Get to Know a Garden City Member: Rob & Amber Antle
Hi, my name is Rob Antle, and I’m originally from Graham, Texas. If you’re not familiar with Graham (and there’s a 99.99999% chance you’re not), then all you have to do is go watch “Friday Night Lights” in order to get a good idea of what the town is like. I went to school in Waco at Baylor University (Sic ’Em!) and moved to the Bay Area for a job after finishing grad school.
I’m a nerd and geek at heart (yes there’s a difference). That comes out most in both the ways one might expect, like being a big Star Wars fan (and Star Wars Legos), but also in my love of sports. I love all things NBA and all things stats and analytics. I recently started writing and podcasting about basketball from an analytical perspective, and it’s about as nerdy as you can possibly get with sports.
As a huge NBA fan, one of my favorite places in the Bay Area since moving here has been Oracle Arena. I’m sad for Oakland that the Warriors are moving across the water, but at the same time, I’m extremely excited for the new location, and I expect the Chase Center to quickly jump to the top of my “favorite Bay Area places” rankings.
“God calls us to invest in and seek the welfare of our city. Serving and loving the people in our city, especially those that are often overlooked, is one of the best ways we can do that.”
My wife, Amber, and I currently lead a Life Group that is focused on service and social justice. We just finished going through a book by Tim Keller called “Generous Justice” where we were learning on what God’s justice means for Christians and the Church. For the remainder of the Life Group, we will focus on putting that to action, which we’re extremely excited about.
What we’re focusing on in our LG with social justice and service ties in beautifully with the current sermon series in Daniel as well. God calls us to invest in and seek the welfare of our city. Serving and loving the people in our city, especially those that are often overlooked, is one of the best ways we can do that. So our God-sized prayer during this season is that God would use our Life Group and use Garden City to impact this area in a way that is undeniably an act of God. We want to see the most overlooked and underloved people in the Bay Area see the Church, specifically Garden City, as a place where they can encounter a radical and life-changing love: the love that Jesus has shown us. If that were to happen, it would radically change the culture of one of the most influential places in the world.