Skyline Church

Skyline Church carries one of the more famous lineages in American evangelicalism. Orval Butcher founded it as Skyline Wesleyan Church in Lemon Grove, California in 1954 and led it for 27 years. John Maxwell, who later became the best known leadership author in the church world, succeeded him in 1981 and nearly tripled attendance from 1,100 to 3,000 before stepping down in 1995 to focus on his leadership ministry. Jim Garlow led the church for the next two decades. Jeremy McGarity became senior pastor in November 2018, merging his church plant Seven with Skyline. The church, affiliated with the Wesleyan denomination, now operates from its Rancho San Diego campus in the La Mesa area.

Skyline reaches 42,854 combined followers across three platforms. Instagram is the largest at 21,500 followers, accounting for half the total. Facebook adds 11,394 and YouTube holds 9,960 subscribers on the @SkylineChurch channel. The YouTube number is the one moving fast, up 23.88 percent over the past year, with a video published June 7, 2026. There is no TikTok account in the data.

Skyline makes this index on momentum, not mass. Its reach score of 17 is among the lowest in the top 100, but its velocity score of 61.7 is one of the highest in this group, second only to Central Baptist among churches ranked 81 through 90. Nearly 24 percent YouTube growth in a year is the kind of number that compounds. The breadth score of 82.5 means the foundation is already laid across three platforms. If the current growth rate holds, Skyline is the sort of church that climbs this list rather than falls off it.