He also offered a fresh perspective on the challenges confronting the Anglican Communion right now, saying they could become a "great asset" to the Church if it realised "we're in a different place, different contexts and we have different challenges".
"The fact that you are a global communion means that you are forced to realise that different cultures are dealing with different struggles," he said. "There's no one-size-fits-all solution."
He encouraged the bishops to use Lambeth as an opportunity to enter the emerging, post-modern world as disciples of Christ and change history.
"What new, unimagined capacity could be stirred up in the church if we re-discovered and re-prioritised our outward mission to be the hands and feet and eyes and ears, the presence of Jesus Christ to a world in desperate need? What would happen if we turned that outward mission into the good news of hope?" Mclaren asked the bishops.
Going further, he challenged them to consider what kind of Gospel newcomers to the church were likely to hear.
"Will it be the gospel of evacuation (to heaven after death) or will it be Jesus' Gospel, the Gospel of the kingdom of God, the message that brings reconciliation, hope, transformation and engagement?"
Mclaren exhorted bishops to take a "missiological" and culturally sensitive view of homosexuality, an issue that has divided the Church particularly after the US Episcopal Church's consecration of the openly gay Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.
"To deal with this issue of human sexuality in some places in the world is very different than in other places in the world," he said. "If you are deeply, deeply committed to making followers of Jesus Christ, you have to be conscious of those settings and the real challenge is the person in [one] setting to be conscious of the difficulties of the person in [the other] setting."
