Introducing ReSource - Martin Cavender
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not
perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the
desert.
(Isaiah 43:19)
 |
This text sprang to life for me at the end of a mission
in Northampton and began to shape a great deal of what followed, both
in me and in the work of Springboard. |
The picture showed a dry riverbed, a wadi in a parched and
arid landscape. I imagined scrub and tumbleweed, brown and dry. On one
bank of this gulch was a large gathering of people, huddled together,
some of them robed. They had their arms raised to the sky and were
crying out in anguish: "When will the rain come? Why doesn't it rain?'
On the other bank was a smaller group, but they were very different.
They were dancing and singing in celebration, and calling out: "Can't
you see? Can't you see?' and pointing downwards to the bed of the
river, where the water was bubbling up as the water-table rose.
Around the same time, from my daily reading, another piece of Scripture
sprang off the page at me, like a laser. It was Genesis 26:18, and
described Isaac reopening the wells that his father Abraham had dug and
which the Philistines had blocked up. All I could see in that moment
was thousands of churches of all kinds, large and small, across the
country. I was overwhelmed with the sense of God's love for his Church,
and His burning desire for every part of it to be a well of living
water for the community in which it stood. It was a vision, like the
bubbling through the dry riverbed, of God at work, of profound renewal
and healing, of good news, carrying the echoes of Ezekiel 47 and its
trees by the waterside - Revelation 22:2 - the words of Jesus to the
woman at the well in John 4 and lots more.
These pictures have been sustained and constantly confirmed for me over
the years. I find them securing and deeply healing. They show me a God
who is set upon building his Church, though sometimes I can't see how.
Mark 4:26 - 29 helps me in that. My job is to be obedient and leave the
rest to the God who loves his Church and his World. That's why I'm now
called to work with ReSource, when I thought Cesca and I were off to do
something else entirely.
Renewal for God's mission
One essential for ReSource was clear to us all from the
outset. This was to be about renewal for mission. ReSource was to be a
work which looked outwards and encouraged others to do the same, a work
which recognised God's focus in the World rather than just in the
Church. When we first began to lay out our vision for this new work
under the new name, building on the long and distinguished history of
Anglican Renewal Ministries and the renewal of Springboard, we wondered
how it would be received - especially when other workers were already
grafting away in the vineyard. But we were as sure as we could be that
God was calling and leading us into it, and our job was to be obedient.
He would do the rest.
The response has been amazing, and the flow of letters, emails,
phone-calls, personal contacts endorsing the vision, supporting it in
prayer, financially and in other ways has been extraordinary. We have
been taken unawares by the size of the response, and are consequently
taking on extra staff to cope, as well as outsourcing some of the
detailed work. Perhaps God does know what he's doing, after all (O ye
of little faith…).
We were commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams,
in Burford Priory Oxfordshire on 18 November 2004, followed by a much
larger Launch Service in Burford Parish Church. Since then the
Archbishop has been very supportive, even animated about the
possibilities for this work; and is keen to be seen to uphold it
personally and in prayer.
What next?
We are now at work around the country, helping churches and
leaders bring renewal for mission at local, regional and national
levels. In all we do we work as a team, coming to you where you are to
serve.
We hope and pray that ReSource will be a current in the stream of God's
renewal, play its part in the reformation of the Church, flow together
with others into a future which we realise we will not fully see. We
recognise, as we work for renewal for God's mission, that like Moses
and Joshua we are to walk towards the place of the Lord's choosing,
faithful to our calling in a work which will stretch beyond the
horizons of our lifetimes.
