From Our Team

In 2019 we were incredibly blessed by our elder team, staff, and entire body in the desire to send our family on sabbatical. Words cannot express how impactful and life giving the sabbatical was to our family. Not only was it a benefit to us as a family, it was amazing to watch the church flourish in our absence. It was incredible to see our elders and staff step up and use their gifts to help lead the church. We had good friends from church plants or the Genesis Collective come in and faithfully teach through 1 Corinithians. This was a big year as it has been 10 years since Anthem Church first launched. We couldn’t be more thankful for what the Lord has done in these last 10 years. 

In 2020 we are so thankful for the unity and alignment that the Lord has put on our elder team in wanting to grow in our outward muscles as a church. We are looking forward to personally growing in the relationships that God has already placed in our lives and pressing into them more intentionally. As a church we are thankful that God is growing our desire to engage with our city for the sake of Jesus. There are two areas that stand out to us in this space. First, coming alongside where folks are already present (i.e. workplace, schools, grocery stores, parks, etc.) and equipping and releasing them to engage more for the sake of Jesus. Second, together finding ways to bless our city in Jesus name specifically through 5th Sundays. We are looking forward and anticipating all that is to come this year. 

Looking back at 2019, we are thankful for all that the Lord has done. From providing space for the Baileys to go on sabbatical, to growing our staff and volunteer teams, to trusting the Lord when we had no other option, it has been a year full of God’s faithfulness, provision, care, and love for us.

We are excited for what the Lord will continue to do in 2020. We trust he will grow us in our muscles of prayer and fasting as we depend on him to be more outward focused. We are looking forward to seeing how Jesus is glorified in our own lives and in the city of Camarillo.

There are many things to be thankful for this past year, but two we want to highlight are how God has grown our team and how he has mobilized the gifts among our body this past year. We are thankful that in 2019 our church family was able to send the Baileys on sabbatical for the first time since planting Anthem Camarillo in 2011. During those 3 months we saw many people step forward to serve one another together. It was such an encouraging and tangible demonstration of the fact that the church is the gathering of God’s people, depending on him together, not dependent on any one of us alone. We are also thankful and excited about the team God is assembling in Camarillo, with the recent new addition of Nicole, Austin, and the Andersons. 

As we look towards 2020 we are eager to see how God grows each of us in the “out” aspect of the healthy church paradigm we’ve been teaching through recently. Specifically, we pray for deepened friendships (without an agenda) with those around us who do not know Jesus, whether it is our neighbors, classmates, coworkers, or that familiar face you see at the park, grocery store, gym, etc.

One thing that I was thankful and excited for in 2019 was handing over leadership of Anthem Kids to Nicole Raden. I really enjoyed my time of leading Kids. Nicole has many strengths and work experience different from my own, it’s fun to see her talents put to use within Anthem Kids. Since the handoff, I’ve been able to focus more on my admin role, it’s been encouraging to use my strengths and gifts in administration for the Church. 

This year I am looking forward to seeing and helping more people get connected to community groups and DNA groups. It’s my hope that the strength of those relationships would encourage and empower us each to reach out to the community and begin serving the city more. I would be excited to see us support and work alongside one another in putting our gifts to use more this year."

Serving with the First Impressions team this year has been such a gift. There is a life-giving joy in seeing the church body work together every week to make Anthem gatherings welcoming to everyone. Anthem Church seeks to help people find their way back to God. The First Impressions team has helped fuel that journey with coffee and doughnuts, but more importantly with love, connection, and warmth. 2019 also saw the Anthem Students group jump in and they have served with eagerness and enthusiasm.

As we continue to grow and serve, I'm looking forward to seeing the Spirit continue to use us and connect us to the rest of the community. Stepping in to a room full of strangers is not easy, and we want everyone who comes through our doors to feel loved, safe, known, and properly caffeinated. We have been given the most amazing gift, a relationship with our Savior, and we want to share that gift with love and openness both in our church and outside of it. I'm excited to see the gospel spill over and pour out of us through that love.

The year 2019 was a year of growth and change in Anthem Kids! 

A few highlights of the year include:

• New Anthem Kids Lead – Nicole Raden jumped in July of 2019

• We implemented a new curriculum in September – The Gospel Project

• This comprehensive, 3-year curriculum walks chronologically through the Bible, highlighting how each story points to Jesus.

• We prayed for the resources we needed to implement the curriculum well – televisions and stands – and God provided in abundance!

• The ministry grew significantly

• Last year at this time, our average attendance was 45, and this month our average has risen to 65.

• We prayed for enough volunteers to meet the needs of our bigger classrooms – and God provided in abundance! Since Nicole made an ask in November, 14 members of our church family have stepped in to volunteering regularly.

In 2020, there are many things to look forward to. These are some of the areas that are currently being prayed over and considered:

• Looking at ways to creatively accommodate our larger number of kids

• We are considering how and when to add an additional class, especially for our second gathering.

• Equipping our volunteers

• We are looking into how and when to provide training and development for Anthem Kids volunteers.

• Helping our kids grow in being on mission

• The Gospel Project has a Mission component that we have not yet utilized, and this may begin to be looped into our weekly curriculum.

• We hope to provide more opportunities for kids to participate in hands-on service or mission activities. Examples might be global outreach (e.g. compiling bags for refugee kids that will be brought to Greece or collecting quarters for the Kids Helping Kids project with Zoe International) or local projects (e.g. collecting items for the homeless, praying for our schools and neighbors).

I am particularly thankful for how God generously answered many years of prayer. We have been praying for more worship leaders to come into our Anthem family, and this past year they did! Travis Oram and Nick Jones have been a blessing, regularly using their gifts serving our church family as worship leaders.

This next year as we look ahead we are excited to see God grow us in song writing. We are wanting to see God's call to Anthem for evangelism become the song on our hearts and lips. These songs would be a prophetic voice to the call God has placed on our church, reminding and inspiring us to follow through with His heart for us and our city.

As someone who recently packed up their whole life to move to Camarillo and join the Anthem Community, I'm incredibly thankful for the honest and generous reception I've received. Specifically, I'm thankful for the relationships that have formed between me and the Anthem staff, me and the student's families, and those relationships that continue to grow between student and student. Each and every opportunity to teach the students on a Sunday morning or prepare a meal with them at a Big Anthem Students Meal has been relished. Nothing is more satisfying than getting to watch students grow in their relationship with the Lord and each other.

I'm also very thankful that flexing the outward muscle of the church is a focus for this coming year. I'm excited to see Anthem Students grow in this area in a couple of ways: First, I'm looking forward to creating conversations with students on Sunday mornings geared towards outreach and all the inspiration that can be discovered through that. Secondly, I'm eagerly anticipating an evolution of Big Anthem Students Meal that is outwardly focused and welcoming to newcomers. All by the Spirit's leading, may it be so.