My vision for Alpha had been flagging. I had only ever been involved in doing live talks, and have seen the number of Alpha courses we run in the town reduce and reduce. It seems to me that the format is beginning to come to the end of its useful life, and I was starting to wonder what could replace it. So, when I was asked if I was interested in the day, I at first said 'yes' because I was really more interested in seeing the church than I was in hearing about Alpha.
So, on Friday morning we set out, for me with less anticipation than was healthy. We arrived at the church by a less than direct route, and went in the tradesman's entrance. Still, never mind, we were soon registered, given a folder (just like the Christ Church weekend away!) and directed to coffee. Then the feel of the church began to percolate its way into my system. We were sat in regions, so it was just us up in the balcony for a while. I looked around at the screens and the floor that can be changed into terracing. I looked at the part of the church that seems unused – but that may just be today.
The proceedings started with worship, some of the songs were new to me, but not to Liz. After four or five songs we heard many stories of how Alpha is operating in various places. We heard about companies putting all their staff on the Alpha course, a course in a room at a shopping centre, one at Old Trafford (home of Manchester United football club), and a street party that barbecued half a cow, as an Alpha launch event, among other things.
Now it was Nicky Gumbel's turn to speak. His vision for Alpha is that it is time to Accelerate. He spoke about Matthew 11:12 “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” saying it is not what we would expect – and he was right. Worldwide one some 11 million people have been through an Alpha course, of which only about 200,000 are in the UK. There are over 6,790 million people in the world. There were more Alpha courses in 2007 that there have been since 2000. Nicky's vision is to plant 20 churches a year, up from 1 a year, since Alpha began. He would like to use some of the 35 church buildings that are scheduled for closure.
There was also the launch of the new website – AlphaFriends.org. This is for people who are involved in some way in supporting or running an Alpha course. The original site alpha.org, is now exclusively for those who are attending, or thinking about attending an alpha course. The new publicity was previewed. The organisation is gearing up to deliver the vision.
Lunch was provided by HTB. Each person was given a bag with sandwiches, crisps, chocolate wafer, and a bottle of water. More coffee was also available. We collected our lunch, but then it was already too late to attend the next session, so I missed hearing about the provocative church.
After lunch, I attended the 'Alpha Male' discussion, which I am pleased to say was well over subscribed, and I will be praying and thinking more about some of the things that were said.
There followed another talk, from Pete Grieg who spoke about being with the Lord, and being with the lost – each of us must achieve a balance, without that we are not fulfilling our calling. He told us some stories from various revivals, and reminded us that each of them had started in prayer. Sometimes just a few people meeting regularly and faithfully to pray, the results seen many years later, sometimes those people were no longer with us, but the results of their prayers were felt by the later generations. This reminded me that what we do here and now does not only affect the here and now. We cannot know what we are starting, but future generations may look back and thank God for our faithfulness.
Finally there was a question and answer session with Nicky, who spoke again about his passion that churches should not be closed. Then it was time to go home.
So what of my flagging vision for Alpha? Alpha is a tool. Use it when it works, when it's the right tool for the job. Like any tool it requires a certain skill to be used effectively. Also like any tool it needs to be maintained so that it does its job effectively. There is more we could do, there are ways we could use the tool more effectively. Each of the group that went from Christ church will have their own ideas, thoughts, and additions to their prayer lists from the visit to HTB.
Can we lay hold of the Kingdom and advance it forcefully?
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