When preacher Terry Virgo started the church group NewFrontiers more than 40 years ago, its headquarters was a living room in Seaford.

He was 23 when he began preaching on Brighton seafront and knocking on doors across Coldean.

Today the group spans the world, with connections to 400 churches in places as diverse as Sierra Leone, Gibraltar and Latvia.

Instead of the few who attended the movement's first run-down church in Clarendon Villas, Hove - now its administrative centre - Terry is addressing thousands of followers at an international conference at the Brighton Centre.

The growth of the network, still centred in Hove and including the Christ the King Church in Brighton, continues as more traditional churches suffer declining congregations.

Mr Virgo, now 64 and living in Hove, said: "We are a family of churches scattered around the world, so keeping together is very important in terms of a common purpose and keeping our vision clear.

"We offer a distinctive message about the church being totally relevant to our generation.

"Our worship is heartfelt and contemporary, which young people find much more accessible. Our church is filled with the younger generation.

"People keep seeing churches closing and the question of whether our ancient religion has a future keeps being asked. Our answer is yes, it does."

Mr Virgo experienced a religious revelation in the Sixties and began preaching with friends in Brighton and going from door to door to get support. He spent two years evangelising on the streets of Moulsecoomb and Coldean before going to the London Bible College to study.

He gave up his civil service job in London and devoted his life to the church.

The NewFrontiers network grew from a single church which started in his living room in Seaford and soon spread across the south coast in Sussex.

Nigel Ring, 62, a professional engineer turned church leader, has been involved with NewFrontiers from the start and now runs the church's international work.

He is the co-ordinator of the Act Together initiative, which he says tries to bring together "prayer and practice" to help the world's poor support themselves.

He said: "The conference is for the Christian leadership from around the world.

"It is open to anyone and not just our own network of churches.

"We believe in the authority of the Bible so the teaching will be very Bible-based. I have been very much involved with people who are poor.

"We have churches in Africa, India, the former Soviet Union and many places where there is very severe poverty."

The conference will finish on Friday when Mr Virgo will launch an international tour with a talk entitled Does The Future Have A Church?