Alpha course

The Alpha course logo

The Alpha course is a course which seeks to explore the basics of the Christian faith, described as "an opportunity to explore the meaning of life". Alpha courses are currently being run in churches, homes, workplaces, prisons, universities and a wide variety of other locations. The course is being run around the world by all major Christian denominations. It has been described as "the world's most popular course in Christianity".

History

Alpha was started in 1977 by the Reverend Charles Marnham, a curate at Holy Trinity, Brompton, a Church of England parish in London. The name "Alpha" was suggested by Marnham's wife, Tricia. It started as a course for church members on the basics of the Christian faith but then began to be used as an introduction for those interested in the faith. The Very Reverend John Irvine, at that time a curate at Holy Trinity, Brompton, took over running the course and developed it into the 10 week format which continues to this day. In 1990 the Reverend Nicky Gumbel, at that time a curate at Holy Trinity, took over the running of the course at the invitation of the Reverend Sandy Millar (the then vicar) and oversaw its revision and expansion.

In 2008 over 33,500 courses were offered in 163 countries by Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, British New Church Movement and Orthodox churches and the Roman Catholic Church.^{[citation needed]} Over 15 million people worldwide have attended an Alpha course (two and a half million in the UK).

Structure

The Alpha course is organised as a series of sessions over 10 weeks, typically preceded by an "Alpha Supper" which often includes the talk "Is there more to life than this?" and with a day or weekend away which includes three or four of the talks asterisked [*] below. Each session starts with a meal, followed by a talk (often a video of one by Nicky Gumbel) and then discussion in small groups. The talks aim to cover the basic beliefs of the Christian faith. The complete list of talk titles, which follows the chapters of Gumbel's book Questions of Life, is:

• Is there more to life than this? (previously Christianity: Boring, Untrue and Irrelevant?)
• Who is Jesus?
• Why did Jesus die?
• How can we have faith?
• Why and how do I pray?
• Why and how should I read the Bible?
• How does God guide us?

• Who is the Holy Spirit? [*]
• What does the Holy Spirit do? [*]
• How can I be filled with the Holy Spirit? [*]
• How can I resist evil?
• Why and how should I tell others?
• Does God heal today?
• What about the church?
• How can I make the most of the rest of my Life? [*]

Attenders are issued with The Alpha Course Manual, which contains an outline of each talk and space for making notes.

Special interest courses

As an alternative to the standard Alpha course, the Alpha organisation runs a number of courses designed for specific demographics:

• "Youth Alpha": The course content differs from Alpha in that Alpha's DVDs are never used, instead talks are given "live", typically lasting no longer than 15 minutes, with a total session time of 1-1.5 hours. The session themes are the same as the main Alpha Course, and the "Holy Spirit" away day/weekend, small groups discussions and shared food are also present. Youth Alpha is for young people aged 11–18. Course leaders can choose from one of three "streams", "Alpha-Tech", a multimedia-focused approach; "Alpha-Active", designed for the younger end of the age range with more games and other activities to keep interest; and "Alpha-Lite", a shorter 30-minute programme designed to fit into school lunchtimes or other constrained timeslots.

• "Student Alpha": Student Alpha is an Alpha course aimed specifically university students and young adults. Covering the same themes as Alpha, the course is cut down to seven weeks with shorter thirty-minute talks with a greater use of multimedia elements.

• "Senior Alpha": Aimed at people aged 75 and over, courses can be run in homes for the elderly in addition to the usual church environment. The course is specially adapted for the needs of the elderly, with courses typically taking place in the daytime, whereas the regular Alpha course may run after work.

• "Alpha in the Workplace": The course adapted to fit into an office lunch hour, using the 20-minute Alpha Express DVD presentations.

• "Alpha for Forces"/"Alpha for the Military": The standard course with consideration for the logistical challenges of delivery in the army.

• "Alpha for Prisons": An 11-week course of two-hour sessions, one week longer than the standard Alpha programme, taking into account that the "Away Day" is not an option for those incarcerated, and therefore consists of a regular weekly session. Alpha in the US operate a "Faithbased Re-Entry Initiative", designed to rehabilitate offenders by living a godly life within a special prison unit.

