The record of the Church at intentional evangelism ranges
from brute force, through social exclusion,
to current threat of eternal agony,
or reward for living a good life.

Such evangelism seems framed to pander only
to a selfish desire for comfort in eternity
rather than to make men think again
about their present behaviour.

This approach and doctrine seems utterly contrary
to the thrust of the message of Jesus
and tenets of God's Kingdom.

Jesus centred his message on God's reality
the imminence and effect of God's kingdom
the potential for good around us;
positive, active, loving.

But then he also spoke of God as goodness;
not some mystic father-figure
 but the spirit of love itself.
For this is what others already see
as good and valuable in their own lives.
This is the beating heart of God's kingdom
.
So we can point to Jesus as our example,
our model of how to live a perfect life,
 and invite others to join us
in trying to follow him.

and we can talk of love's impact
serving and caring for each other,
bringing hope to the hopeless
justice to the downtrodden
and peace for all.

We can talk of what the world could be
if love reigned instead of pride,
if we worked for others
instead of ourselves,
if God's kingdom
 truly came.