Run Alpha Handbook

By Alpha

For Alpha directors and leaders, this is one of the most important tools in setting up and running an Alpha course. This essential how-to resource offers a guided tour through every stage of setting up and running the Alpha course, including reproducible resources to make it easy to recruit and train your Alpha team.

Contains:

• Job descriptions
• Questionnaires
• Bulletin inserts
• Sample forms
• Planning timeline
• Schedules
• Reusable checklists
• Forms for recording and organizing information
• Tips on booking venues for the weekend or day away
• Advice on organizing guest services 

Alpha is based on a pattern found in the New Testament of people bringing their friends, family, and work colleagues to meet Jesus. Alpha is an easy way to say to friends, "Come and see, come and explore your questions, come and hear about Jesus, come and see for yourself." Everyone is welcome at Alpha, but the program is designed especially for people who would not describe themselves as Christians or church-goers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Aug 21, 2018
• ISBN: 9780310089728

Alpha

Alpha started more than thirty years ago at Holy Trinity Brompton, an Anglican church in Central London, UK. It was originally developed as a short course for people in the church. In 1990, Nicky Gumbel took over running Alpha and found that many people outside of the church were warming up to the idea of Alpha. Today, Alpha runs in every part of the worldwide church.

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What is Alpha?

Alpha is an opportunity to explore life and the Christian faith in a friendly, open and informal environment. It’s run in churches, bars, coffee shops and homes worldwide. Essentially, Alpha is a safe place to explore life’s biggest questions.

WHAT’S THE STORY?

Alpha started in 1977 in England, in a church called Holy Trinity Brompton, affectionately known as HTB. HTB was very theologically rooted and was using Alpha as a course for new Christians or those new to the church. In 1991, a young pastor named Nicky Gumbel took over leading Alpha and he observed that it was effective at connecting with people outside of the church. He noticed the general format and lack of pressure resonated with most people, but especially with young adults. At this time in England, and much of Europe, many assumptions about faith in God, the Bible and Jesus were being abandoned, similar to what we are experiencing in the US and Canada today.

People no longer assumed that God was true or that the Bible was trustworthy. Instead of asking if things were true, people were asking what was real. Nicky repositioned Alpha for non-churchgoers by replacing what was a small group Bible study with a time of discussion and an opportunity for people to ask questions and express their own views.

Alpha became highly relational and intentionally created a safe environment where people could share their opinions and points of view, no matter what they might be. Church leaders from around the world began asking how to run Alpha, and Nicky and the team at HTB passed on all they knew. The response has been overwhelming. Today, we estimate that over 30 million people have done Alpha globally.

WHEN ALPHA WORKS:

And so it is with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

1 Corinthians 2: 1-5

A TYPICAL ALPHA SESSION

ALPHA WORKS WHEN IT IS:

Real

When people speak about Jesus authentically, unreligiously but unapologetically, and pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, we often see people’s lives are changed. It’s not always easy or straightforward but it is effective! Alpha is about authenticity; those running Alpha are real with the guests, which in turn creates space for the guests to be real