Hey Anthem,
Pastor Andrew here. October is also here, but as usual in Marin, it seems the crisp autumn air will have to wait until the 90-degree weather decides to wane. This is a busy and different month for our church community, so the elders and I thought it would be good to provide an update so everyone knows what’s going on.
Pastor Andrew here. October is also here, but as usual in Marin, it seems the crisp autumn air will have to wait until the 90-degree weather decides to wane. This is a busy and different month for our church community, so the elders and I thought it would be good to provide an update so everyone knows what’s going on.
LEAVE DATES
While I prefer not to post about my family life (you all get more than enough from my sermons anyway), being a pastor means my life is somewhat public, at least to our church. In case you don’t know, our second son is due on Monday, October 7th. We have elected to do a C-section (Rowan needed an emergency C-section, and Julianna tolerated and recovered well, so we opted to be proactive and just schedule to repeat another one). Unless the baby decides to arrive early, we are planning to meet our boy on 10/7.
If all goes according to plan on these dates, I will be gone on family leave for three weeks (10/7 - 10/27), starting when our gathering ends this Sunday (10/6). I normally like to be available after church on Sundays for needs as they arise, but this Sunday I pretty much need to head home after the gathering ends to begin preparing our family for Julianna’s surgery the next day (10/7). Our family hopes to be back to church on Sunday, 10/27. If the baby arrives early, we will amend these dates accordingly.
At the same time, the Greers (Alan and Mary) and the Bartrugs (Cody and Ginger) will both be on vacation from 10/4 - 10/18.
While we don’t normally post things like this, it is worth noting that from 10/7 - 10/18, three of our five elders/candidates will be offline and unavailable. This is not ideal, nor what we would have planned or preferred, but here we are. This period consists of 11 days and one Sunday (10/13). Should anything urgent arise during this time for which you need church assistance, please contact the church office (415.479.4700, hello@anthemchurch.net) and/or post to the member’s thread on the app if appropriate. We fully trust the church body in its ability to love and serve one another well in this season.
Thank you for your support and care for our families. As leadership, we are looking forward to returning and engaging with all the Lord has for our church family in this important time.
If all goes according to plan on these dates, I will be gone on family leave for three weeks (10/7 - 10/27), starting when our gathering ends this Sunday (10/6). I normally like to be available after church on Sundays for needs as they arise, but this Sunday I pretty much need to head home after the gathering ends to begin preparing our family for Julianna’s surgery the next day (10/7). Our family hopes to be back to church on Sunday, 10/27. If the baby arrives early, we will amend these dates accordingly.
At the same time, the Greers (Alan and Mary) and the Bartrugs (Cody and Ginger) will both be on vacation from 10/4 - 10/18.
While we don’t normally post things like this, it is worth noting that from 10/7 - 10/18, three of our five elders/candidates will be offline and unavailable. This is not ideal, nor what we would have planned or preferred, but here we are. This period consists of 11 days and one Sunday (10/13). Should anything urgent arise during this time for which you need church assistance, please contact the church office (415.479.4700, hello@anthemchurch.net) and/or post to the member’s thread on the app if appropriate. We fully trust the church body in its ability to love and serve one another well in this season.
Thank you for your support and care for our families. As leadership, we are looking forward to returning and engaging with all the Lord has for our church family in this important time.
THE NIGHT - WHAT'S NEXT?
We also wanted to provide an update for our Wednesday night community moving forward in the fall. Here’s what to expect in October and November:
Our current block of teaching ends with a final meeting on Wednesday, 10/9. The following week, 10/16, will be an off week with no meeting, and we will pick up the next block on Wednesday, 10/23. This block will take us through Wednesday, 11/20, after which we will break for the holidays, picking up again in January.
As you know, this whole discipleship model has been a massive experiment. While it is a big departure from what we are used to doing in small groups, we have been overwhelmed and encouraged by the fruit we are seeing. Conversations, stretching, and growth we have been longing to see in our church body for years is finally starting to bud. It’s different and can be uncomfortable, but often times this pushing is just what we need to grow. Great things are happening, and we encourage you to continue to lean in, engage, and seek the Lord in this endeavor.
Our original plan was to have a tidy five-week block, break for a week, and then have another five-week block, with fresh material, ready for signup and engagement. However, Joel, Cody, and the elders have all been talking and praying, and we don’t want to completely disrupt the momentum we have been building. In the Galatians study, great conversations about theology and the gospel are taking place (among all ages!) as we slowly walk through this book. In the Habits of the Household, parents have bonded over the joys and difficulties of parenting, and this has led to a desire to press into a deeper understanding and articulation of the gospel. Our kids are having an amazing time in Kids Community and are forming relationships with each other and with members of our church community. With this in mind, we are going to continue our two teaching groups, one as a bible study and one as another book study, through the rest of the fall.
