Mr. McLaren certainly believes that a positive way forward will be developed.

“I have been a pastor for 24 years and I am not naïve about the problems of the Church, but I am completely confident in the good news of Jesus. There is nobody else who gives me hope other than Jesus, so as long as we keep drawing from that resource I am hopeful.”

From inquiries made by Challenge Weekly, it would appear that the questions and ideas promoted by those in the emerging church network are meeting with less suspicion in New Zealand. 

The pastor of Spreydon Baptist Church, Murray Robertson, says that before attending the Christchurch seminar his picture of the emerging church had been of small niche market congregations aimed at alternative lifestylers.

“But I was greatly impressed at McLaren, at his self-deprecating approach as an American, and at the bigness of his vision. I had a good talk with him and my impression is that most of the opposition to him in the US comes because he is not a right-wing, Republican-voting, fundy.

“I think a lot of the criticism of the emerging church has to be seen in the context of the religious scene in the US. I might be over-simplifying things, but opposition by Americans to other Americans seems to come from the nature of their polarised society, where they are not very good at listening to each other.

“A lot of churches are stridently right-wing, or believe that their way of doing things is the only way. These churches find it hard to accommodate different ideas.

“The same situation does not apply in New Zealand, and many churches here are in fact already doing what Brian McLaren is advocating. I visited their church website and saw a church that looked remarkably like Spreydon.”

Peter Lineham, associate professor of history at Massey University’s Albany campus, said the emergent church is grappling with some deep issues in Western Christianity.

Professor Lineham agrees with Murray Robertson that there has been sharp criticism of the emergent church from some conservative evangelicals.

He says some who have made vicious attacks on the movement have not understood the mission heart that underlies it, and some of that criticism is based on not understanding the longing for an expression of Christianity that connects with our culture.

“That’s the great genuineness of what Brian McLaren is speaking about. He is speaking of a real shift in our culture and how to express Christianity, and he’s trying to meet that expression.

“He’s certainly had a huge impact in his church in the States, and one can really respect that, even though he’s going to have to choose which door he’s going to go through out of the options he’s offering.

“Like all movements, it’s a bit flawed. There’s a lot in the McLaren approach which is nebulous. What precisely is the ‘new kind of Christian’ that he talks about (in his book A Generous Christian)? It leaves me a little baffled.”