We’ve been interviewing some of our Anchor Family to find out how God has been working in their lives. This week, we’re going to meet Arnaldo Santiago!
1. What do you love about Anchor Church?
I love that Anchor is both kindhearted and well-founded in the gospel of grace. We work hard towards creating a culture that welcomes the not-yet-Christian, the struggling and wayward child, as well as those who have found themselves within a Christian context all their lives. People do not feel judged, they feel welcomed; they don’t feel pressured, they feel welcomed; they don’t feel like strangers, they feel like family.
It’s the gospel that ultimately allows us to balance encouraging the believer and welcoming the ‘stranger’. We know that we were once strangers to God and he adopted us, we were far away and he has brought us near and therefore we can be well-founded in the truth of the gospel and be kindhearted all at the same time. The gospel calls for it.
2. How has God been at work in your life since joining Anchor?
I have learned and re-learned the gospel of grace while sitting under the leadership team at Anchor and Matt’s preaching in particular. God has been working in my life by grounding me more and more in the (right and biblical) emphasis that you would find at Anchor—to be part of a people that is In Community (with one another), On Mission (to those who are far from him), For Jesus (all for the glory and renown of his name).
3. Tell us about your experiences of being in community at Anchor.
The folk at Anchor are gifted in making people feel welcomed. One of the major highlights for me has been serving the Summer Hill community alongside one another in practical ways. At the moment my Gospel Community (Dulwich Hill) is seeking to be very intentional in loving the people whom God has placed in our lives in meaningful ways. Serving not-yet-Christians has been one of the most enriching practices that we as a community have given ourselves over to.
4. How does Anchor equip you to live on mission in everyday life?
Anchor helps me and my family live on mission in everyday life by simply teaching, preaching and embodying the living word where we see that the Son of God entered our ‘world’ and became one of us and lived a relatively quiet life in obedience to the Father before breaking onto the public scene. It’s in the quietness of the ordinary that Jesus’ formation occurred and it’s in our ‘ordinariness’ of everyday life that our cruciform-missional lives are formed.