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The Alpha Course video costs £89.95 and course manuals are £1.50 each. There are a variety of support resources. There is also a new video called New Alpha Express which (at £99.95) features shorter talks to make the course more adaptable for workplace settings. Further details from www.alphacourse.org or 0845 758 1278.
Strengths:
Strong relationships are built up and groups often wish to continue to learn together. The course is widely used by a huge number of churches and is very effective. In particular it places the sharing of the gospel within a social context such as a meal.
Weaknesses:
Alpha comes from an Evangelical background and does not cover in depth aspects of faith that some Christians would consider basic –for instance, the sacraments.
COMMENTS
We run Alpha in the Parish and have had a cross-section of the community attend. We have gained new members of our congregations who frequently become active in our church families. The older people, even the long time Christians, find a deeper understanding of the Christian way of life as they comprehend the changes in the church since their youth. Lay participation is often discussed.
When I lead discussions I see the experienced Christians encouraging the inexperienced, I see the Road to Damascus Christians and the Life-long Christians discussing their different pathways to God. We find our participants develop a desire to study rather than read the Bible and to read books about the Christian faith.
We find that as the Alpha members get to know each other and the leaders over the meals they begin to trust each other and are willing to share their beliefs, doubts and hopes.
Tim Butlin – Loudwater
We have been running Alpha for 10 years continuously!! We started by inviting the regular congregation to do it in place of our home-group programme in the winter of 1995 and took 150 adults through it - this also had the effect of training our regulars in the Alpha culture so that they wouldn't be phased by being group leaders/helpers later on. Normally we run a course each term. We have been known to run two courses at once. We've done it with Senior Citizens and Youth groups as well as our regular course. We would expect new members to join us out of each course and we regularly find that some who have done Alpha are, within a year, bringing their friends to do it too. If you're interested, I can give you the names of my two staff with responsibility for this.
Ben Beecroft - Warfield
Here at Warfield we were actually one of the first churches to use Alpha outside of HTB, and have continued to use Alpha as one of our main evangelistic strategies for over 10 years. We have seen many people come to faith, grow in faith, and be encouraged in faith through the course, and have used multiple formats. If you want more from us we'd be happy to oblige.
Across our churches we talk a lot about the need to intentionally invest in relationships in order to have people to invite to Alpha. We have tried to create therefore a positive spiral whereby people are keen to make relationships because they know they will have something reliable to invite them to, and also as each course tends to bring a minimum of a dozen or so into our churches, they are fired up and often have whole networks of unreached family/ friends that they are keen to invite to the next one. SO it can create its own rolling dynamic. In addition, one of our churches strap lines is 'Make Friends- Make Disciples' so in the summer term we intentionally try to reduce church meetings to a minimum, to give our people a rest, but also to enable them to invest in socialising, bbq's garden parties, trips out etc and seek to develop new relationships. In this way we try to build an annual rhythm into the life of the churches as well as weekly/ termly pattern
Therefore:
Autumn- Alpha/ Evangelism
Spring - Consolidation/ Discipleship
Summer- Rest!/ Building Relationships
We actually have Alpha running throughout the year, and discipleship is obviously an all year task, but you get the idea! We also vary the format, as we believe different people are likely to be more/less attracted depending on the format. So: We have run Alpha's In a curry house, In pubs, In restaurants, In homes
The autumn alpha in the curry house produced a polarised response amongst the punters:
'Great- 10 curries in 10 weeks- fantastic! Or 'Oh No! I couldn't have 10 curries in 10 weeks!' Therefore, horses for courses.
So far as possible, we speak of 'leaning into growth' and 'every member mission', not just 'every member ministry'. This is because our experience (which seems to be others too!) is that all groups (Whether cell / small, cluster or congregation) have a natural bent towards introspection and the familiar as cosy / comfortable. SO we do speak a lot too about peoples greatest need- salvation - and the fact that there is a cost to growth in terms of groups/congregations multiplying, church planting, and us not just being around those we know. I think this is a cost, and it is good to give people permission to work this through. Before I keep rambling, probably enough for now...!
Tim Harper – St Mary’s Amersham
In this parish I have used Alpha for many years. once or twice a year.
