The A.M.E. Zion Church Adopts New Common Measurement for the Health of its Churches and Congregations

Announcement is the first from a major U.S. denomination, leveraging Gloo technology and research from Barna and Harvard

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Dec. 4, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The African Methodist Episcopal Zion (A.M.E. Zion) Church denomination announced the broad adoption of the State of Your Church metrics for all of its 1,600 churches in the United States. The A.M.E. Zion Church will now have a common way to track the health of its congregations, along with the holistic well-being of its 1.5 million congregants.

"Our churches have always tracked traditional things such as church membership growth and decline, attendance and monetary giving," said Rev. Dr. J. Elvin Sadler, General-Secretary Auditor of the A.M.E. Zion Church. "Until now, we've lacked the insight to understand how church culture, people and congregations are truly doing. The State of Your Church dashboards will give us a better sense of the spirit and language of the culture (ethos), and powerful new tools to put in the hands of every pastor."

Formed through the work of The Barna Group and Gloo, the State of Your Church includes an open-sourced framework designed to give every church, denomination, and Christian organization a common way to measure what matters in ministry. Composed of the seven dimensions of flourishing people and the 15 dimensions of church thriving, the metrics are the foundation of a kit available to every church.

Churches measure their people along the seven flourishing dimensions, and also track the thriving of their churches along 15 dimensions grouped into the categories of nurturing, sending and leading. The complete set of metrics is gathered through a free assessment, the Barna ChurchPulse. It can be deployed and used by any church, for free, using Gloo.

"We are encouraging every one of our U.S. churches to better understand and interpret the condition of their congregations and communities," said Rev. Dr. Eleazar Merriweather, Director of the Department of Church Growth and Development. "Having this information will allow our pastors and leaders to better know and care for their people. It will also give District and Annual Conferences the data needed to better equip each church."

Bishop Darryl B. Starnes Sr., Senior Bishop of The A.M.E. Zion Church and Administrative Board Chair of the Department of Church Growth and Development said, "The world is changing. How we did church in the 20th century and even the last 10 years of this century has shifted dramatically. Serving and meeting the needs of an ever-changing culture can only happen with having the proper tools and resources to impact our communities. The A.M.E. Zion Church fully supports the 15 dimensions of thriving congregations and seven dimensions of human flourishing and looks forward to partnering with Gloo and Barna to positively and effectively impact our churches and communities."

Gloo provides tools to enable the new measures, as part of a State of Your Church kit. The kit leverages free texting tools, online assessment technology, promotional materials, and dashboards so that church leaders can give every congregation member a personal report on how they are flourishing. Each congregant has the option to share their results back to the church in an identified or anonymized form. Church leaders then get a church-wide report to better see the overall levels of flourishing in their people and the thriving scores for their church, which helps them to better serve their congregation as a whole.

"Church leaders realize that something has changed when it comes to growing their attendance, giving, and other conventional measures," said Brad Hill, chief solutions officer at Gloo. "We're thrilled that A.M.E. Zion will be equipping all of its pastors with tools to navigate ministry in today's world. The State of Your Church was built to help pastors not only know their people better but also to more effectively disciple them with the resources and next steps so that every person can grow."

The A.M.E. Zion Church Department of Church Growth and Development will be promoting the State of Your Church kit throughout its various denominational conferences and events in 2025.

Gloo is the platform company for the Christian ecosystem. As a leading technology innovator, Gloo connects ministry leaders to resources, people, data and insights and funding so their people and communities flourish and their organizations thrive. Gloo is based in Boulder, Colorado.

The A.M.E. Zion Church, founded in 1796, has more than 1.5 million members, providing education through one of the largest school systems in partnership with the Nation of Ghana, as well as through colleges and seminaries, in addition to hospitals and other outreach and humanitarian activities in many areas around the world. Known as "The Freedom Church," with such notable figures as its founding Bishop James Varick, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Paul Robeson, and Coretta Scott King, the denomination has 6,000+ churches in 27 countries and five continents around the world.

SOURCE Gloo