Central Church reached fifty thousand by 1977, a figure which doubled in only two years. On 30 November 1981, membership reached 200,000. By this time, it was the largest single congregation in the world and was recognized as such by the Los Angeles Times.

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Bey the 1980s, Full Gospel Central Church decided to establish satellite churches throughout the city of Seoul and its environs as it would not be able to keep on expanding indefinitely. Despite the expansion of the auditorium to seat 12,000 in 1983, seven Sunday services were insufficient to accommodate the entire membership.

As exponential growth continued, reaching 700,000 by 1992, the need for satellite churches became more pressing. Due to the drain of members to the satellite churches, new recruits were employed. They were brought in through the vast cell network and this made up for the losses. Membership stood at 780,000 in 2003.

The church was renamed Yoido Full Gospel Church in the 1990s. Its founder, Mr. David Yonggi Cho, retired as head pastor several times. Each time, there would be fighting among the remaining ministers, causing him to come out of retirement. The most recent of which was in 2006. As of 2007, membership stands at 830,000, with seven Sunday services translated into 16 languages.

Architecture and location

In the heart of Seoul, the Yoido Full Gospel Church sits directly across from Korea's National Assembly. The building is large enough to seat 12,000 people, with overflow sent to nearby buildings who watch events on the main church on telescreens.

Ministries of the church

Yoido Full Gospel Church has established a lot of ministries as part of its outreach program, both locally and internationally. A representative sample of them are as follows:

• In March 1973, the Osanri Prayer Mountain was founded. Comprising tiny cubicles in which people may lock themselves to fast and pray, Prayer Mountain now receives more than a million visitors a year, including some 50,000 foreigners.

• In November 1976, Church Growth International, an organization dedicated to teaching the principles of evangelism and church growth to pastors all over the world, was established.

• A ten-story World Evangelical Center, an educational institution attached to the church, was opened on 20 January 1977.

• A television studio opened on 31 December 1981. It was built to broadcast the worship services both nationally and internationally.

• The Full Gospel Educational Research Institute, now the International Theological Institute, to promote evangelism and theological training, was constructed.

• In January 1986, Elim Welfare Town, a facility for the elderly, the young, the homeless and the unemployed, was set up under the auspices of the church. The latter would be given training and a choice of four occupations. In March of the same year, the church established Hansei University.

On February 20, 2014, Pastor Cho and his son (Hee-jun) were convicted of embezzling US $12 million in church funds. The presiding judge once told Cho, 'We know that this case is not your problem. You just need to blame it on your son, then you will have no responsibilities,'

Change wrote, adding that Cho refused, "My son can be unrighteous to me, but I cannot be wicked to my son." In June 2016, This case was closed as there was no proof.

While some other churches may be losing members, this one just keeps growing. The main sanctuary holds 21,000 worshipers packed to the rafters seven times every Sunday. Each service has its own orchestra, its own choir, its own pastor.

There are hundreds of assistants. Each service is translated into 16 different languages for visitors. All the features here are made for the people. It is a big pleasure to see it. So if you want to see the church that outweighs even biggest church in Nigeria, you have to visit soon. Yoido Full Gospel Church is well worth visiting.

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