Wole Agbaje: ‘When God first called me to the Church of England I was horrified’
By 
Emma Fowle2025-05-29T14:45:00
The Pentecostal who was dragged kicking and screaming into the Church of England is now leading one of its most vibrant congregations
Thirty-year-old Wole Agbaje has packed more into the last decade than many manage in a lifetime.
An economics graduate, gospel music artist and founder of clothing brand Churchboy, he was only 22 when he started his first church, Imprint Leicester.
Two years later, he started his second congregation in central London. He’d been warned the financial district was “the graveyard of church planters”, but call it the optimism of youth, or just confidence in what God had called him to do, he did it anyway, taking on the church once led by ex-slave trader and hymnist, John Newton. Its history made the move feel particularly redemptive, Wole says, and today Imprint London is a thriving, diverse congregation. Surrounded by office blocks, it may not look like your typical parish. But then again, Wole is not your typical vicar.
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