“People convert to our church, and friendship with its members first, and second to God,” Driscoll says in his book Radical Reformission, in describing unsaved people connecting to church members and helping to run concerts, helping to develop a website, joining a Bible study or serving the needy. Hospitality and friendship are key to Driscoll’s evangelism, and the boundaries between evangelism and discipleship are deliberately blurred.

Evangelism courses, such as Introducing God, use this principle already. Have you ever wondered why they are so long? Ten or thirteen weeks long? In effect people in these courses experience small group Bible study before they become Christians. They get the look and feel of Christianity. The first Introducing God course, held at the Roxbury pub in Glebe, was too short. Dominic Steele made it longer and it worked better.

That leads on to the Driscoll material that at least some Sydney Anglicans will find difficult. The gospel presented as propositions or information (alone) won’t work for Driscoll. Postmodern people – the sort he concentrates on – need to experience or see Christian faith and ministry lived openly and receive the gospel in that context.

The look and feel of our church gatherings – and what we do when not sitting in the pews – becomes terribly important.

That could be scary for two reasons. One is the very Sydang approach that anything that values experience, devalues the word. The other is that if the gospel is hidden… we can no longer blame the preachers, my fellow pewsitters.

Driscoll, from the city that brought us virtual reality, wants the real thing. “Christians and their churches (must) move forward on their knees, continually confessing their addictions to morality and the appearance of godliness, which does not penetrate the heart and transform lives.”

God, save us from skin deep respectability.