Pastor Anton Van Straaten serves at Faith as our Discipleship Pastor, having joined our staff in January 2020. Anton’s role includes oversight of all adult discipleship ministries. Prior to his time at Faith, Anton served in various ministry and pastoral roles for about ten years in California.
Pastor Anton grew up in the suburbs of Pretoria, South Africa. He earned a degree in marketing and advertisement at Southern Business School in South Africa, graduating in 2004. The following year, he followed the Lord’s leading to pursue a Master of Divinity at The Master’s Seminary in Los Angeles, completing it in June 2009.
Pastor Anton met his wife Marietjie in their homeland of South Africa, where they married and began their family before moving to the United States for seminary training. God has given Anton and Marietjie two daughters here, Naomi and Olivia, and another who waits for them in heaven. As a family, they enjoy exploring new and interesting places through museums, art galleries, zoos, and exotic foods. Anton also loves fishing and has an interest in aviation.
Anton is excited to see how God continues to use Faith Equip and Faith Fellowship Groups, and he enjoys his ministry at Faith, as he strives to equip believers and encourage them to apply their gifts.
What books would you like to have with you if you were stranded on a desert island?
I would love to have two books with me: A Body of Divinity by Thomas Watson, and Bruce Demarest's The Cross & Salvation. (If allowed a third, it will be Francis Schaffer's How Then Shall We Live?)