Real HAC Numbers

As we continue to uncover real numbers:

Around 1975, we expanded the auditorium and built a large chapel for teen-age church on Sunday morning. Dr. Hyles explained that this would give us more room for adults in the main auditorium.

On the other hand, we went from "A" services to B, C, D, and E services. But only the "A" service had adult church.
 
tobytyler said:
Louisville, KY has a large Christian church.  I haven't attended a service there but I walked through their sanctuary on a Sunday afternoon.  Two large balconies, a baptistery that resembled more of an aquarium at a Cabela's or Bass Pro Shops?..Everything seemed to be done first class at this church.

Also, I've always liked how Bellevue Baptist in Memphis moved their entire complex to the suburbs away from their downtown location.  They have  a 6,000 seat auditorium that was recently renovated, although I prefer how the auditorium was originally built by Adrian Rogers over the new look by its current pastor and Southern Baptist president, Steve Gaines.  There's a lot of history in this church?.even Bellevue's old location is impressive even though it's been owned by another church since 1990, which is where RG Lee pasored Bellevue.
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Southeast Christian certainly had huge attendances in 2000 which was the first time I had seen the campus and main building. It took my breath away.

I have never recovered from the sight of the really big church buildings. Southeast seats about 10,000 and this was from 1998. It's bigger now.

I knew then that all Bro. Hyles had been telling us was just self aggrandizing puffery. We had nothing to compare to this facility. There was never enough physical space in the FBCH buildings to have accommodated the size crowds that were claimed.

south-east.jpg


MGA-Southeast_Christian_Church-712%281A%29-01.jpg


 
Now this is a baptistery!  Southeast Christian Church, Louisville, KY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWen-atj3DI

 
All right, I THINK that this is what happened:

FBCH was running about 8,000 when HAC opened in 1972 with 301 students. Rapid numerical growth followed, but most of it was HAC students, their families, and their bus kids.
FBCH really was the world?s largest Sunday School, but other megachurches had more adults.
Auditorium expansions accommodated a growing adult crowd, much of which was the growth in HAC attendance. In the late 80?s, HAC reached its height of about 1800 students. These extra 1500 students would account for much of the increased auditorium crowds on Sunday nights.
Despite adding B,C,D, and E Sunday schools, only the "A" Sunday school included adults.
 
Vince Massi said:
A point that might have been missed is that Bg realized that at its height, FBCH might not have had the highest adult attendance in the world. But when I was there, we had two furniture warehouses, with four floors of bus kids apiece.

To be fair, Jack  claimed to have "The World's Largest Sunday School," and he probably did. But I do remember him telling us more than once from the pulpit that a Baptist church in the Philippines had passed us.
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Noted -- isn't numbering generally regarded as sinful in the Scriptures?  And then comparing "our church" with "their church" is "unwise", I believe the Scripture says.  I addition, this obsession with "how are we doing compared to others?" reeks of how the world runs businesses, and seems worldly to me.
 
Twisted said:
bgwilkinson said:
MGA-Southeast_Christian_Church-712%281A%29-01.jpg
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This is not a "church".  This is a concert hall.
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Isn't this church just too big?  I mean, shouldn't they be starting churches within a 1 hour radius by sending out good families to be the core nucleus of new church plants?
 
16KJV11 said:
Twisted said:
bgwilkinson said:
MGA-Southeast_Christian_Church-712%281A%29-01.jpg
Click to expand...

This is not a "church".  This is a concert hall.
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Isn't this church just too big?  I mean, shouldn't they be starting churches within a 1 hour radius by sending out good families to be the core nucleus of new church plants?
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Think they got that idea  a few years ago. Rather than build a new building they built at these 3 locations all within a 1 hour radius.

Southeast Christian Church has grown into a unified multi site community located in the Greater Louisville/Southern Indiana region. We currently have four campuses serving the specific needs of the areas in which they are located, while receiving centralized leadership and teaching from the campus on Blankenbaker Parkway.

Take a look at their three other locations.

Indiana Campus
1309 Charlestown New Albany Rd
Jeffersonville, IN 47130
812.704.1951
https://www.southeastchristian.org/indiana/


Crestwood Campus
6201 Crestwood Station
Crestwood, KY 40014
502.873.1100
https://www.southeastchristian.org/crestwood/


Southwest Campus
8301 Saint Andrews Church Road
Louisville, KY 40258
502.614.1500
https://www.southeastchristian.org/southwest/
 
Vince Massi said:
To be fair, Jack  claimed to have "The World's Largest Sunday School," and he probably did. But I do remember him telling us more than once from the pulpit that a Baptist church in the Philippines had passed us.
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FBCH was given the title of "World's Largest Sunday School" by Elmer Towns.
 
RAIDER said:
Vince Massi said:
To be fair, Jack  claimed to have "The World's Largest Sunday School," and he probably did. But I do remember him telling us more than once from the pulpit that a Baptist church in the Philippines had passed us.
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FBCH was given the title of "World's Largest Sunday School" by Elmer Towns.
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You are correct. That was a listed in the October 1972 issue of Christian Life Magazine. Don't know if this was a ongoing feature by Elmer Towns or not.


Here is the article that started it all.

http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1028&context=towns_articles

 
Here is another from 1977. The number of 100,000 plus is rather a dubious number that many of us did not believe at the time.
Inretrospect I believe it was purely a fabricated number made up to continue the largest, biggest montra.
One time we claimed we had 32,500 people on our Hammond property. If your just do a little math you will find that this is physically impossible with our small buildings and limited space.

http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1035&context=towns_articles
 
Tell me why you think the numbers were so important.

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