• "Alpha in a Catholic Context": This Alpha course is designed to present a unifying Christian vision and as such it does not cover specifically Roman Catholic doctrine. Alpha in a Catholic Context uses the standard Alpha course, the "Catholic context" in the course is run within. Catholic churches using Alpha see it as a means to an end, a proven successful evangelizing tool, with specifically Catholic resources, not created by Alpha, required to follow up the course materials.

Religion education for schools

In conjunction with Youth for Christ, Alpha International produces two study programmes designed for children aged 11–14, exploRE: The Christian Faith a 12-week programme on the Christian faith, and exploRE: The Life of Jesus, a 14-lesson study of Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection. The capitalised RE is a reference to religious education, part of the curriculum in the United Kingdom. The materials are aimed at religious education teachers.

Relationship programmes

Several relationship-oriented programmes have emerged alongside Alpha which are now separately run by a sister organisation called Relationship Central. The Marriage Course is a seven-session course for married couples, consisting of a "candlelit meal and/or coffee, tea and dessert at a romantic table for two while listening to practical talks that are informative and fun, either given live or played on DVD", while the Marriage Preparation Course follows a similar format over five sessions in preparation for married life. Unlike the Alpha Course, there are no group sessions - the couple are to spend the time together, and relationship details are not shared with a counsellor or other participants. The Marriage Course was adopted by the British Army and an additional session on enforced separation (e.g. as a result of operational deployment) was added by a military couple working in cooperation with Relationship Central. In 2012, DVD versions of the Parenting Children Course (for parents or carers of children aged 0-10) and the Parenting Teenagers Course (11-18) were released. Unlike the Marriage Course, the parenting courses use a similar format to Alpha: a meal followed by a talk and group discussions.

The website says about these courses that while they are "based on Christian principles", they are "designed for couples with or without a Christian faith". The courses are authored by Nicky and Sila Lee, staff at Holy Trinity Brompton and authors of The Marriage Book and The Parenting Book.

God at Work

God at Work is a book and course by Ken Costa, chairman of Alpha International, a veteran of UBS and now chairman of Lazard UK. The course consists of six hour-long sessions focusing on work, stress, ambition and other work-related issues from a Christian perspective.

Caring for Ex-Offenders

Caring for Ex-Offenders is a follow-up to the Alpha for Prisons course, supporting released prisoners by providing them with material assistance including accommodation, work, food, and pastoral support through church life. It operates in the UK, Canada, South Africa and the USA.

St Paul's Theological Centre

St Paul's Theological Centre is Alpha/Holy Trinity Brompton's theological institution, with aims to provide lay training in theology, to provide ordination training, to provide theological resources for theological training in churches across the world, and to provide theological guidance for Alpha.

Doctrine

Alpha's teachings are intended to centre upon aspects of Christian faith on which all denominations are in general agreement. Gumbel says (quoting Fr Raniero Cantalamessa) "What unites us is infinitely greater than what divides us."^{[citation needed]}

Roman Catholic distinctives, such as those concerning the Virgin Mary and certain sacramental teachings are absent, as are Baptist teachings on baptism. Instead, individual churches are encouraged to provide follow-up courses of their own.

The New International Version of the Bible is quoted in the course materials. St Paul's reference to scripture being "God breathed" (2 Timothy 3:16) is referred to, although whether this view of scripture implies strict inerrancy is not made clear.

Within evangelical Protestantism the most controversial element of the Alpha Course is what is considered to be its charismatic slant. Three of the fifteen sessions are given to the person and work of the Holy Spirit and cover the infilling of the Spirit; speaking in tongues and healing via prayer. Conversion stories in the book of Acts (see 2:1ff, 9:17-19, 10:44-46, 19:1-6) are seen as normative.

Influences

Possibly the greatest influence has been the ministry of John Wimber, who visited Holy Trinity Brompton a number of times during the 1980s and 1990s. Nicky Gumbel's approach can also be linked to the ministry of E. J. H. Nash (Bash), an influential Anglican cleric who set out to evangelise "top boys at top schools" and who organised summer camps at Iwerne Minster in Dorset. David Fletcher, who took responsibility for the camps after Bash, described Alpha as: "basically the Iwerne camp talk scheme with charismatic stuff added on.". Rob Warner addresses both, when he says: "Alpha can... be summed up as Bash camp rationalistic conservatism combined with Wimberist charismatic expressivism... this is a highly unusual, even paradoxical hybrid.".

