FAQ

Thanks for your interest in Anthem Church!  We love questions about faith, life, the bible or our Church!  We're a community of people who embrace hard questions and easy questions alike!  Below are a few of the questions we get regularly.

When and how did Anthem get started?

Anthem began when Chad Clemons and a group of people connected with North Point Community Church in Atlanta, GA to dream about creating a church that unchurched people loved to attend in Gainesville.  In 2008, with the help of an amazing team of people in Gainesville and the support of North Point Community Church, Anthem Church launched.  Through a series of "only God" events and circumstances, Anthem grew and in 2017 opened a new facility.

How is Anthem connected with North Point?

North Point Community Church, led by Andy Stanley, leads a world-wide network of churches called North Point Partners.   Anthem is a North Point Strategic Partner, which means through this collection of like-minded churches, we share best practices and are strategically connected through common mission, vision and strategy.  Anthem also syncs in real time with North Point on Sundays via video connection to engage in messages delivered in real time by Andy Stanley or other teaching Pastors at North Point.  Leadership and finances are not shared but local and Anthem Church operates as it's own offical not for profit in the state of Florida.

What are your mission, vision, and strategy?

You can find more about our Mission, Vision and strategy here.

Is this a video church?

As a strategic partner of North Point Ministries, most Sundays we connect in real time with message  from North Point and Teaching Pastors, such as Andy Stanley, Jeff Henderson and Clay Scroggins. Other times, the Anthem Church staff will present Sunday content. All other aspects of our Sunday worship service will be in person, including our local hosts, incredible music and amazing next gen programming for kids and students.  This allows our team locally to lead and pastor our Gainesville church without spending countless hours preparing teaching content.

What is the leadership structure?

The phrase we use to describe the function of government at Anthem Church is that we are guarded by the elders, guided by the staff, and gifted through the membership. However, in more specific terms, the Anthem Church government is built around 3 teams of people:
  • Board of Elders: provides the guardrails of the organization in regards to theology, mission and vision.
  • Staff Executive Team: oversight of day to day operations of Anthem.
  • Stewardship Team: oversight of finances along side independent 3rd party book-keeper.

See our elders, staff and stewardship teams

How do the finances work?

Anthem is 100% funded by local giving.  Everything that happens at Anthem, staff, ministry budgets, facilities and outreach is able to happen because of the generous giving of people like you.  Yearly a budget is approved by both the team of Elders and the Stewardship team to guarantee wise use of resources.  Day to day book keeping and records are kept by a 3rd party independent accounting firm.  Yearly a "Year in review" document is produced and sent to people who contributed financially so they are connected directly to where their money went.  

Can I become a member of Anthem Church?

Here at Anthem, we want you to know that the moment you walk through the doors, you belong here and can consider this place your church home, no title needed. Since we don’t have traditional membership, you won’t be able to “join” the church as a “member” – but we hope you become fully engaged in the life of the church. You can engage with us through serving strategically, connecting in a group, inviting others, and giving systematically. Those who are fully engaged with us are considered our members.

How do I become fully engaged here?

We want to be a church that people who don't normally like church love to attend. In order to be that kind of church, we need the help of those who share our passion for inspiring people to follow Jesus.

If you share that passion, or even if you simply love this place, you can fully engage in the life of the church by doing four things: