It's time to Pivot! In episode eight of season four, co-hosts Terri Elton and Dwight Zscheile welcome this weeks special guest, pastor Wole Agbaje.

Have you ever felt a calling so strong that you couldn't deny it?

Wole did when he was called to plant a church in London's financial district at a young age. Despite the challenges he faced, he persevered and saw remarkable success.

If you're feeling a nudge towards a new adventure or calling, take heart from Pastor Wole's story. Listen for God's voice, trust in His guidance, and be open to unexpected twists and turns. Who knows where He might take you?

Special Guest: Wole Agbaje.

Mentioned in this episode:

Q4 Webinar: The Path from “I” to “We”: Extending Christian Community to the Neighborhood

Wole Agbaje: All of a sudden, all of the dreams from the past flooded my mind. And to my shock and horror, I couldn't deny that the Lord has been speaking to me about launching a church. I just had no idea it would be so early and I'll be so young.

Terri Elton: Welcome to Pivot. I'm Terri Elton from Luther Seminary.

Dwight Zscheile: And I'm Dwight Zscheile, also from Luther Seminary. And welcome to this episode where we're going to focus on the role of church planting in the mixed ecology. And today we are so fortunate to have as our guest Pastor Wole Agbaje, who's the lead pastor of Imprint Church in London and in Leicester in the UK. Welcome, Pastor Wole. It's great to have you with us.

Wole Agbaje: Hi friends. Thank you so much for having me.

Dwight Zscheile: So we love to begin by hearing a little bit about your story and the story of the genesis of Imprint Church.

Wole Agbaje: Yeah, so Imprint Church started in 2017, but I guess the story of Imprint started two years before that, actually when I was 19 years old. And long story short, I had a dream of a musical and it looked like a gospel musical. And it basically told a story of redemption and just the story of gospel through creative means to those drama, singing and performing arts. And in this dream I saw how there was a theatre production, but there was like a time of worship and praying ministry at the end. But the funny thing about this dream is that I had the exact same dream for seven nights back to back, and it was early on the seventh night that I naively remember that, you know, the Lord spoke to Joseph in dreams. Maybe the Lord is trying to speak to me. So I knelt down on the side of my bed in my student accommodation, and I clenched my hands together and I prayed and I said, God, is this you? Are you trying to speak? Are you trying to speak to me? Are you trying to speak to me? And I heard the Lord say, It is me. It's called Imprint, and it's a movement that will bring my prodigals back to me. So I noted everything that I felt like the Lord was saying to me. And afterwards I found some of my Christian friends on campus and I said, Guys, the Lord has given me this dream about this event. Would you support me to to pull it off? And they said, Yes, we'll support you. So we took the last . We took like maybe 3 or 4 months to organize this event. And to our surprise, 400 students came to this event and they sat through the production. But the thing that was really profound was that during the time of worship and ministry, I saw hundreds of students literally crying out to God, some of them on their face repenting of their sins. And I knew some of these students weren't Christians at all. Some of them were. Some of them were just some of my coursemates who came because they were like, Oh, we think Wole is a cool guy. Let's just go and let's see what this is about. But they were literally repenting of their sins and we saw so many people come to faith or rededicate their lives back to Jesus, and it instantly increased the Christian society and presence on our campus. And that's basically how Imprint started. But I didn't do another one of those productions until years later when I found myself at a Anglican church that I was an intern at. And at that church, I felt like the Lord was almost like resurrecting this idea of doing another gospel musical at that church, and I did it. But during that year, actually, I had dreams of being a young church leader. And what was crazy because even though like "dreams" was a consistent theme, I didn't use to be a dreamer, but I just started having dreams about being a young church leader. And I could see in those dreams I wasn't much older than I was at the time, and I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want it to happen. I didn't want to go into ministry. I actually wanted to move to New York. I was in Leicester, UK at the time and it was my dream since I was a young teenager to move to New York and I was like, I'm finally old enough to do it. So to my horror, I was getting dreams about being a church leader and I never told anyone. But one day my local vicar, he called me into his office and I think you guys know him. It was John McGinley at the time. He called me into his office and he said, Wole, I've been praying about you and I feel like the Lord has asked our church and the local diocese, so the region of the Church of England, I feel like God has called us to support you, to start your own church. And when he told me, I just started screaming and and he was like, "Wole, calm down." And I was like, "Don't tell me to calm down. You asked a 21 year old to start a church. Are you crazy?" And he said to me, so profound, he said to me, "Wole, I know it sounds crazy, but has God been speaking to you?" And when he when he asked me that question, all of a sudden all of the dreams from the past year flooded my mind. And to my shock and horror, I couldn't deny that the Lord has been speaking to me about planting a church. I just had no idea it would be so early and I'll be so young and doing it. So that was kind of like the genesis. So that's that conversation was in January 2017 and I started a church. Let's start our first plant with six friends in November 2017, and we grew from there and we planted again into London two years later in 2019. Yeah.

Dwight Zscheile: So tell us a little bit about who is part of Imprint Church, Who are the people who are active? Who comes? Who is your audience?

Wole Agbaje: Yeah, yeah. So because we have Imprint Church both in Leicester and London, it's quite different. There's similarities, but there's also a lot of difference just because of the context and stuff. And also here we feel like the Lord is calling us to reach. So Imprint Church Leicester historically had a lot of students. It still has a lot of students, but it was kind of like known as this, like I think at one point we literally had the largest student community out of any of the out of any of the churches in the in the first two years and stuff. So we literally had such a huge and we still do. We had a large student community, but over time even then they're transitioning where some of the students are obviously getting older, but they're making a commitment to to stay in the city and actually to serve the local church community. So we're now seeing a rise of working professionals alongside the students and also youth. We're just seeing a bunch of teenagers now coming to the church. And so that's one thing that we're discerning as a team, actually. What does it mean to serve the youth of Leicester? And we have we have ideas to start a youth club because we're right in the centre of Leicester. So we have ideas to start a youth ministry, a youth centre to serve the young people in that city. In London, London is so different. So we are in Bank, which is the financial capital of London is where all the money is. It's in the name Bank. So we have literally some of the biggest banking corporations and the top law firms here is called the Magic Circle. So we have a lot of work and professionals. So the type of people that we attract is we have a lot of city professionals and we also have a lot of students as well. You go to some of the local universities in this area. So yeah, that's I guess that's kind of like our core target audience and stuff. And we're not like a lot of suburban churches that perhaps have like the families and stuff. But we have we have the city workers who are trying to navigate "What does following Jesus look like for me in my in my office and in my career?"

Terri Elton: So thanks for that. Dwight and I had a chance this summer to come and worship with you. I think it was right after your ordination. Yes. Yeah. So that was kind of a fun time to celebrate.

Wole Agbaje: Yes.

Terri Elton: And we went to the London location, and as you described that, that was right on. It was in the midst of the financial district. And I will just say, I wasn't sure who I was going to walk in and see in this space.

Wole Agbaje: Yeah.

Terri Elton: And when you talk about the two different groups of people that are gathering, it's like two different total kind of communities of, of the geography, right?

Wole Agbaje: Yes. Yeah.

Terri Elton: And so my question to you is, so you really had success and I'm using that in a positive right with youth and college and and moving that into young professionals. But now you're starting in a place that doesn't feel like a neighborhood in the sense of people living there. Your neighbors are literally come in during the day or maybe don't after the pandemic, right? Yeah, but they're working folks. And what is it like to plant a church in that kind of a neighborhood with the kind of experience that you had being really different in the previous, talk about those challenges, but also where were the opportunities?

Wole Agbaje: Yeah, that's such a good question. I remember when the Lord really put it on our hearts to plant into this area. Many church leaders told us that this is the graveyard for church planting. They were like, "No one plants in the city of London." So just to give context about the city of London. So obviously London is a city, but there's even a smaller region specifically called the City of London, which is where, like I mentioned before, well, the financial district is, it's also known as the square mile. So it's literally a square mile radius where, I think in this region half a million people work in this area. So it's very congested and stuff. But yeah, a lot of clergy told me don't plant in this area. It's the graveyard. It's a grave zone. No one plants in this area because it's not a suburban area. No one lives in the city of London. And it's true that no one lives in the City of London. But I think the opportunity for us is that everyone works in the city of London. I think even with me, what was kind of ironic is that I actually studied economics, but at the same time, I knew that the Lord wasn't calling me to work in finance, but actually because I in some aspects, you know, it's funny how the Lord prepares you because I had that financial background. I could almost see, well, I could almost have a deeper understanding on how to like, relate to the average person that works in my parish, in my region. And actually, what are some of the stresses? What are some of the concerns and what are some of the areas that people are just trying to trust God in? So I remember when we first started in this area, especially being in Leicester, all of our small groups were in people's houses because we could all walk to each other's houses, we could all walk to church. But this is not, it's not like that in London. Like I said, no one lives here and the average person travels like 45 minutes to an hour just to get to work and just know in London, especially, let me use the example of a young city professional. A young city professional probably is still living with their parents or in their house share because, you know, house prices are crazy in London. And actually small group, a small group ministry is very difficult in people's houses because there's too much awkwardness with like perhaps the people I'm living with or it will just take way too long for me to get back home. So one of the things we said is that actually, if we want to do discipleship well in this city, we need all of our small groups to be in the city. So. This podcast is in one of our small group rooms in one of our church sites, and that's one of the things that we just had to shift. Like actually geographically, we can't do it in people's homes because of travel, because of housing situations. Let's have it in in the city. And I remember when we first planted, there was a lawyer who worked nearby and she came to one of our small groups. And as she walked in and just saw like this group of people, she took a deep sigh of relief. And I caught her sighing and I said, "Oh, are you okay?" And she was like, I don't think you understand how grateful I am for this church plant. And she said to me, she said, "Wole, I work in this area. I socialize in this area. I spend six days of my week in this area." And she said, I'm rarely at home. My home is basically it's like a hotel room to me. But it's so great that I get to have a Christian community in this area that I can walk with as well in this area. And I think that's a reality for a lot of people where they spend so much time in this area. But actually they

Wole Agbaje: were devoid of that Christian community they could work with. So yeah, that was a great opportunity for us.

Terri Elton: Yeah, what a powerful story. So the name of this podcast is Pivot. And one of the things that's interesting to me is what you said about you had to pivot, you had to change your imagination about what had actually worked really well in one church plant was not going to work in the other.

Wole Agbaje: Yes.

Terri Elton: That's one pivot I heard you say. I heard definitely another pivot saying "don't go to the graveyard." And you went anyway. Right? Like this is known as a place that most people aren't thriving in ministry. And so to go faithfully, obediently, maybe naively or or with hope that the that God goes before us, that's a pivot. And the last thing that I hear is just really curious to me. When you were giving the numbers and talking about the geography, I was thinking of Jerusalem, that we're called to Jerusalem and the ends of the earth.

Wole Agbaje: Yes, so good .

Terri Elton: And what is it about this part of London of showing up and if the gospel can be preached here, if people can come to faith, like are you actually ministering so far beyond that one mile geography, to use that? Right. So I'm just those were three things that stood out for me. And I loved I love that piece. I would love you to just jump. Okay. You planted you've done some things. Where are you seeing fruit? Where? Where's good energy coming and how did how have you kept going in those areas?

Wole Agbaje: Yeah. And actually relates to the last pivot that you mentioned. So once we started services and small groups, we saw a lot of opportunity, especially with our services, especially where we are because it's so central because of like the history of this area. Not only do we have a lot of people that work in this area, but we have a lot of people that visit this area and a lot of tourists. So so that was a surprise to me, is that we receive and we get so many tourists come to our services and people who are sometimes they have just heard about the history of the church of one of our church sites. And sometimes people who are just, often people who are just walking past. And if you were ever to visit us in London and we're literally in a think 17th century old church building, but we are very charismatic in style, so you'll probably hear like music and coming out of this traditional church building and you're thinking, what on earth is going on in that building? So we have so many tourists stop and they come in and it got to a point we actually had to develop an outreach team that would speak to the tourists and actually minister and share words, prophetic words and actually pray for for some of the tourists. So that's been and some of them have actually joined our community, some of them. And we still receive messages that say, I remember there was this one guy, I believe, from Italy. He came to our church. He was just walking past and he came to our church. He came in and he just stayed for the whole service. And I came up to him and he looked completely dazed. And I said, "Oh, are you okay? You know what's going on?" And he was like, "The only word I could describe is that I feel freedom." And I said to him, "Have you ever felt that before?" And he was like, "No, I've never felt this before." And I basically, you know, got to share the gospel and I got to just share like, "you know, I believe this is the Holy Spirit, God at work." And he's gone back to Italy and he still messages. And he said that I can never forget what I encountered when I was in your church. I can't wait to come back and hopefully I can move to London. And even more recent, we have a guy who's actually I've gotten really, well, well connected with him. He's actually from your side of the waters, who is from the US and he's joined our church community. And I asked him one day and I said, "How did you how did you join this church? How did you hear about this church?" And he said, "Oh, I was just walking past the church whilst some of my, some of my family members and friends were visiting me. And someone just said, Do you want to come inside? And I came inside. I loved it and I've just kept on coming back." So yeah, we have a lot of foot traffic.

