While national church participation has declined, several fastest growing denominations and movements continue to expand across the country. Independent non-denominational fellowships, Assemblies of God Pentecostals, the Presbyterian Church in America, and the recently launched Global Methodist Church represent major bright spots of growth fueled by energetic church planting, contemporary worship, and strong immigrant retention.
The Non-Denominational Boom: America's Largest Growth Story
The single most dramatic development in American religion over the past three decades is the meteoric rise of non-denominational Christianity. While not a single centralized hierarchy, independent evangelical and charismatic congregations collectively form the most rapidly expanding religious body in the United States.
According to the 2020 U.S. Religion Census conducted by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB), the number of non-denominational adherents surged from 12.2 million in 2010 to more than 21.1 million in 202—n astonishing gain of nearly 9 million adherents in a single decade. The census identified 44,319 independent congregations nationwide. If aggregated as a single denomination, non-denominational Protestants would rank as the second-largest religious body in the United States, trailing only the Roman Catholic Church and easily surpassing the Southern Baptist Convention.
Sociologists attribute this expansion to cultural adaptability. Independent growing churches are free from national bureaucratic oversight, allowing local pastoral teams to make rapid decisions regarding facility construction, online broadcasting, and modern worship styles. Many affiliate informally with church planting networks such as the Association of Related Churches (ARC) or Acts 29, sharing resources while maintaining congregational independence. Furthermore, the prominence of suburban megachurches in America has popularized campus models where a single dynamic church plants multiple satellite locations. Unencumbered by historic denominational labels that many younger seekers associate with institutional decline, these congregations thrive in growing suburbs, drawing families through state-of-the-art children's facilities, casual dress codes, and practical biblical preaching.
Pentecostal Expansion: Assemblies of God and Hispanic Churches
Among traditional denominations with national headquarters, classical Pentecostal bodies have demonstrated the most consistent long-term growth. The Assemblies of God (USA) stands out as a premier example of sustained institutional vitality in an era of widespread decline.
According to official annual reporting, the Assemblies of God reported 3.3 million adherents across roughly 13,000 congregations in 2023, marking more than three decades of continuous net membership growth. The primary engine behind this success is ethnic diversity. While white membership has remained relatively flat, ethnic minority adherents have expanded dramatically. Hispanic and Latino believers accounted for more than 23 percent of all Assemblies of God adherents in 2023, reflecting thousands of energetic bilingual and Spanish-language church plants across Sunbelt suburbs and metropolitan centers.
Other Pentecostal and charismatic bodies have recorded similar vitality. The Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) reported over 1.2 million American members in 2022, supported by strong ethnic church planting networks and active urban youth ministries. As highlighted in our dedicated study of Hispanic churches in America, immigrant families frequently gravitate toward Pentecostal fellowships because they offer expressive worship, personal spiritual empowerment, and practical community support networks that assist newcomers with housing, employment, and language integration.
The Rise of Alternative Denominations: PCA, ACNA, and Global Methodists
A second major category of denomination growth stems from theological realignments and schisms within historic Protestantism. As legacy mainline bodies adopted progressive stances on social issues and biblical interpretation, conservative leaders departed to establish alternative denominations that have expanded rapidly.
The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), founded in 1973 by conservative congregations separating from southern mainline Presbyterianism, reported record membership in 2023. The denomination climbed to over 393,000 members across 1,960 churches, driven by successful church planting networks in college towns and growing suburban markets. Unlike its declining mainline counterpart, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the PCA has maintained positive membership trajectories over several consecutive decades through its dedicated Mission to North America church planting agency.
Similarly, the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) was formed in 2009 by traditionalist Episcopalians and Canadian Anglicans. In its 2023 annual report, ACNA recorded approximately 128,000 active adherents across nearly 1,000 congregations. By combining historic liturgical worship and Anglican identity with evangelical fervor and theological traditionalism, ACNA has attracted both conservative defectors and younger evangelicals seeking liturgical depth.
The most explosive realignment occurred with the launch of the Global Methodist Church in May 2022. Formed amid the historic rupture of the United Methodist Church (UMC), this traditionalist denomination expanded with unprecedented speed. By mid-2024, the Global Methodist Church had chartered more than 4,500 congregations worldwide, including over 3,200 churches across the United States. While largely composed of preexisting congregations disaffiliating from the UMC, the denomination has already launched ambitious domestic church planting initiatives aimed at unreached communities.
Steady Growth in Distinct Traditions: Latter-day Saints and Adventists
Beyond traditional Protestantism, two distinctly American religious movements have demonstrated durable long-term growth through a combination of high birth rates, dedicated evangelism, and immigrant integration.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reported over 6.8 million members across more than 14,000 congregations in the United States in 2023. Although domestic growth rates have moderated compared to the rapid expansion of the late twentieth century, the church continues to record steady net increases each year. Strong family structures, universal youth missionary service, and high member retention in the Intermountain West provide a stable foundation that contrasts sharply with the broader contraction in national church membership.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church also maintains an upward domestic trajectory. In 2023, the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists reported over 1.2 million baptized members in the United States and Canada. Adventist growth is intensely global and multicultural, driven by large Caribbean, African, and Hispanic congregations in major metropolitan centers. As examined in our overview of immigrant churches in America, immigrant communities consistently serve as a vital catalyst for institutional renewal across American Christianity.
Where Are the Fastest Growing Denominations Located?
Geographic patterns illustrate where church expansion is concentrated. The fastest growing denominations in America are overwhelmingly clustered in high-growth Sunbelt states, suburban tech corridors, and dynamic metropolitan fringe counties.
States such as Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee lead the nation in new church plants and membership additions. Rapid economic migration from the Rust Belt and California has created sprawling new suburban developments where independent megachurches and denominational networks establish massive campuses. In cities like Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, Orlando, and Charlotte, new church facilities frequently welcome hundreds of new residents each month. In these booming regions, growing congregations benefit from young populations, expanding school districts, and favorable commercial real estate conditions.
Conversely, rural areas face unique demographic challenges explored in our study of rural churches in America, where aging populations make church planting significantly more difficult. In those settings, growing congregations often take the form of consolidated regional centers that draw worshippers from several surrounding townships.
The Contrast: Which Historic Denominations Are Shrinking?
To fully appreciate where growth occurs, it is necessary to examine the broader backdrop of institutional decline. The growth of independent and conservative fellowships occurs alongside steep membership drops among historic denominations.
The documented decline of mainline Protestantism has accelerated over the past decade. Between 2010 and 2023, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America lost roughly 30 percent of its baptized membership, dropping below 3 million adherents. The Presbyterian Church (USA) fell from 2 million members in 2010 to roughly 1.1 million in 2023. The Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ suffered comparable proportional losses.
Furthermore, decline is no longer confined to theological liberals. The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest Protestant denomination in America, peaked at 16.3 million members in 2006 before entering a sustained contraction. In its 2023 annual report, the SBC recorded 12.9 million member— loss of more than 3.3 million members over seventeen consecutive years. Sociologists attribute this drop to aging demographics, declining baptism rates, and broader national decreases in overall church attendance in America.
These divergent trajectories have accelerated parish consolidations and property sales detailed in our guide on why churches are closing in America, directly impacting calculations of how many churches are in the US. As secularization expands among the religious nones, American religion is polarizing between declining legacy institutions and adaptable, mission-driven congregations that continue to thrive in a competitive religious landscape.