I find it excellent for basic instruction in the Christian faith, provided of course you have a reasonably conservative view of what that faith actually is.
Some other points:
- Alpha seems to scratch on the inside where other courses perhaps do not.
- sing a reduced number of carefully Alpha sessions makes an excellent Confirmation course
- I would recommend the re-shot version currently available on DVD. It is infinitely better than the original tapes.
- I wonder whether the current vogue for Alpha is some parishes indicates they are not sure what else to do!
- Some parishes are convinced that there is one set way to do Alpha, and that it will not 'work' unless this is followed slavishly. I don't think this is true.
How have you managed to get the participants, as so many churches run out of people after 2 or 3 goes?
It is far easier with City or Town churches, where there is a reasonably high turn over each year. For example at St Mary's this Sunday we had four new families attend for the first time unannounced.
There will be 'seekers' of sorts in their number. It is far more difficult for smaller communities where the population and congregation are more static.
How does it fit with your wider outreach / evangelism "strategy".
Many newcomers will have little or no knowledge of the Faith. Alpha is excellent at covering a lot of ground quickly and making it personally relevant. This for me makes Alpha an excellent evangelistic tool. The Beta Course and Emmaus do not (for me) have the same ability to scratch on the inside. We will not succeed with everyone (see the parable of the Sower) but with some we will! And in terms of the same parable, nothing is wasted. Gospel seed effectively sown may well come up in later years.
What difference has it made to those people who were already in the church and who went through the programme?
Alpha teaches deep doctrine (from a conservative standpoint)quickly and effectively. Those who have been attending church, in some cases for many years, often remark on how the Liturgy makes sense in a wonderful new way. Anyone who expresses an interest is welcome to join.
One chap had been on and off for decades, did Alpha with us, and came forward for Confirmation. At the service (led by Bishop Mike) his wife came up to me beforehand with her husband and said "I have been waiting for this day for 40 years!"
Mix Alpha with half way decent Liturgy (of whatever churchmanship) and things often move forward.
Chris Boyce - The Difference Alpha has made at Emmanuel Church Bicester
We are a small home-cell church in Bicester who started in early 2003. We started with 2 home-cell groups and ran our first Alpha by borrowing leadership from one of the home-cells. We had 5 guests for that first course in the home of a couple who later became cell pastors. Alpha is a dynamic tool in the tool box of evangelism and discipleship with God’s anointing on it worldwide.
Since then at least 50 people have had all or some of the unfolding of the gospel through subsequent courses. 15/50 people have become members of ECB through Alpha. 13/50 have fallen away or did not complete the course. About 15/50 have used the course to refresh their grounding in their faith. Some of these have had a wonderful experience of the Holy Spirit touching a dry relationship and making it alive in Christ. The remainder have joined other churches. We have just started our latest course with 7 guests in our home.
Two Alpha groups joined together and become our latest home-cell group. The person co-leading that group said, of the course he did, “Without explanation, dialogue and prayer, I would have struggled to establish my faith.”
Catherine Butt - Bletchley
Because we try and keep a rolling programme there is usually an Alpha course coming up that we can invite people to who might be interested - our guests come from all over really. Some are friends of members of our congregations, some are newcomers to the church who obviously want to find out more. We had one guy come after seeing the ad on the back of a bus, and is now a committed member of the church. We generally do a big publicity drive at Christmas and Easter and there is usually some response from visitors. One of the major feeds is becoming our Saturday morning children's club, where a number of parents are becoming interested, both because of the high quality of the children's work, and a regular coffee hand-out at the drop-off point which facilitates non-threatening conversations.
Virtually all our guests are invited by members of our congregations.
Melanie Bowker - Our Experience our Alpha -Hanslope and Castlethorpe
We started running Alpha in our parishes in October 2005 and our first course welcomed 14 guests and had an impact in many ways; increased warmth and fellowship, deepening and confirming of personal faith, and promoting Christianity as having something to offer today.
Our second course is up and running and we have another 14 people signed up! We have a mixture of guests including established church members, younger, newer people and some complete non church goers. Managing the dynamics is a challenge, but the fellowship is evident already.
