Hope for the future

The Rev Tommy MacNeil highlights ‘Vivid Vision’, a new resource of hope for the Church of Scotland.

I WONDER what you got for Christmas?

Whilst we acknowledge that when you reach a certain age what you get is not as important as it once was, we are still thankful for a time of giving and receiving.

Whether you got what you wanted, or are a little disappointed that you did not, I have some wonderful news to share with you today. God has two very specific gifts He wants to give you for 2025 and beyond. Even if you could find them on sale somewhere, they would have a priceless tag on them. What are these two gifts God wants to give you? The gifts of hope and a future. ‘For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give youHOPE AND A FUTURE’. (Jeremiah 29.11)

During 2024 a team from the Faith Action Programme Leadership Team (FAPLT) and Seeds For Growth engaged in Presbytery Roadshows. They were our first attempt at building bridges with our presbyteries and congregations and were very much a listening exercise. It likely will not surprise you to know that what we heard from people in our villages, towns, and cities was difficult and painful to listen to. A worldwide pandemic, presbytery reform, and mission planning have left their mark, and in most instances, it is not a good mark.

The Bible highlights for us how crucial hope is. Indeed, a lack of it can make us spiritually unwell – ‘Hope deferred makes the heart sick!’ (Proverbs 13.12) Paul tells us in Romans the surprising places where hope can be found and what hope does: ‘Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.’ Romans 5.3-4

Whilst we have been through a painful season and are still navigating a way forward with a sense of pain, we see that God is interested in what will grow in us during this time. Paul points to the fact that in a place of hardship, hope can arise. Maybe you have become a stranger to hope? If so, I pray what you read here resurrects hope for you.

We are to be a people shaped by the Good News – The Church of Scotland seeks to inspire the people of Scotland and beyond with the Good News of Jesus Christ through enthusiastic worshipping, witnessing, nurturing and serving communities.

The nature of good news is that it needs to be owned before it can be shared. The Good News has transformed us and shaped us, and we’ve been commissioned to share this Good News with people around us. For us to do this, hope is a crucial factor.

Whatever challenges we have faced and are facing as a church, we need to be mindful of those who live without faith. ‘Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ... without hope and without God in the world’. (Ephesians 2.12) Hope deferred is one thing; to live without hope is another. Billy Graham brought this alive for us: “Our world today so desperately hungers for hope, yet uncounted people have almost given up. There is despair and hopelessness on every hand. Let us be faithful in proclaiming the hope that is in Jesus.”

Here is some more good news. The God whom we worship and hope in, specialises in hope: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15.13)

Names are important. God has hundreds of them throughout the Bible, the main one being God is love. Here we are reminded that one of the names of God is the God of hope – Jehovah Tikvah. If we have little hope for the future, we need to encounter Jehovah Rapha – the God who heals.

What does it look like for us to have hope for the future of the church? Are we hunkering down and looking to endure the best we can in the ‘hope’ that things will eventually improve? That is understandable. Times have been hard. But it is not God’s best for us. Nothing is wasted in God. If we take a moment and ponder on the work God could be doing in us during this hard season, we may be surprised by what we discover. Could it be that as our own sense of hope is wearing thin, that God is allowing this to happen so that individually and corporately we come to rely on Him and His hope in a greater way?

As the God of Hope, He wants to pour out such hope so that we ‘overflow with hope!’

Not glass half empty people, or glass half full people, but a glass overflowing people. Overflowing with hope in Christ and the future He has for us.

What about hope for our church locally? Can we lift our heads to see what is possible in the hands of God? It has been said that ‘The local church is the hope of the world!’ I believe this to be true. Which is why God wants to restore and renew our sense of hope.

For many, we find it hard to imagine something that we have not yet seen. We can’t imagine how to decorate a room differently or what a set of instructions without an accompanying picture might look like. Whilst this is understandable on a human level, the beauty of our faith is that we are encouraged to do this very thing – Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11.1) God wants us to know that hope for the future isn’t something we’re to strive for or cultivate ourselves. The God of Hope wants to give it to us by faith.

The Faith Action Programme Leadership Team spent time imagining what the church might look like in the days and years to come. They lifted their heads, to pray and to consider the things God is showing us. The fruit of this is our ‘Vivid Vision’ which brings alive what they hope for, for our church and her future.

They offer it to you to help you to do your own dreaming. A film was released during January, for you to watch with others in your church. We hope it brings a lens of hope and enables you to see something you have not yet been able to conceive.

My prayer for us in 2025 is that we become prisoners of hope – Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope (Zechariah 9.12). That rather than past unrealised hopes disappointing us, that a renewed sense of hope holds up captive, shapes who we are, and what we do, and influences our faith for our place and God’s purposes in the world. ¤

The Rev Tommy MacNeil is Convener of the Faith Action Programme Leadership Team and minister at Stornoway: Martin’s Memorial.