Westbourne Grove Church

Who we are

Westbourne Grove Church (known as The Grove!) is a small, friendly and diverse community of Christians in the Notting Hill area of West London.

We focus on following Jesus, loving one another, and sharing God’s love with the wider community.

We are a community where every person can play their part and bring their own unique contribution. It’s not a church where the leader does everything - instead we encourage everyone to participate in ways they feel they can, wherever they are on their journey.

We are all part of the team!

Our culture and values

Our values help guide how we live and what we do. They’re simple really, since they’re all about loving God and each other. 

• Whole life faith: We think our faith in God should be expressed in every aspect of our lives, not just by going to church on Sundays. As Christians we have a lot to celebrate, but we think it’s important to be honest, so we talk about our struggles, as well as things that are going well.
• Welcome: We’re a diverse bunch in ethnicity, social background, age and character. This can be challenging at times but going outside our comfort zone helps us to grow in love, patience and maturity. We welcome and include people who suffer from mental health issues, or who are homeless or otherwise in need.
• Participation: We like people to participate and contribute in our meetings, rather than watch everything happen from the front. Everyone has unique and valuable contributions they can bring to serve and encourage one another.
• Community: Although our church members live across northwest London, we have a particular concern to serve the local community around the church building in Notting Hill. Many local people come to our building for a whole variety of activities. We seek to make our community an active and connected part of the local community.
• Grass roots: In some churches, the leaders define the beliefs, vision and activities of the church. We work upside down: we see our leaders as servants whose role is to support and nurture the growth of church members, to help people find their role in God’s plans.We encourage and support people to think for themselves and hear God, but in the context of a community grounded in the Bible and prayer.
• Questions and doubts: We think questions are good and doubts are OK – they’re vital tools to help us grow in our faith, understanding and wisdom.
• Care for the planet: We are a church who loves all that God has made – among us there are tree planters, CO2 capture scheme endeavours, nature photographers, cold water swimmers, dog lovers, elephant savers, bird watchers, plant eaters, and hill walkers. We encourage each other to find ways to look after our planet. Nature inspires us to worship, and to be thankful: we glimpse God through it and are restored and refreshed.
• Creativity: We think beauty and creativity are gifts of God. We love to find creative ways to worship and communicate the life of God. God often reveals himself by showing us beauty in unexpected places.
• Messy Beautiful: Someone once described our church as ‘messy beautiful’ – we quite like this because although we think order is important, it’s vital to make room for the messiness that comes from creativity, new life and being fallible humans.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

Westbourne Grove Church is a Christian Charity committed to equal opportunities and is an ‘equal opportunities’ employer within the parameters of its ethos and values. We make employment decisions by matching the church’s needs with the skills and experience of candidates.

We want all staff members, despite their differences, to know that they are welcomed, respected and included at WGC, able to do their jobs free of discrimination.

As a Christian community we operate according to the principles of our faith and therefore reserve the right to recruit Christians with an understanding of Christian values and support for the church ethos where there is an Occupational Requirement to do so.