So, beginning Wednesday, October 23, you have two options. You can either continue with your group through the fall, or you can switch groups if you feel so inclined. Upstairs we will continue to walk through Galatians together, and downstairs we will be starting a new book discussing gospel fluency (a book study on growing in understanding and articulation of the gospel, not just for parents but a great follow-up to the discussions the parents have been having). As you did for the first block, please let us know by registering for your desired group using the registration link below. We need everyone to register, even if you plan to stay where you are.
We are also restructuring how we facilitate Kids Community in the next block; to explain this, here are a few words from Ginger Bartrug, our leader of Children’s Discipleship:
Our current block of teaching ends with a final meeting on Wednesday, 10/9. The following week, 10/16, will be an off week with no meeting, and we will pick up the next block on Wednesday, 10/23. This block will take us through Wednesday, 11/20, after which we will break for the holidays, picking up again in January.
As you know, this whole discipleship model has been a massive experiment. While it is a big departure from what we are used to doing in small groups, we have been overwhelmed and encouraged by the fruit we are seeing. Conversations, stretching, and growth we have been longing to see in our church body for years is finally starting to bud. It’s different and can be uncomfortable, but often times this pushing is just what we need to grow. Great things are happening, and we encourage you to continue to lean in, engage, and seek the Lord in this endeavor.
Our original plan was to have a tidy five-week block, break for a week, and then have another five-week block, with fresh material, ready for signup and engagement. However, Joel, Cody, and the elders have all been talking and praying, and we don’t want to completely disrupt the momentum we have been building. In the Galatians study, great conversations about theology and the gospel are taking place (among all ages!) as we slowly walk through this book. In the Habits of the Household, parents have bonded over the joys and difficulties of parenting, and this has led to a desire to press into a deeper understanding and articulation of the gospel. Our kids are having an amazing time in Kids Community and are forming relationships with each other and with members of our church community. With this in mind, we are going to continue our two teaching groups, one as a bible study and one as another book study, through the rest of the fall.
So, beginning Wednesday, October 23, you have two options. You can either continue with your group through the fall, or you can switch groups if you feel so inclined. Upstairs we will continue to walk through Galatians together, and downstairs we will be starting a new book discussing gospel fluency (a book study on growing in understanding and articulation of the gospel, not just for parents but a great follow-up to the discussions the parents have been having). As you did for the first block, please let us know by registering for your desired group using the registration link below. We need everyone to register, even if you plan to stay where you are.
We are also restructuring how we facilitate Kids Community in the next block; to explain this, here are a few words from Ginger Bartrug, our leader of Children’s Discipleship:
Hi, Anthem Family! The kiddos have been enjoying “night church” (as they call it) so much! They’ve been playing hard and enjoying each other’s company. We have so appreciated our volunteers’ dedication to invest this time in our community. For the next five-week block, we are asking each member to sign up to volunteer once during the five-week session, so we will need 20 volunteers (instead of the same volunteers for five weeks). This will hopefully spread the load and encourage more involvement.
As Andrew mentioned, Wednesdays have been a bit of an experiment, and there has been a learning curve. We really need members to sign up; the reality is if we don’t have enough volunteers then the Kids Community will need to cancel. I don’t want to predict the future negatively, but I believe in honesty, and this is the situation at hand. Volunteering includes playing with the kids - there is no teaching or curriculum. If you are on the fence, please reach out to me and we can talk it through. I so appreciate the volunteers we’ve had this current block, and am excited for the kiddos to continue the fun they’ve already had!
As Andrew mentioned, Wednesdays have been a bit of an experiment, and there has been a learning curve. We really need members to sign up; the reality is if we don’t have enough volunteers then the Kids Community will need to cancel. I don’t want to predict the future negatively, but I believe in honesty, and this is the situation at hand. Volunteering includes playing with the kids - there is no teaching or curriculum. If you are on the fence, please reach out to me and we can talk it through. I so appreciate the volunteers we’ve had this current block, and am excited for the kiddos to continue the fun they’ve already had!
So, to summarize...
- We have one date remaining (Wednesday, 10/9) for our current block. We will not meet 10/16. We will start our next five-week block on Wednesday, 10/23; this block will continue through 11/20.
- Our two group options for the next five-week block are Galatians (bible study) and Gospel Fluency (book study; here's a link to the book). Please select whichever one you’d like to attend using the link below.
- As you register, if you are a member of Anthem Church, you will be prompted to sign up for a rotation in Kids Community. Please review the schedule and commit accordingly.
- If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to a leader or email us at hello@anthemchurch.net. You can also use the link below.
Thank you for being so engaged with discipleship here at Anthem Church. I believe we are just stepping into an important and fresh season at Anthem, where we are intentionally walking in obedience to what Paul lays out for us in Ephesians 4:11-16 - the church building itself up in truth and love, that we may be presented whole and mature in Jesus.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out with the button below.
In Him, on behalf of the elders,
Andrew
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out with the button below.
In Him, on behalf of the elders,
Andrew
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