About Anthem

Anthem Thousand Oaks is a church for the city of Thousand Oaks, helping people find their way back to God.

The church is not a building or a weekend event, but a people. We aim to live out the gospel in our cities throughout the week in Community Groups and gather together each weekend as a collection of believers, a family, celebrating together, worshiping together, and sitting under the authority of Scripture together at our Sunday Gatherings.

A mission is a job or assignment. It is something we use our resources to carry out. The mission of every church has been given to us by Jesus. In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus says,

 “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” 

Again in Acts 1:8 as He is about to ascend into heaven, He says, 

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 

That is our mandate and it remains until Jesus comes back again. As a local church we try to express that in words that bring the great commission into our context and language. For the last 15 years we have chosen to use the simple phrase:

Helping people find their way back to God.

That mission frames our lives as a local church. As we walk with Jesus, we live as witnesses to who Jesus is and what He has done on our behalf to make a relationship with God possible. We invite others along on that journey, making disciples of Jesus as we go.

Having experienced the love of Jesus and the hope that He brings in our own lives, we started Anthem Church with the desire to help people find their way back to God and bring a movement of reproducing churches to our cities.

We dreamed about helping people who were far from God find their hope in Jesus. We dreamed of helping people who were disconnected from the church find community in the people of God. We dreamed of helping all people find their purpose in the mission of Jesus.

We wanted to be a church that equips, encourages, and releases people into the gospel adventure, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

We knew that if these dreams were going to happen, we would need everyone doing their part.. We are a people on mission together.

That was the genesis of Anthem. A church that would never stop making disciples and empowering people to take the name of Jesus to the nations. A church that would fight against the comforts and easy paths to stay focused on the mission of Jesus.

Our values are the postures we take as we live out our mission (obedience to Jesus) towards our vision (the church we see God shaping in Anthem). There are 5 postures God has highlighted that we want to make sure to hold on to as we go.

We are…

• Dependent – We live lives of faith that apart from the Spirit we cannot succeed.

• Devoted – We grow in our deep love and devotion to Jesus, building lives of prayer, worship and adoration.

• Stirring – We are committed to doing life in community, loving each other well and stirring one another up to love and good works.

• Sent – We understand the apostolic (sent/missional) posture of the church and God’s people, we are here for a purpose to bring the name of Jesus to every corner of the earth.

• Generous – In the same way that God has lavished us with grace, mercy, presence and provision, we live generously with our time, our abilities and our resources knowing that it all belongs to Him and we are stewards of what is His.

We dream of living as a people of God’s presence, sent among our neighbors and to the nations, serving as a hub for Kingdom adventure. 

A vision statement is the project of putting into words the picture that we believe God has given us about the kind of people He is shaping us to be and together the kind of church we are becoming. We look ahead to a time in the future and we work to articulate the dream of what we see God doing in us as we say yes to what He has called us to. There is a prophetic element to a vision statement because it is not declaring, necessarily, what God is doing in all churches everywhere in the world, but what we see Him doing in our church in this time (Romans 15:18-26 – Paul giving vision about his life to the Roman church). Our vision statement helps us clarify what we are working towards as individuals that make up the body of Anthem Church. 

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Living as a people of God’s presence

Because of the finished work of Jesus, we who trust in Him are called the people of God. He is our God and we are His people.

Hosea 2:23 – And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, you are my people, and he shall say, “You are my God.”

1 Peter 2:9-10 – But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people but now you are God’s people, once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

As His people, he takes our “earthen vessels” and fills us with his presence, individually and together as a body of believers. 

Acts 2:38-39 – “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

1 Corinthians 4:7 – But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 – Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Ephesians 2:22  – In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

As we live as a people of His presence we are invited to participate with Him in two things: 

1. To walk with Him, being transformed into His likeness.

John 15:5 – I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Galatians 5:22,25 – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control; against such things there is no law…If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:18 – And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

2. To bear His name in this world. 

2 Corinthians 5:20 – Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. 

1 Peter 2:9 – But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Colossians 3:17 – And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

From that place of living as God’s people, His presence with us, forming us into His likeness, we go.

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Sent among our neighbors and to the nations

We are here for a purpose. When we become a part of the people of God, we become people sent on a mission empowered by the Spirit.

John 20:21 – As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Matthew 28:18 – All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold I am with you always.

We are sent to people. People near, and people far.

Acts 1:8 – And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

He calls on us to love our neighbors, those who live in proximity to us, who are in our sphere of influence.

Mark 12:30-31 – And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.

Matthew 5:16 – In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

And He points us to the ends of the earth; to every tribe, tongue and nation. 

Matthew 24:14 – And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Revelation 7:9-10 – After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

As we walk with Him, we are a part of inviting people near and far to come and find life.

Revelation 22:17 – The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

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Serving as a hub for Kingdom adventure

As more and more of us take on lives of living as a people of God’s presence, sent out on mission, we see Anthem serving as a hub for those adventures. As a hub, we believe God is asking us to serve as:

A place of encouragement:

Hebrews 10:25 – not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

A place of equipping and training.

Ephesians 4:11-13 – And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

A place of resourcing:

2 Corinthians 8:3-5 – For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints–and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. 

A place of rest and refreshment:

Romans 15:32 – So that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.

A place of apprenticeship:

2 Timothy 2:2 – And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

A place of sending:

Acts 13:1-2 – Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers…the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to  which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

A place of partnership in the gospel:

Philippians 1:3-5 – I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

What does this mean for you? Most importantly, you're always welcome at Anthem Church. Wherever you're at in your faith journey, you're welcome here.

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