Running Alpha is so exciting. There is a real sense of community and sharing in our church that I haven't experienced before, crossing ages and church experience. It's amazing, such power of the Holy Spirit.
Bishop Andrew, a much loved visitor to our churches, is promoting Alpha throughout his parishes and shares our excitement about the difference it is making.
The biggest challenge I think we face is in running an Alpha weekend that is closer in experience to our worship without losing the message and experience of the Holy Spirit. We are working on this for the future but are currently joining the MK Alpha team Holy Spirit weekend which I love, but is a more alien style of worship for many of our congregation.
It is the most exciting project I have been involved with and so rewarding doing it in my own parish rather than for another church. God is so evident in the whole process. On the first day of our first course we had over double the number of people we expected, so we handed the logistics over to God to look after, and never looked back! There is no way organising a non-Christian course would have panned out so smoothly...
Keith Croxton - St Peter and St Paul's Church , Buckingham
We have been running Alpha courses regularly since 1998. The first course was attended by 70 members but these were mainly from the church. Over the years the numbers have settled at around 15-20 per course. We are now seeing fringe church folk and totally " cold contacts" take part in the course. The course is an integral part of our mission and outreach strategy.
It has been very exciting to see many come to faith in Jesus through Alpha and now active members of the church family. Indeed our strategy involves running an Alpha House group to follow on from each course and to encourage those who have been on the course to help run the next one.
Prayer is an essential part of the planning and preparation for each course and we have found that the meal element of the Alpha course works really well as it helps build relationships which last way beyond the course.
Meyrick Beebee - Experience of using Alpha Courses at St James Gerrards Cross with Fulmer since 1994
We continue to run Evening and Daytime Courses three times a year. The Courses are part of our overall outreach strategy and are providing an effective way of enabling ‘not-yet’ Christians to experience the love and sense of community that is part of being ‘church’; while at the same time hearing the Gospel presented in an accessible and structured way. The percentage of people who attend the courses and who then choose to stay involved within the Church community averages 75%.
The courses are also proving a very effective way of enabling new Christians to exercise and develop their spiritual gifts (particularly leadership).
The main way through which people come to our Alpha courses is by personal invitation; however, the growing awareness that the public in Britain have concerning Alpha, has meant that an increasing number of people are booking onto the courses having seen posters and advertisements.
Raymond Obin - Bucklebury, Bradfield and Stanford Dingley churches
We ran Alpha in the autumn 2005. At the final party, we had four very impressive testimonies from people who had come to faith, and a number of the previous churchgoers now have a deeper and more informed faith. We also have 3 new cell groups meeting. There were some other benefits arising from having 5 churches focused on running a single Alpha course.
Bruce Gillingham - Alpha at St Clement’s Oxford
We’ve been using the Alpha Course at St Clement’s for over 10 years now. We were first inspired by a Day Conference at Holy Trinity Brompton, and we have found it an easy and accessible way of refreshing the faith of our existing believers, and also attracting the interest of the thoughtful enquirer.
At first we were concerned that a presentation of the gospel from a smart part of London would fail to connect with real life in East Oxford. But the material travels well, especially when testimonies, on video or in the course book, speak of lives changed by Christ.
We have been greatly helped by the introductory supper for all the Oxford courses hosted by St Aldate’s. And we are grateful to Mike Fuller, from Banbury, who leads our ‘Holy Spirit Days’. The course doesn’t do everything in Christian discipleship – you need to add your own follow-up course, but it’s well known and serves us well.
Roger Howell – Purley
In recent years we have held several small Alpha courses - some in the evenings and others during daytime - in Purley using the Alpha videos. On all occasions those who attended have valued the opportunity to think and learn about the basics of the Christian Faith, and to be able to ask questions. There has been growth in commitment to Christ amongst existing church members, and those with distant church backgrounds have become regular attenders on Sundays. One or two have done the course, but wanted to take it no further. The amount of work involvd has been considerable, but worth it. We have no course running at the moment due to lack of people willing to do the work of hosting.
Harry Latham – Stoke Poges
We have used Alpha in Stoke Poges over the last 6 years. As a small Church seeking to grow, it has been very good news!
