Churches with the largest weekly attendance are located in Asia and Africa, a recent Leadership Network study shows.

The study was led by Dr. Warren Bird, who’s been researching megachurches since 1991. Bird found that the biggest church attendance — not membership — comes from places other than the U.S.

The largest megachurch in the U.S. — Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston — has a 43,500 average attendance, according to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

However, as seen on the detailed chart Bird has compiled, the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea has the largest attendance at 480,000 per service. Onnuir (All Nations) Community Church, also in Seoul, has 75,000 attend each service, as does Deeper Christian Life Ministry in Lagos, Nigeria. A number of other churches have attendance numbers topping 50,000. With the list, says Bird, “you’ll also see which countries have the newer growth of larger churches.”

The growth of Asian and African churches is encouraging, says Bird, because it means that more and more people are embracing Jesus Christ in different parts of the world. He cites India as another example.

“India today has more believers than at any time in its 4,000-year history,” he told Christian Today. “And as my list populates, I suspect we’ll find a growing number of megachurches there. You can explore everything from average pastor age to the likelihood level of Pentecostal/charismatic theology in these large churches.”

Dr. Bird finds all this new data exciting because it “allows us to see the larger picture of what God seems to be doing.”