St Augustine’s Wembley Park was hit hard by Covid. In 2023, regular attenders were down to 15 and the Sunday school had shrunk to nothing. With a small and faithful team holding it together the church was ready for some new energy and resourcing.
By Catherine EllerbyApril 2025
St Augustine’s Church has seen some exciting growth over the last 18 months. Revd Scott Furey and a team from Christ Church Mayfair have joined the existing congregation, seeing God working in ways they wouldn’t have imagined. Scott, previously the student minister at Christ Church, hadn’t seen himself as a church planter but says that planting was always ‘in the air’. When he and his wife Sharon were invited to consider leading a church graft and revitalisation, they said yes.
Christ Church Mayfair had planted before in 2018, and a team had been praying about another plant. The Wembley Park area in North West London had been identified as a possible opening and there was a sense that St Augustine’s was the right place. An on-going development around the Wembley football stadium includes 10,000 new flats built over the last ten years, attracting new people to the area. ‘All of these things added to the “pull factor” which gave us a sense that we should be there and of what church would look like,’ explains Scott.
St Augustine’s had been without a vicar for over a year and the church had been kept going by a small and faithful team of people and an interim minister. With a congregation of 15, the PCC was ready for new opportunities. With the necessary discussions and arrangements agreed, Scott and his family moved in July 2023 with a team of 20 adults joining them in September 2023.
From the beginning they worked hard at unity and not imposing a particular service style on people who had been there for many years. Beginning the Plant Course at CCX helped them, Scott says.
‘What was key for us in the course was the input and work we did on clarifying our vision. I found being “forced” to give a vision pitch and present it at the end was super helpful in clarifying for ourselves what we were about. And it helped us to communicate that vision to new and existing people back in church. It was also great to be with other churches at different stages feeding off each other’s ideas.’
A priority for the team had been starting something new. A contemporary 4.00 pm service with a band was introduced, alongside the traditional 10.30 am service. However, Scott admits that it was in the morning service that God surprised them. Thanks to the resources of the incoming team, they were able to restart the Sunday School.
‘We began with my two children and two from another family,’ says Scott. ‘We bumbled along like that for a while, but then new families joined. The Sunday School grew to about 22 including primary school and then secondary school kids – as siblings began to come along. Most recently in January this year, we have launched a Sunday morning youth group for the older children.
‘There are four or five young people coming regularly. We’ve managed to find a space for them in an under-used room – we’ve taken out some accumulated junk and put in some nice chairs and a table for the young people to meet. ‘We came with our grand ideas of the new afternoon service taking off and being the most effective way of reaching people. In fact, it has been through the Sunday School with now around 15 children regularly attending each week, that we’ve seen the most significant and steady growth. On Sunday we’re now seeing 70 adults, quadrupling numbers in the last year and a half – and the vast majority weren’t connected with St Augustine’s before.
‘As well as seeing new people coming, it’s lovely to see how the existing members absolutely love that Sunday School is back and happening each week. That’s been a real win all round!’ Scott feels that people have welcomed the team and been genuinely up for change, willing to try different things and embracing them, owning them – rather than change being imposed on them. The new 4.00 pm contemporary service is growing, and other new people have joined.
In January 2024, they began a door knocking ministry in the area immediately around the church – a team of four to six people knocking on parish doors on Sunday afternoon and asking, ‘what can we pray for you?’ As a result, some local people have come along to church services.
Reaching those who live in the new Wembley Park development has proved harder, Scott says. ‘We’re only a ten-minute walk away but that’s quite significant if you’re in your 20s or 30s, and it probably doesn’t cross your mind to go and see what’s happening at St Augustine’s! But we’re working on it, and we’ve done some leafleting to start making inroads.’
Scott tells of a couple who arrived at church one Sunday clearly searching, asking ‘Please can you tell us about Jesus? No one will tell us straight.’ Scott and his wife led them through the Christianity Explored course. They asked lots of questions and engaged with the Bible, even over issues which Scott felt would be especially challenging for them, around the cost of following Jesus. They told their families they wanted to follow Jesus, and they were baptised in January. The subsequent course has been populated by their friends and families wanting to find out more.
‘Being just by Wembley stadium reminds me always that we are part of something bigger,’ says Scott, reflecting on their planting story so far. ‘The stadium points to the stars, the sportspeople and celebrities, but we have the Gospel and that’s something even bigger, much greater. With God’s help we can point others to Jesus in this area. In the next five years, we’d love to plant again, in Wembley Park, and are praying that St Augustine’s will be a part of an on-going planting story.’
