My family and I first moved to Telford in 2011. We moved here to live in Priorslee, with the aim of planting a church in Priorslee to reach out to those that the traditional churches in the area weren’t reaching. My licensing service was in the hall of a local primary school, and in the run up to the service I had the image of tent pegs in my mind. So much so, that I drove all the way to Go Outdoors in Wolverhampton to buy packets of tent pegs, so that I could give everyone who came to the service one to take away. I used different images from the Bible about tents, and staking a claim, and God extending the tent, as a framework for our prayers, and asked folk to take one of the tent pegs home and put it somewhere they’d see it as a reminder to pray for the establishment of that church plant. This is one of those tent pegs, it lives on a shelf in my study.
A couple of years later, I helped to organise a course for worship leaders called Worship Central. At one of the evenings we were praying for the different churches represented and as they were praying for me, and the Priorslee church plant, one of the people praying used those verses we heard read this morning, from Isaiah, to encourage me to keep going in Priorslee, and to see the tent of the church extended there.
By late 2015, early 2016, the agreed funding for my post in Priorslee was coming to an end, we had made some progress, and a small church was meeting, but it was not enough for the bishop to have confidence in extending the project, and I was encouraged to move on. So, I applied for different jobs elsewhere, and was pleased to be appointed as vicar of All Saints and St Catherine’s, and began work here in the autumn of 2016. I do believe that God called me here, but there was sadness, hurt, and confusion as to why things hadn’t worked out the way that we had hoped in Priorslee.
Fast forward to autumn 2019, and there was talk of a new Church of England church plant into Telford. Matt Beer had been appointed to head up Telford Minster, meeting in the centre of Telford, with mission projects dotted around the new build estates of Telford, including one in Priorslee. Matt’s licensing service was held in Wrockwardine Wood, and I went along to support him and to pray for this new outreach. I was a little early, and as I was waiting for the service to begin I flicked through the order of service booklet, and saw that the Bible reading for the evening was this Isaiah reading, about extending the tent.
To be honest, I didn’t really take in much of the first half of the service, I was having quite a heated conversation with God. I was so angry. This was the Bible passage that we had relied on in Priorslee, people we’d trusted had given it to us, prayed it for us. And where was that tent now. Blown away and gone. But, as I thought and reflected a bit more, I realised I had a choice. I could choose to believe that version of the story, or I could choose to believe what God says, that his word does not return to him empty. I could choose to see this new project as a continuation of the old, building on it. I could choose to see this as part of the ongoing fulfilment of those words, and answers to those prayers, that the tent will be extended, as God continues to work in new expressions of church in Telford.
As I came to that realisation, and felt more at peace with what was happening, I realised that there were quite a few people in the room who had also been at my licensing service in 2011, and I felt it was important to share what I was thinking with them, but I didn’t know the best way to do that. I thought about standing up and saying something to everyone, but I didn’t want to take the focus away from Matt and the new thing that was happening, so I thought I’d just mention it to a few key people afterwards, but that didn’t sit right either. So I said to myself that if words or insights were invited I would speak up. Towards the end of the service, Matt did exactly that, so I had the opportunity to welcome him and let people know that I see this ministry as a positive continuation of God’s work in Telford, and specifically of these words about extending the tent.
The following Saturday, I was in Stafford for a day with the folk from Bless, the European mission agency that All Saints supports and that Tom and Caroline Gwilliam and Nick and Dawn James are particularly involved with. In the first session of the day the head of Bless, Gerard Kelly, was reflecting on ten years of Bless, and he had some props in a bag as illustrations for his reflections. The first prop out of his bag was a packet of tent pegs which he used to illustrate some reflections on Isaiah 54, the reading we heard this morning. He was talking about the way in which God had, over the years, again and again extended the tent of Bless’ mission, and his conviction of the place that local churches have in the missional purposes of God, as we extend the tent to include people.
That was all great, but I was having another of those conversations with God. Could this be coincidence, that this passage, and tent pegs were coming up again, from a completely different place, within two days? I didn’t think so, and I had opportunity to chat it over with a couple of folk who were there, who had also been at Matt’s licensing, and they didn’t think so either. But why, what was God saying? As I reflected on this over the next week or so, I think that there were three things.
The first was what I had shared at Matt’s licensing, that Telford Minster is a part of the ongoing purposes of God to extend the tent of God’s church in Telford. The second was a personal encouragement to me, not to be afraid to extend the tent. To be honest, I know that I felt liked I’d failed in Priorslee, and that has led me to be more risk averse, and not to trust my own innovative instincts. I think God was encouraging me to get back on the horse, and to trust myself more. The third one, I think, is for us as a church here at All Saints. It seems to me that God is encouraging us to enlarge the place of our tent, to spread out, to lengthen the cords.
If you would like to explore the Biblical mandate for this further, I’ll be expanding on this at the evening service tonight, and my thoughts will be available to read or listen to on the website from the middle of the week.
For this morning though, it seems to me that this encouragement to enlarge the place of our tent is entirely in line with our vision and values. Our vision is seen in these three key images.
This first one reminds us of all those things that God has poured into our lives, as individuals and as a church. A church that has experienced and is experiencing the generosity of God in so many ways cannot be hidden. It has to shine out, it has to spread out. In this image of our vision we see the generous riches of God pouring into this church, a beacon of light, overflowing to the community around us.
Here we have a representation of a meal in a house in Bethany. Jesus is seated in the middle. Mary is worshipping with abandon at Jesus’ feet. Martha is serving faithfully in the kitchen and Lazarus is leaning, in friendship against Jesus. All three are coming closer to Jesus, who is our Lord, our God, and our friend. In this image of our vision we see a Christ centred church of faithful service, intimate worship, and friendship with God.
Thirdly we have a strawberry plant, spreading by sending out runners. On these runners are tiny baby strawberry plants that have the opportunity to take root and to grow to become plants themselves, and to bear fruit. In this image of our vision we see a connected community of fruitful congregations, sharing the same DNA, growing in a variety of contexts.
As we work towards this vision, we do so in a way that expresses our core values of Loving God, Loving Each Other, Loving Our Neighbours, Celebrating, and Exploring.
As we’ve pursued this vision over the last few years, I believe that we have already seen our tent expanding. We’re actively involved in the local community, we have the opportunities afforded by our partnership with the Orbit, especially the new toddler group that we are helping to start up there on a Tuesday morning. We are spreading our tent wider in our partnership with other local churches, with Nick James taking on the role of Chair of Telford Christians Together, and Nick Brooke taking on the Chair of North West Telford Churches Together. I’m sure that there are going to be more opportunities over the coming year and decade, and I am looking forward to discovering what they might be.
As we go into this new year, this new decade, we have an opportunity to reflect, to lament, to rejoice, and to commit.
I wonder if you feel like that there are promises that God has made, or hopes that you had, that seem to have failed. Things that you’re angry or disappointed about. Could today be a day for you to lament them, and perhaps to see a new hope for them.
I wonder where God is encouraging each of us as individuals to spread the tent. Who is God calling us to reach out to, to include, to invite in. We might be nervous of being stretched, it’s not always comfortable, but we can bring that to God as well.
I wonder where God is calling us as a church to spread the tent? It’s my prayer for the new year that we will discern this together, respond faithfully, and have cause to celebrate the extension of the tent, of the Kingdom, in Wellington and beyond.
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