Church Influence 100
How the Ranking Works
Every number on this site comes from public platform data and a published formula. Here's the whole thing, no black box.
Published by REACHRIGHT, a church marketing agency serving 800+ churches · Maintained by Thomas Costello, founder · Methodology last updated June 2026 · Data refreshed annually
The Influence Score
Each church receives an Influence Score from 0 to 100, built from three weighted pillars. Scores are normalized within each edition: the strongest church anchors the scale at 100, and every other score is relative to it.
| Pillar | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 50% | Combined followers and subscribers across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. We apply a logarithmic scale before normalizing, because a church with ten times the followers is not ten times more influential. |
| Velocity | 30% | Momentum: one-year subscriber growth, one-year view growth, and trailing 30-day views relative to audience size, each scored as a percentile against the rest of the index. Growth rates are capped at 300% so tiny accounts can't game the math. Churches without a YouTube presence receive a conservative fallback at the 25th percentile. |
| Breadth | 20% | Presence across the four major platforms (up to 70 points) plus publishing recency: churches that posted to YouTube within the last 30 days earn the full recency bonus, declining for staler channels. |
Tie-breaking: when two churches land on the same score, exact YouTube subscriber counts decide the order, then exact Instagram followers.
Who's Eligible
- Local churches and multisite churches only. Denominations, church networks, parachurch ministries, standalone worship labels, and individuals are excluded. A global multisite church (like Hillsong) counts as one church.
- Brand-family aggregation. All official church-operated, church-branded accounts count toward the church's score. Elevation Worship counts toward Elevation Church. Personal accounts of pastors and staff never count, no matter how large.
- Public and active. Accounts must be public, and the church must have published content within the trailing 90 days on at least one platform.
- Global scope. Any country, any language.
Data Sources & Precision
| Platform | Source | Precision |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | Platform analytics APIs, per channel | Exact counts, incl. growth rates |
| Public profile data, per account | Exact counts | |
| TikTok | Public search-indexed profile data | Platform-rounded (e.g. 225.6K) |
| Public search-indexed page data | Platform-rounded (e.g. 3.2M) |
The 2026 edition's data was collected in June 2026. Every page displays the collection window. Rankings are a frozen annual snapshot, not live data, so citations stay stable.
Corrections
Spot a wrong handle, a missing official account, or a church that should be in the research pool? Contact us. Corrections are verified against the church's own website and applied at the next data refresh.
Methodology FAQ
Why isn't my church on the list?
Two common reasons: either your church wasn't in our research pool of 150+ candidate churches, or its combined online audience and growth didn't place it in the top 100. If you believe we missed your church, contact us with your official account handles and we'll include it in the next data refresh.
Why does a smaller church outrank a megachurch?
Because influence isn't just size. Velocity (30% of the score) measures growth and active viewership. A church growing its audience 200% a year is exerting more influence per follower than a large account that stopped growing. That's by design.
Why don't pastors' personal accounts count?
This index measures churches as institutions. Many pastors have personal brands larger than their church's accounts, but that influence belongs to the person and moves with them. Church-operated brand accounts (worship, youth, campuses) do count, because they belong to the church.
Do you accept payment for placement?
Never. No church can pay to be on this list, improve its rank, or remove a competitor. The score is computed from public platform data using the formula on this page.
How often is the index updated?
Annually. Each edition is a frozen snapshot with its collection window printed on every page, so rankings stay citable year over year.
Influence like this gets built on purpose.
Every church on this list posts consistently, in formats people actually watch. That's not luck. That's a system. We run that system for churches every week: sermon clips, graphics, carousels, captions, posted for you.