Anthem Church has been up and running for 2 months now, so I thought this was as good a time as any to put out an update to everyone that has been following our progress, praying for us and supporting us financially.
We launched on October 11th with a little over 300 people celebrating the day with us in two services on the campus of California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. It was an amazing day, so much fun to see who was there and to hear stories about how they heard abo
ut Anthem and what their hopes were for finding their way back to God. We had been coached to expect about 8 weeks of attendance decline before things really started to level out. We got a chance to see that first hand with each of the first four weeks being smaller than the previous. That was an interesting experience. We were still seeing a lot of new people coming through the doors, but many of those people weren't coming back consistently. As a staff we looked at our launch and realized that we really weren't equipped to connect the 300+ people that came on our launch Sunday. We decided to take 8 weeks and find out the answer to our first big question "who is Anthem?" That brought us into our current season of ministry that will stretch from the beginning of November through the end of the year. I am spending time with families and individuals that have come to Anthem on multiple occasions finding out who is going to be on board with us. It was been a great experience so far getting to hear people's hearts, stories and desires to be involved in what is going on at Anthem. I don't k
now that I could be more pleased with the initial response to the presence of Anthem in the community. The most consistent reaction to the first two months has been the phrase "God is here". I LOVE hearing that. We knew going into this that we could put on some pretty good music and teach the Bible pretty well, but if God didn't show up then it wasn't going to fly.
Ah, back to the story of the first two months: After 4 weeks of decline in attendance we have now seen steady growth for 4 weeks. We started our series on the book of Romans called "Manifesto of Freedom". So far we've studied Paul as a servant (1:1-15), the Gospel (1:16-17), God's Wrath (1:18-3:20), Hope in Christ (3:21-3:31). The response to the Romans series has been unreal! In fact, we stopped Romans to do a 4 week series based on Advent Conspiracy and it was met with some disappointment :) I love that people love God's Word and want to study it! What a cool start to the church! By the way, if you're interested in listening to any of the first few messages, check out our media section on www.jointheanthem.com That will link you to iTunes or you can stream live from our podcast site.
One of the most exciting aspects of the church so far is getting a chance to see a reproducing culture developing so early on. In the first 8 weeks of Anthem we have had 6 different bands lead us into worship at Anthem. 5 of those bands are part of our church and only 1 of them was a band that came from another church to lead us into worship! Ryan Hinkle, our arts director, has seen his role as raising up teams and leaders of those teams and as a result we have had Ryan, Dewey Coleman, Sean Ameche, Forrest Terry and Kevin Bailey all stepping up as worship leaders in the early weeks of Anthem. We also got a chance a few weeks ago to hear
from God's Word through the gifted teaching of Kevin Bailey. I have been so excited to see Kevin's development as a pastor and leader over the last 4 months. Kevin taught on guilt and shame and how we get from hiding from God in Genesis 3 to approaching the throne with confidence in Hebrews 4. The answer is found in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that in Jesus we might become the righteousness of God. Great stuff. We are also seeing our Community Groups reproducing. We currently have 6 community groups up and running, that number is going up to 10 in the first week of January. Brandon and Ariel Nunez have been apprenticing as CG leaders in Matt and Kristen's group, Chris and Heather Wallock and Sean and Rachel Ameche have both been apprenticing in Kevin and Keely's group. We are so excited to see these new leaders stepping out and taking on new roles in mission of Jesus!
The most exciting aspect of Anthem Church is the opportunity to see our mission affecting people's lives. We started this church to help people find their way back to God. That is happening in some pretty amazing ways! We have seen 9 people give their lives to Christ in the early weeks of Anthem Church. We've had 1 baptism with another bunch ready to go. It has been so incredible to see the reason that we came to Thousand Oaks becoming a reality. I am so proud of our team of leaders who are key participants in helping these people find their way back to God!
If you have been to Anthem, you've probably noticed that Kids City has been working hard to figure out the best combination of location, effectiveness, rotations and volunteers. Jenny Haseth and Kristen Larson along with Keely Bailey, Alex Casey, Kathleen Davidson and a number of key leaders are doing an amazing job making Kids City a place where kids are finding their way back to God and participating in the mission of Jesus. I am so proud of our team! We are hearing some of the most amazing reports what God is doing in Kids city! We get to have our first child dedication on December 13th and I have been so excited to see the response with a number of families deciding to dedicate themselves to raising their kids in the way of God.
Our setup and tear down teams have been sharpening every week, to the point where we can unload and reload the trailer in fewer minutes every time. The teams are growing and learning better and faster ways to get us ready each weekend. Kelly Roach, Kristin Macejz, Ariel Nunez and Christina Walker have dominated the hospitality area, making it super welcoming each week with hot coffee and great food.
I know this has gotten long, but I cannot stop talking about how excited and proud I am of the team of people that God has gathered to live out his mission here in Thousand Oaks.
*Extra info on Matt and Kristen if you want to keep reading*
This has been an incredible season for us as leaders and first time church planters. God is teaching us so much about life, family, balance and sacrifice as we are adjusting to this new pace. Our kids have been unreal, truly seeing Anthem as their church and their mission. The boys are helping out with tear down each week as well as inviting kids to Kids City almost every week. God is truly blessing my relationship with my wife. We are enjoying our time together and growing in our love, knowledge and respect for each other.
One of the most valuable things that I learned in my leadership residency through NewThing is that there is a bunch that I don't know and I need to grow and learn from everyone that I can! So Kristen and I made the decision to continue my learning path. There is a group of pastors from around the country that are meeting once a month in Minneapolis to be coached in leadership by a pastor named Ron Sylvia and my EFCA coach Dave Page. These meetings are hosted by EFCA. I missed the first one (it was two days before we launched :), but the second one was so valuable and a great time to be challenged by other leaders. I'll be flying to Minnesota once a month until May for this coaching network. In addition to that I am currently on my way (actually on the plane as I write this) to the NewThing Network Gathering in Knoxville, TN. This group of guys are super influential in my early development as a leader and I am so excited to get together with them. We will be talking about all kinds of leadership issues especially as it pertains to reproducing the church.
I have been spending time with a few different pastors, gleaning and learning as much as I can. I am so grateful to my dad (Steve Larson), John Erwin, Troy McMahon, Chris Hornbrook, Chris Hall, Shawn Thornton, Caleb Kaltenbach, Leaf Zwerling, Kirk DeWitt, Mike Katzenberger, Brian Zehr, Dave Ferguson and Chuckk Gerwig for giving me the opportunity to learn from their experience. I have found that I LOVE networking, I feel that there is something I can learn from EVERYONE that I talk to.
Again, sorry this is long, but there's still more... I think I'll save it for another update. If you're a prayer (which I hope for all of us), here's where we need prayer as a church:
Obedience--I want our first commitment as a church to be a ridiculous pursuit of the Holy Spirit wherever He leads us. Pray that we would have the ears to hear what God is calling us to do as a church.
Humility--I know that there is no way that we can do this on our own. My prayer is that as leaders and participants in the Gospel we would be on our faces before a good and loving God. Please pray for a consistent hunger for humility for me, Kevin, Ryan, Jenny, John and all of our leaders!
Thanks for hanging in for this long! Thank you for your prayers, I know that God is hearing them and responding!
If you're interested in tracking with me/us here are the best ways:
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