Dwight Zscheile: So you are, as you mentioned, in a couple of historic church buildings, London has a lot of historic church buildings, and most of them are pretty, a lot of them are pretty empty these days, you know, a lot of the time. And and one of the buildings that your your church is using where you're actually sitting while we record this is Saint Mary Woolnoth. Yeah. And part of its history was that John Newton, who wrote "Amazing Grace" was the vicar back many, many years ago. But that's a church that before Imprint Church started using it, I think was was pretty empty and underused. And so I think it's just wonderful to think about how, you know, there is in the UK, of course, this inheritance of these these beautiful buildings and also the struggle of secularism. And so many of them are not being used and you are replanting, if you will, Christianity, Christian community in a place where in many ways it had ceased to be meaningfully present or visible other than the sort of shell architecturally of these structures. So I wonder if you just want to say a word about that.

Wole Agbaje: Yeah. Yeah. And that's definitely the case for a lot of the church buildings within the city of London where a lot of them do have like obviously form of ministry, but not what it was like historically. And actually what was special about Saint Mary's Woolnoth. One of I think before we actually took on Mary's Woonoth , that was actually still like a really thriving like ministry from a local parish and next next door, actually. And they started lunch services in Saint Mary's Woolnoth and stuff, but it stopped because of COVID. And so after COVID, we really just felt like the Lord was calling us as a church that now had taken over Saint Mary's Woolnoth as part of our parish to to actually partner with some of that history of lunch services and what the Lord has done with the past and to almost revitalize it post-COVID and actually for a whole new generation of city workers. So that's that's what we've done. And it's just been amazing what the Lord has done. But for the most part and like I said, Mary's Woonoth like a lot of the city churches, there wasn't a lot going on. So even where our church is, where our Sunday services is, at Saint Edmund the King, it was known for some for courses and for their hosting different events, but there hadn't been a church congregation there in over 25 years. And I actually looked. One thing to swear by in the Anglican church is that this records for everything and in some of our safes and stuff and we have to know everything down. And I actually looked in this big, you know just really worn down book and it showed that the last baptism in this church in St. Edmund the King was over 45 years ago, which is crazy, this beautiful church. But it wasn't being used as a congregational ministry and stuff. And so and I'm just reminded of the words of like Isaiah, like, you know, the rebuilding of ancient ruins and stuff. And to actually just see the Lord do that physically in our context was extraordinary to be a part of. But yeah, just going back to St. Mary's and one of Saint Mary's Woolnoth obviously has such a rich history, so Mary's Woolnoth used to be called the pulpit to the world because it was that influential like especially for where the region is, it's right next to the Bank of England. So it was it was so influential. So you can just imagine throughout history the calibre of people. So on one side we have the Bank of England, on the other side we have the headquarters where the Lord Mayor is. And, and yeah, so, so. You could just imagine throughout history that the calibre of people that would be parishioners, that would be part of the congregation in that church. And historically a very profound figure that used to be the vicar, the church leader of this church was John Newton, the writer of "Amazing Grace". And, you know, this is a song that has travelled across the world, that has stood the test of time. And actually as a church, we just celebrated the 250th anniversary of Amazing Grace, and we had an event by two different charity organizations, some politicians and just different key leaders to celebrate the the event and to celebrate the song and actually the meaning of this song that God, God and His amazing grace and how the Lord is still transforming people today. He transformed John Newton back in the day, but he's still transforming people today. So it was a great time for us to reflect what has God done and also celebrate what He is still doing. And yeah, John Newton, he wrote a song of about God's amazing grace. You know, he was a man who did atrocious stuff. He used to be a slave trader. He was literally involved in the capturing of slaves, but he was shipwrecked one day and he cried out to the Lord that the Lord will save him and the Lord sovereignly saved him. And He became a priest. And he wrote a song describing his experience that the Lord that you would save a wretch like me. And Amazing Grace is a testament of that. And he became the rector. He became the vicar of this church St Mary's Woolnoth . And during his time here, he mentored a young politician called William Wilberforce. And in our very back rooms, he would encourage him against, he would encourage him to carry on campaigning against slavery. William Wilberforce finally, finally did. The day came where he saw the fruits of his labour actually. And actually it got into Parliament that we are going to finally put an end to the slave trade and slavery was abolished. So you can just imagine that these people who are behind the campaign against the slave trade were parishioners in this, in this church. Um, and, and yeah, they were just people who encountered God's amazing grace. They believed in the freedom of captives for other people. So that's, that's the history that was taken on. Which is a crazy issue to take on, a crazy legacy. But as a community we've just been praying that God, would you do it again? That there's still obviously there's still forms of modern slavery and we're partnering with organisations to campaign against modern slavery, but we're also saying, God, would you also set free those who are spiritually captives who are still bound up in idolism, who are still bound up in addictions, who are caught up in that sin and turmoil. Would you set the captives free? So yeah, we are working hard to proclaim that there is freedom, free Christ Jesus and in the city.

