“So a lot of us are asking: why aren’t our conventional forms of Christian faith working for people? And what do we need to do about that?”

What is being done is reflection, conversation and experimentation on many levels - on the level of theology, worship, spiritual formation, mission, social engagement.

“At all these levels there’s a lot of fresh thinking. But it’s at a very early stage, and that’s one of the reasons it’s hard to define, because in many cases we’re asking questions but have not come up with good answers. In other areas we’re making some modest discoveries and progress.”

Some of the experimentation has included what looks rather like a New Age form of spirituality, crudely identified as involving more candles than theology. But Mr. McLaren says very firmly that the Gospel of Jesus and the kingdom of God must remain the dominant theology.

“I think the best book that has been written on this whole thing so far is by a British theologian, Eddie Gibbs, and an American named Ryan Bolger, who co-authored a book called The Emerging Churches.

“They came up with nine characteristics. The number one was a centring on Jesus Christ and his message of the kingdom of God. Why is it that the message of the kingdom of God was central for Jesus, and somewhat peripheral for a lot of Christians today? There is a great interest in rediscovering what Jesus meant by the phrase, and what that means for us today.

“It’s true there has been a lot of criticism. And, of course, when a group like this is raising very deep questions, such as do we have the Gospel right? – and you don’t get much deeper than that – people who feel we do have it right already have to criticise what we’re doing.

“And we have to listen, because maybe they’re right. So for people who feel, for example, that the Westminster Confession perfectly contains Christian theology the kind of conversation we’re having is a waste of time.

“But for people who feel that the Westminster Confession arose at a certain time, addressed certain concerns of that time, then we have to be as faithful to our time as the framers of the confession were to their time.

“In the US you see a very strong polarisation, where the religious right has had a strong monologue, and it’s been a kind of retreat, a feeling that the good old days are back in the 1940s or 50s or 70s.

“One of the effects of this emerging church conversation is a sense of hope and enthusiasm about the future and the need to engage, and less of a feeling of defeatism and retreat and nostalgia.”

Mr. McLaren acknowledges that there is a huge danger that the movement will appeal mainly to those who have been hurt or turned off by churches.

“There are a lot of people who feel damaged by the existing Church. They feel that it didn’t work for them, they feel that it used them, it didn’t have room for their questions, that it put a coercive pressure on them.