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“On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: ‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.’” (Acts 1:4-5)

Like so many schools, restaurants, theaters and churches, the Christian conference Spring Harvest had to close it’s doors in April, unable to meet in the usual way to worship God and resorting to YouTube. It was very successful actually. What struck me about that online conference though was the theme, ‘Unleashed’. Planned one year in advance and exploring the early church of Acts for believers today. At first the title seemed to have an irony about it, how could the church be unleashed whilst our doors were closed for gathered worship? But became deeply prophetic, with the life of any church not dependent on gathering people in a building or even upon singing. The church can still worship God and make disciples of all nations, as the early church did, empowered by the Holy Spirit in houses and homes. If we are to be the church unleashed then we need to learn two things. First, to wait for the Holy Spirit. Empowered for witness as the early church were and with strength received from God alone. Second, to have a willingness to be the church unleashed. With the same spirit of adventure seen in the apostles of Acts, standing out in this uncertain landscape alongside the living God as salt and light. It is my prayer that we will be encouraged, even enabled, to be a church unleashed. To share Jesus in our Jerusalem, our Judea, our Samaria, to the ends of the earth, in our homes, our houses and neighborhoods. It is my prayer that this church will be unleashed from the confinement of its four or many more walls to the wider world for God’s glory.