About Us

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

Anthem Church exists to enjoy and make much of Jesus, helping people become more like him, as we live out the mission of God together.

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.

The story of Anthem Church began with the Larson family and a small group of friends that had a burden to see a new generation of people loving and following Jesus. The mission was simple: to help people find their way back to God. Knowing that each person is created in the image of God, and desires a relationship with them, we dreamed of a reproducing church that is built on and around the Gospel story, a church that would not exist for themselves, but to continue to plant the gospel through more and more churches. Reproducing churches is how the Gospel advances around the world. When Jesus commissioned his apostles to go and make disciples, they went with the message of Jesus and started new churches! 

In the fall of 2009, we held our first Sunday Gathering, and on that launch Sunday we began preparing for our very first church plant. By God’s grace, we have had the privilege of raising up leaders to plant and strengthen churches in Southern California and around the world. To this day, we still hope to be a church that would never stop making disciples and empowering people to take the name of Jesus to the nations. A church that equips, encourages, and releases people into the gospel adventure, empowered by the Holy Spirit. To be a center of a reproducing movement of churches and leaders to engage and love the world.

Today, we find ourselves still wrapped up in the same story, the same mission: helping people find their way back to God. As we grow to become dependent, devoted, stirring, sent, and generous people, we dream of becoming a people of God’s presence, sent among our neighbors and into the nations, serving as a hub for kingdom adventure. If you are reading this, you are invited to join us in this story.

The mission of every church has been given to us by Jesus, when he 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” (Matt. 28:19-20). As Jesus 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” (Acts 1:8). 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. Since our start, 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.

As we look ahead and we work to articulate what we see God doing in us and through us, the kind of people He is shaping us to be and together the kind of church we are becoming, 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. 

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. (Hos. 2:23, 1 Pet. 2:9-10, Acts 2:38-39, 1 Cor. 4:7, 6:19-20, Eph. 2:22, Jn. 15:5, Gal. 5:22-23, 2 Cor. 3:18, 5:20, Col. 3:17)

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. (Jn. 20:21, Matt. 5:16, 24:14, 28:18-20, Acts 1:8, Mk. 5:19, 12:30-31, Rev. 7:9-10, 22:17)

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 a place of: encouragement (Heb. 10:25), equipping and training (Eph. 4:11-13), resourcing (2 Cor. 8:3-5), rest and refreshment (Rom. 15:32), apprenticeship (2 Tim. 2:2), sending (Acts 13:1-2), partnership in the gospel (Phil. 1:3-5).

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.

Anthem Church is led by a group of people who are passionate about Jesus and his Kingdom! They are a mix of paid and non paid leaders who provide practical and pastoral care within the life of our church family.

Elder Team – Anthem Church is an elder-led church that submits to the authority of the Bible. The Elder Team for Anthem Church is the spiritual authority for the church as laid out in 1 Tim. 3:1-7, Tit. 1:5-9, 1 Pet. 5:1-4, and Acts 20:17-35. Their role is to guard and give shape to direction, doctrine, and discipline.

Staff Team – To fulfill all the tangible, practical, spiritual, and leadership needs of the church, the elders have a staff team that supports them in fulfilling the mission of Anthem Church

Community Groups Leaders – Community Group Leaders are responsible for creating a culture and environment that is conducive to making disciples who are growing in love and faith. As Community Groups are the primary avenue of care for our church, we entrust our Community Leaders to shepherd their group into a gospel culture.

Meet our Leaders

We're a gospel-centered community that celebrates the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. We believe Jesus is God and see his teachings and ways to live the good life, the life we’re designed to live, not as good advice, good suggestions, or good morality, but literally good news. Jesus came proclaiming this good news of the kingdom of God, then though his life, death and resurrection, provided a way for people to join his kingdom. Because of this, everything we do is all about Jesus, all for Jesus, and all because of Jesus.

Read More About Our Beliefs

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.