Sioux Falls multisite church named one of nation’s fastest growing

Embrace Church has been named among the fastest-growing churches in the country.

The nondenominational church, which has three physical campuses in the Sioux Falls area, ranked No. 17 on Outreach Magazine’s 100 Fastest-Growing Churches in America in 2025.

It has grown attendance by 26 percent since last fall, averaging 4,131 each Sunday. The rankings take into consideration both of those statistics.

“It’s just always fun and humbling to see that and to know it represents people being touched,” lead pastor Adam Weber said, adding that since the ranking was compiled, attendance has grown even more.

“Overall, I feel like we try to be relatable. When people come, they always say, ‘I feel like you’re speaking directly to me.'”

Weber credits his team for connecting with people and said he tries to be honest about his own imperfections when preaching.

“We seem to attract people who know they don’t have it all figured out,” he said. “I don’t have it all figured out either.”

The passion Embrace brings to the faith is key in growing attendance too, he said.

Weber established the church at age 24 in 2006.

“I never wanted to be a pastor. I always thought I was going to be in the business field, and my hope was that the way I live my life would attract other people to Jesus,” he said. “But genuinely, the most important thing in my life is Jesus.”

In additions to its three campuses in the Sioux Falls area, Embrace holds worship services at Mike Durfee State Prison in Springfield and at the Jameson Annex within the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls.

“I think we’re worshipping over 100 inmates each week, and our goal isn’t just to minister to the inmates. It’s to minister to the staff as well,” Weber said, adding that the Embrace team recently served lunch to the entire staff at Jameson.

“And it was really cool to see that, (as well as) the baptisms taking place. Each time there’s a baptism, I am a part of it, and just hearing these men who are wanting to make a change in their lives … it’s quickly becoming one of our favorite things as a church is ministering to people most would want nothing to do with.”

Embrace also is seeing record numbers of middle and high school students on Wednesday nights; attendance for Wednesday evening youth services has increased by more than 50 percent since last September.

“It’s just insane what’s happening,” Weber said. “Every week, the last three Wednesday nights, our main youth leader has texted me and said: ‘You need to come on a Wednesday night. You can’t believe what’s happening right now with high school students.'”

Word of mouth has helped drive much of the growth, he said.

“Our youth students — so many of them are leading the way in getting their family to church, which is awesome,” Weber said.

Many people who attend Embrace seem to be “searching for purpose, searching for peace when they’re restless, searching for joy,” he said. “We just had a really powerful story shared. There was a person who came for the first time yesterday, and they said they were on the verge of taking their life a couple weeks ago. And they heard about Embrace and decided they wanted to give it a chance.”

The overall goal for Embrace is to reach 5 percent of Sioux Falls by 2031 — or approximately 12,000 people.

“That is still the goal. Last weekend, we were close to the 5,000 mark on a weekend,” Weber said.

“We’re praying about what do next steps look like in order to continue with that goal. I hope that Embrace is one part of the church in Sioux Falls continuing to reach people too. Our community is growing by 5,000 each year, and I just think there’s no way Embrace can do that ourselves, so that’s why I’m so grateful there are so many awesome churches in Sioux Falls and in our community right now. I pray constantly for other churches and other pastors to set a big goal as well.”

See the full ranking here.

CEO Series: Adam Weber