Terri Elton: Okay, Wole, as if I wasn't already intimidated by living by the financial district. Now all of that on top of it. 250 year anniversary. Okay. Yeah. You know, we're, we're just the babies over here on this side of the pond, right? Everything's not quite that old. So here's. Here's my question. Um, I say that tongue in cheek, and I say that deep in my soul. That is a lot.

Wole Agbaje: Um. Yeah .

Terri Elton: To say, God. Okay, I'm going to go plant a church in the middle in these old places that have literally ghosts of, if you will, or echoes of these stories.

Wole Agbaje: Yep.

Terri Elton: Why say yes? Why go? And what kind of "support"? And I say that in in air quotes. Meaning where did you find support? Maybe not always in the traditional places to do this work.

Wole Agbaje: Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. Let me first answer the first question. Why go? I think over the years I consistently asked the Lord, "Why me?" That was a hard thing to even. Yeah, yeah. To even answer. And I think I still don't have an answer to it, actually. And I remember just saying to myself and actually saying to close friends and leaders that I don't know why the Lord chose me to start a church at 22. I was literally like, I literally had a list of, you know, disqualifications. I'm reminded of Gideon when the Lord said, you know, Mighty Men of Valor. And then he was like, you know, God I'm the least of my clan. And I think for me, honestly, I had a whole list of disqualifications. I was like, "God, I'm way too young." You know, I'm a young leader also. I don't have much experience, especially in the Church of England. And thirdly, also I'm black within in the Church of England. And historically, you know, ethnic minorities were alienated and were actually rejected from the national church in this country. And that's been a lot of work to undo that and to open barriers for all racial groups. But that was that's the spiritual history, That's the history of this of this church and stuff. So on top of all of that, I was just like. God, why? Why would you choose me? And I remember being challenged by another leader who's older than me. He basically just said to me, he was like, Wole, despite all of your insecurities and the qualifications, the Lord has anointed you to lead a church. So you could either remain, you know, you can either remain passive because of your disqualification, or you can partner with what the Lord has called you to do. So it definitely took the sense of like courage and rising up that actually, God, I believe that you have, you know, chosen me for such a time as this. And I say so like boldly, but also with deep humility and fear that, okay, if you want me to do this then let's go for it. And even, you know, I did it with a great group of friends who love the Lord and who fear the Lord. And I remember in the early days especially, you can just imagine a bunch of you know, people in their, in their early 20s. And we used to say to ourselves, we are not professionals, but we will be obedient. And that's still our motto today, especially taking on a city like ours where we just say, God, we are not professionals. But if you speak, we will be obedient. And I remember just the first hurdle of being starting a church and Leicester and just seeing that grow and the Lord just calling so many people to him. But also remember the second hurdle where the Lord was like, and I'm calling you to plant again, but in a much bigger city. And in a much scarier city. Will you go? And we'll just like, okay, God, we've seen you do it before, let's trust you to do it again. And yeah. And we're seeing the fruits of it, but I feel like that's what the Lord calls us to do, to take steps of faith. Scripture says that we can only please him by our faith. So yeah, we're trying to be faithful in that as well.

Dwight Zscheile: So you haven't done this alone. You've done it with some support. And the Church of England actually has a bishop for church planting Bishop Ric Thorpe

Wole Agbaje: Yes.

Dwight Zscheile: Which is which is really cool. I love that. And and really a strategy around church planting as part of the mixed ecology. And if you could just speak to to the role of church planning as part of the mixed ecology. And then also, you know, you've done your theological training, your your seminary training along the way rather than before you started this church.

Wole Agbaje: Yeah.

Dwight Zscheile: In fact, you're just finishing up your coursework, I think, for your seminary degree, having already planted two churches. You want to speak to that as well?

Wole Agbaje: Yes. Yeah.

