Anthem Church

Anthem Church is a nondenominational church headquartered in Hammond, Indiana, founded in March 2020 by Sam Hamstra and his wife Taylor. Launching a church the same month the country locked down would sink most plants. Anthem instead grew into a multi-ethnic, multi-generational congregation drawing thousands from Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland. Hamstra, who studied at Lipscomb University and Saint Xavier University, has also become a frequent conference speaker, which extends the church's profile beyond the region.

Anthem is the smallest church by raw reach in this stretch of the index, with 37,079 combined followers, but it covers all four major platforms. Instagram leads at 22,150 followers on the thisisanthemchurch account. Facebook holds 7,145, YouTube 6,620, and TikTok 1,164. The YouTube channel grew 31.61 percent over the past year, with content published as recently as June 9. Every number is small. Every number is moving.

Anthem ranks 48th on trajectory, not size, and the pillar scores make that explicit: 82.8 velocity, the highest of any church ranked 41 through 50, and a perfect 100 breadth against a reach score of just 15.2. The index is betting on the slope. A church that is six years old, posting 31 percent YouTube growth, and already disciplined enough to maintain four platforms looks like the early innings of churches ranked far higher. The risk is base-rate math, since high growth percentages are easier on 6,620 subscribers than 600,000. But Anthem is the clearest example in the top 50 of a small church outranking big ones by simply moving faster everywhere at once.