A is for Alpha

Writing this piece one week before the Alpha Course starts at All Saints’ I am beginning to get excited about it.

In my last church, one of my roles was to run Alpha courses in both English and French. I never kept a record of how many courses I led but thinking about it now it must have been about twenty. I love Alpha and have so many great memories of people gradually or suddenly coming to faith in Jesus Christ or encountering the presence and power of the Holy Spirit on the away day.

In case you’ve been on a desert island over the last 25 years and don’t know, Alpha is a ten week series of interactive sessions - with food - covering the essential elements of Christianity. It was originally designed to help young Christians integrate as church members but it soon also grew exponentially as a faith discovery course for people with no faith at all. Furthermore, some Christians who had been church members for years found their faith rejuvenated by completing the course.

According to Alpha’s website it is estimated that the course is running in 169 countries and 112 languages, with over 27 million people having completed the course since it first started. Courses are run in churches of every major Christian denomination, in people’s homes, workplaces, bars, coffee shops, prisons, universities and schools.

I’ve seen many beautiful things happen at Alpha courses over the years. I wish I’d kept a diary of them. But I have seen the most sceptical people imaginable bow the knee to Jesus. I have seen people turn up off the streets feeling strangely compelled to come in not knowing what Alpha was and then getting converted. I have seen people come to faith after the course because they failed to find the warmth of friendship they had enjoyed at Alpha anywhere else. I have seen a breaking marriage repaired and restored. I have seen not one but two women who had been told they would never conceive become pregnant at the first attempt after the Holy Spirit day. Both gave birth to baby boys the following summer. I have seen a man receive, and subsequently regularly use, a remarkable healing gift of the Spirit. I have witnessed a request for prayer at Alpha for a man who had been told he had advanced liver cancer and a few months to live and who was still alive seven years later, the last time I asked about him.

Of course, it isn’t Alpha that does this. Let’s be clear; it’s Jesus. He is the one who is good news to the poor, binds up the broken-hearted, proclaims freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. The Alpha Course, however anointed it may be, is just an instrument God is using in our day; he can put it down and use something else in a different way as and when he pleases. So we need to be clear that we are disciples of Jesus, and don’t become ‘Alphaholics’.

But please pray with me that our course at All Saints’ from 1 October to 10 December will be effective in helping people meet with Jesus and grow in faith. Pray for the catering team, the leaders and helpers, the speakers and above all the guests. May there be many changed lives through wonderful encounters with the living God this autumn.