Wole Agbaje: So the Bishop of church planting, the Bishop of Islington, is a man called Rick Thorpe, and he is a phenomenal apostolic leader. So, so gifted. But also I just love how he fears the Lord. And we actually planted into his parish. So Bishop Rick is the rector of this parish. And just to give a bit more context, I remember, you know, feeling this call to plant into the city of London. And I remember walking around London and I walked past of one of the these buildings and I remember praying to the Lord. And I was and and I gasped because I just felt like there was something there. And I said, "God, would you give us this building?" A few weeks later, I actually got a email from Bishop Ric's team saying, you know, Would you come to London to meet Bishop Ric? A long story short: I had a conversation with Bishop Ric and he asked me this question. He said, "Well, do you guys have a building, I know you guys want to plant into the city?" And I said, no. And he said, "Would you plant into this building?" And I said "Well, hundred percent yes." And I remember him asking me, he was like, "Don't you need to pray about it." And I said, "No, Bishop, because I asked the Lord for this building. And I and he's answered my prayers and stuff." But if anything, it was probably the Lord that put the desire and put that that building on my heart in the first place. But yeah, in the Church of England, yeah, the mixed ecology is traditionally you have the parish churches. So a vicar is given a church and a geographical area to, I guess, like spiritually invest into and to be a witness and to serve the local area. But often these parishes are so big and so large and in size, but often in number. And I think what the Church of England and, you know, especially spearheaded by Bishop Ric, is that we can't do this alone, that it's going to take lots of different types of churches and lots of different groups to actually reach just the scale of of people that we have in our in our cities. So we need parish churches alongside new church plants that might work alongside those parish churches to reach new groups of people. Some of these church plants might actually be revitalization like we did that basically take on old traditional buildings that did have signs of life and great work historically, but over time have basically that's not been much ministry there and that's what we've basically done. So we basically revitalize an old traditional building that was used for ministry, and we're basically saying, "okay, God, would you use it as a place of ministry again?" And yes, so I studied at Saint Mellitus, which is a theological college here in England, and Saint Mellitus is basically, I don't know what's the best way to phrase it, but it's a theological college where you study simultaneous to working in a church. And there's a few of us who are studying but were also church planters at the same time. And I think the beauty of that is that, I think, first of all, you see there's a quicker sense of application. So what you study, you get to use it in your context very quickly rather than, you know, you first doing your degree and then one day applying it. I think we do that simultaneously, and I think that's actually a lot of fruit in doing that, because I actually feel like, you know, some of the principles, some of the things I've learned theologically, I've actually see it come alive because I lead a church. I think sometimes with theology, it's hard to see. Yeah. Just simply to see the application of it. And actually, how does this translate in your own context? I think sometimes we can become great theologians, but not good practitioners. So I'm actually very grateful that I got to experience the ... I got to experience both worlds simultaneously because I got to have that theological input, but actually have a practical context where theology come alive.

Terri Elton: That's awesome. And it sounds like the church planting side of your work, you've kind of been apprenticed into. Right? You've had supporters, you've had cheerleaders, you've had wise partners that have done this work, and then you put that alongside a more formal theological education. And and my sense of that program is there's a real community there. You had other students also kind of learning at the same time. So you have two different kind of communities, right, surrounding you at the same time.

Wole Agbaje: Definitely. And you said something about mentors. And I think honestly, if it wasn't for the encouragement, the input and the prayers of mentors like Bishop Ric, I would have found it very hard to go through ministry. But I think it really took other people like Bishop Ric and John McGinley to really input into me to do ministry. And in short, basically and and I feel like that's what church planters need. I do feel like we need that community and we need mentors who have actually stood the test of time, but they are willing to invest in others below them and say, actually I believe the Lord has anointed you, has appointed you, and let me support you on the journey.

Terri Elton: Well, Wole, thank you for being with us today. And first, I want to say thank you for being obedient or taking a dream way back. It's, you know, we're getting there. It's been a number of years now, but seeing of where each of those turns and and what it means for this next stage of ministry. I don't think it's by accident you've been called into London and I look forward to seeing the ends of the earth of how the impact of a church that hasn't had a baptism for 45 years, once again, the spirit comes alive and people stop in like two Minnesotans and come to worship and are filled with not only the gospel, but the spirit as as they leave. You are a blessing to your community. You are a blessing to the church and you bless us with your story today. Thank you for that.

Wole Agbaje: Thank you. Oh, God bless you. Amen. Amen. Thank you.

Terri Elton: And we get to we get to counter this story with our next episode that takes us to Minnesota all the way on the other side of the pond about another priest that has planted a unique ministry in southern Minnesota. So we invite listeners to stay tuned and come back with us to our next episode next week.

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