To see God’s kingdom established throughout our region, sphere by sphere because

• Every person is wholeheartedly following Jesus
• Every believer is operating as part of the church in that sphere
• Every expression of the kingdom of darkness destroyed.

At Grace Canberra we have adopted a military term known as the “Commander’s Intent.” It is “a concise expression of the purpose of the operation and the desired end state.” This applies to us in a very simple but profound way. We don’t think we have the option of choosing what our “vision” or “dream” should be. That has already been chosen. We have a Commander. His name is Jesus Christ. He has clearly stated his intention.

This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in every place where people live and to every different people group… Matthew 24

The end state is all nations discipled. This is the Commander’s singular intent.

Because it is a gospel of the kingdom, we see that when Jesus speaks about the kingdom of God he is speaking about the will of God being done on the earth as it is in heaven.

We are convinced that our Commander intended his followers to do much more than worship and pray in a building. Since all of us live and work in houses, neighbourhoods and workplaces we think that is the most natural and effective way to reach the whole city - sphere by sphere. If we start where we are we can just keep going to all the places where there are no believers.

At Grace Canberra it is becoming our priority to learn how to live missional lives in community spheres. Most of what we have focused on in the past has had to do with things that go on inside the church building or a home group for church people. We are now learning how to make the presence of Jesus tangible to the people in our community spheres. It is frightening to think that we can so easily create unlimited activities to consume effort and fill diaries with activities that do little or nothing to fulfil the commander’s intention. As a result we have produced a never ending variety of Christian retail outlets that become ghettos. We can compartmentalize our lives so that we do Christian things where there are other Christians and largely live missionless lives in the community. We are no longer prepared to live with this imbalance. We want to do what it takes to inspire, equip, empower, commission and resource missional living in every aspect of our lives.

Jesus came to let the world know the good news that God was offering to take back what belongs to him - his loving and gracious rule. He wants to drive out the substitutes and give people their inheritance from heaven. We are clearly charged with no other task.