Alpha is everywhere—152 countries, 21,000 churches, 80% of the prisons in Britain. Four million people of all ages have completed the course so far. The current rate is about a million and year and it’s growing.
I’ve appreciated the input from a number of Alpha practitioners who have reflected on their experience. If you read carefully you’ll find their comments scattered throughout my assessment.
Heres’ why I think Alpha is so effective. . .
Contagious relationships
Alpha works because it understands the importance of relational networks. Guests are more likely to come and stay because of a significant relationship. Once they get involved, Alpha becomes a safe place to ‘belong before you believe’. You can ask any question and say what you think and you’ll be taken seriously. The meals, the discussion, the retreat—they all create community around the experience of discovery.
There’s a snowball effect as people whose lives have been changed by Alpha invite their friends and family to participate in future courses.
Rapid mobilization
Alpha can be run anywhere, but it harnesses the local church as the delivery system. It only works because hundreds of thousands of believers are mobilized to invite their friends and family. In addition, tens of thousands of ordinary people have been trained to run the courses.
Commitment to a cause
Alpha resists the temptation to change the message of the gospel in order to make it ‘relevant’.
What we’re trying to do on Alpha is to present the historic Christian faith. We believe the message itself is unchanging, it’s a revealed message, handed down to us, and our duty is not to tamper with the message but to hand it on.
I think sometimes people feel they need to change the message in order to make it relevant. We don’t believe that’s the case, we believe we don’t have any right to tamper with the message, the message is revealed by God and it’s not for us to tamper with the message.
White-hot faith
Alpha communicates the content and truth of the gospel and it allows people to experience prayer and the power of God. The weekend retreats are often a time when people experience the truth of the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit in life changing ways.
We believe that the Gospel involves an appeal both to the mind and to the heart. So there needs to be explanation and experience. We believe people need to repent and believe in Jesus Christ, but they also need to receive the Holy Spirit. That can be a very powerful experience as indeed it was on the Day of Pentecost.
Adaptive method
The Alpha ‘system’ has all the characteristics of an adaptive method.
- Functional: it works for its intended purpose. You’d be surprised how many church ministries don’t!
- Flexible: it can take on different forms in different contexts
- Reproducible: it grows and multiplies without loss of quality
- Minimal: you don’t need a lot of money, professional staff or infrastructure.
Finally
Alpha is more than a course. It is a dynamic movement.
A number of people have mentioned that they have seen other equivalent programs work just as effectively. They’re right. These are transferable principles. They just happen to be working really well in Alpha. They need to be applied throughout the whole life and ministry of the church in its mission.
Eventually Alpha, at least in its current form, will have had its day. Thousands, maybe millions of people will have come to faith. We may mourn it’s passing even as we discover new effective strategies for evangelism. The story continues. . .
“How to Run an Alpha Course Director Handbook (Alpha Course)†(Nicky Gumbel)
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