Talking Point – October 2025

Hope for today and for ever

AT OUR RETREAT in June, the Caversham ministers looked at each of the four chapters of Paul’s letter to the church at Colosse. I believe there are valuable lessons in the book of Colossians that we can all apply in 2025. “Christ is enough”, Paul declares, “He is God, the fullness of God, the one who made the world, the reason that everything exists”. The Colossian church was a thankful church. The ‘quiet revival‘ shows thankfulness for church across the UK, while the Transform Reading network fosters unity amongst pastors and leaders of Christian organisations, and in Caversham, in each of our seven churches.
The Colossian church was characterised by faith and love for the saints. It was the love that the churches had for one another that turned the world upside down, as recorded in the book of Acts, resulting in spectacular growth. We may engage in many actions as churches, which is good, as we welcome and serve the community that God has put us amongst. But the love we have for
one another, born out of our love for God and filled by the Holy Spirit, will impress and draw people outside the church to Jesus.
The faith and love that Paul speaks about springs from hope – distinctly lacking in the UK and many other places today. Arguably, the nineties and noughties were decades of hope, optimism and prosperity in Britain – great music, sport, and ‘Cool Britannia’. However, since the 2008 financial crisis, a growing sense of unease was born out of a lack of hope. The economy has grown sluggishly at best, and many have been drawn into debt and poverty.
Paul talks about the supremacy of Christ, alive and reigning. Our mission is to make known the gospel – the mystery of the faith – to those who are struggling and hopeless. Hope was a key element in the church in Paul’s day, a sure hope. Not the hope we might have that it will be a nice day or you have a good holiday, or your children or grandchildren do well in their exams. He talks about the Hope of Glory: if we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ and have repented of our sin, he will grant us eternal life. It is also a hope for today that, whatever situations we face, he is with us and for us.
The hope is based on the fact that Jesus died and rose again and ascended into heaven. Without this fact at the centre of the Christian faith, there would be no hope and, as Paul says elsewhere in his letter to the churches, we would be dead in our sins.
David Steed
Elder at Grace Church Caversham