Usage

Although originating from the Evangelical Anglican tradition, it is now used by all the mainstream churches including the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Baptist and Pentecostal churches. The Alpha course has been endorsed by a number of leaders, including many Roman Catholic cardinals, Anglican archbishops and bishops, and leading figures of all the main Christian denominations. Rowan Williams was an enthusiastic supporter when he was Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of Wales and continued his support as Archbishop of Canterbury, opening an Alpha conference and accepting an invitation to speak at an Alpha supper in London in 2004. He describes it as "a very special tool" and "a unique mixture of Christian content and Christian style". His predecessor, George Carey described the courses as "superb." Father Raniero Cantalamessa, a monk of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin and Preacher to the Papal Household for Pope Benedict XVI wrote a document praising Alpha in June 2005.

Critics

The Alpha course has been criticised for a charismatic emphasis. A particular problem for non-charismatic evangelicals is what is seen as Gumbel's emphasis upon the person and work of the Holy Spirit.^{[citation needed]} As a result, some churches have chosen to teach a different view of the Holy Spirit, although this is discouraged in Gumbel's book How to Run the Alpha Course.

Because it has been recommended as supplementary reading, one of Gumbel's books, Searching Issues, has become a focus of criticism. There is a chapter criticising homosexual practice, although this is not unique to the Alpha course but part of the wider Evangelical context.

More conservative critics (especially from a Reformed and Evangelical perspective) have complained that the course does not adequately define sin and therefore does not properly explain the reason for Jesus's death and resurrection.^{[citation needed]} The alternative Christianity Explored course is an attempt to go beyond what the Alpha Course teaches on sin.

The Revd John Vincent of the Urban Theology Unit in Sheffield has suggested that Alpha presents too narrow a version of Christianity and one too centred on what theologians have said about Jesus rather than allowing students the freedom to draw their own inspiration from studying Jesus' life and teaching. "The Alpha course, because of its didactic style, its narrow-mindedness and its closed nature, doesn't facilitate alternative views", he says. "I happen to believe it therefore leads people into a self-centred religion which is not the same as the genuine Christian discipleship."

Roman Catholic context

Alpha in a Catholic Context is a means of presenting Alpha to leaders of the Roman Catholic Church. The 15-session course remains identical to that run in other denominations but a team of Roman Catholics working from Alpha's headquarters have produced a number of resources to introduce the course to Catholic leaders and explain how it might best be used within a Catholic context and making use of other Catholic material. This approach has drawn harsh criticism, with the claim that the course is unbalanced and does not sufficiently present some Roman Catholic doctrines, which are allowed to be added only afterwards in additional sessions.

Success

Proponents and detractors alike indicate the open and friendly atmosphere of the Alpha course where a participant can ask any question coupled with the freedom to attend select talks or leave without a follow-up is a major factor in its success. The only restriction placed is that everyone respects everyone else at the table during discussion. In addition while there has been some restructuring of the format of the Alpha course in the last two decades, it is presented in the native tongue almost unchanged when run in different parts of the world. Usually an Alpha course involves 'previous course guests' inviting new ones, and a large number of published testimonies of guests around the world attribute this success to their discovering a relationship with God through the figure of Jesus Christ while attending a local Alpha course where they could proceed at their pace and freely converse about any topic.

What Alpha offers, and what is attracting thousands of people, is permission, rare in secular culture, to discuss the big questions - life and death and their meaning. The Guardian, London

Books

Books for use with the course:

• Nicky Gumbel, Questions of Life (Kingsway Publications 2003). ISBN 1-84291-164-3
• Nicky Gumbel, Searching Issues (Kingsway Publications 2001). ISBN 0-85476-739-8
• The Alpha Manual (Alpha International Publications 2005). ISBN 1-904074-23-5

Books about the course:

• Andrew Brookes (Editor), The Alpha Phenomenon (Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, 2007). ISBN 978-0-85169-331-6
• Stephen J. Hunt, The Alpha Enterprise: Evangelism in a Post-Christian Era (Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2004) ISBN 978-0-7546-5036-2

See also

• Awareness Course
• Christianity Explored
• Cursillo
• Living the Questions

External links

• Official Alpha Course website
• Website for those running Alpha Courses