Faith Action Programme Leadership Team launch Vivid Vision video

The Church's Faith Action Programme Leadership Team (FAPLT) has launched a ‘Vivid Vision' video to encourage people to think about what the future of the Church might look like.

It is hoped that the film, which was played publicly for the first time at a conference for Ministers held in Edinburgh yesterday, will get people to use the ‘Vivid Vision' as a catalyst to inspire the Church as a whole, and will shape the future work of FAPLT.

FAPLT's Programme Groups will shape their next stage of work around developing their part in realising this vision.

Something of this hope was shared in roadshows led by FAPLT and Seeds For Growth which were held across different presbyteries last year.

Members of FAPLT wrote their own ‘Vivid Vision' of what the church could be like in three years' time, each of which were then honed through prayer and discussion to create the final shared vision.

Writing in this month's Life and Work, Rev Tommy McNeil, convener of FAPLT, described the initial roadshows as "very much a listening exercise", and said "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 the most instances, it is not a good mark," he adds.

"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)

Mr McNeil urges us to become "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".

Explaining further about the ‘Vivid Vision' of FAPLT, he states:

"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. The film is 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 ‘Vivid Vision' is written in the present tense as those who wrote it were challenged with imagining themselves into the future and were then asked to describe what they hoped and saw within the Church.

Kay Cathcart, Head of Ministries and Mission, said: "We hope each congregation will use the film and the accompanying set of resources to dream and describe the future they hope for. Vision will bring life and direct energies for the next season. It is important that each congregation discerns what that looks like for themselves, and we hope this new resource will be a significant help in doing so."