Saddleback Church

Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, is one of the most influential churches in modern American evangelicalism. Rick and Kay Warren founded it in 1980, and Warren's book The Purpose Driven Life made it a household name. Warren retired in 2022 and handed leadership to Andy Wood, with his wife Stacie serving as a teaching pastor. The Southern Baptist Convention removed Saddleback in 2023 over the ordination of women pastors. Weekly attendance has been reported around 30,000 across California and international campuses.

Saddleback's 909,730 combined followers make it the biggest digital footprint of any church ranked 41 through 50. YouTube carries 614,000 subscribers, Facebook 179,000 followers, and verified Instagram 115,147, with a token TikTok presence at 1,583. The church is active on all four platforms, with YouTube content published as recently as June 10. But YouTube growth sits at 2.33 percent for the year, the slowest in this band of the index.

Saddleback is the inverse of its neighbors in the rankings: a 55.9 reach score, a perfect 100 on breadth, and a 14 velocity score that drags the whole profile down. The audience was built across four decades and two generations of leadership, and it is barely growing. A 2.33 percent YouTube growth rate on 614,000 subscribers means roughly 14,000 new subscribers in a year, fewer than churches one-tenth its size are adding. The leadership transition and SBC exit dominated the church's public story for three years, and the content engine has not found its post-Warren identity yet. The reach keeps Saddleback in the top 50. Velocity will decide whether it stays.