Alpha an Introduction to the Christian message
There is today a new interest in the Christian faith and, more specifically, in the person of Jesus.
The Alpha Course covers basic Christianity - God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and brings people into a fresh experience of Christian life. Eventually, as one course leads on to the next, it permeates out to non-church goers and the Church is blessed by additions to the membership and more workers for God's Kingdom.
When Alpha is introduced to a church, it starts off with members of the congregation taking part. There is no hard sell - this has never been necessary as Alpha sells itself - it is purely 'back to basics' but within a friendly, caring group where there is neither condemnation nor pushiness. At Peterhead Methodist Church we started by inviting our congregation to take part in an Alpha Supper and about 50 people accepted this invitation. They enjoyed the evening immensely.
The Alpha Supper is a 3-course meal in convivial, non-threatening surroundings, a couple of testimonies from people who have already taken part in a course and a short introduction to the course in the form of a video.
After the first Alpha Supper at Peterhead there were enough people who were interested to continue and we ran two courses at church - one in the afternoon and one in the evening.
Since our first one, we have had further Alpha Suppers followed by further courses (3 times a year for more than two years : one between Christmas and Easter, one between Easter and the summer and one between Sept and Christmas) - once it was Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evening and Tuesday afternoon, all at people's homes; another time it was Monday and Wednesday evening and Thursday afternoon, and so on. It can be as flexible as you like - the first course run at our sister church in Buckie met on a Thursday evening and on a Saturday morning for breakfast because those were the times suitable to the people who were going to attend.
Alpha is non-threatening and brings in aspects of the things which normally happen in our own lives - to have a bite of food together with friends, (nothing exceptional - soup and sandwiches perhaps - keeping up with the Jones is definitely discouraged!!) watch a video and have a chat about it. There is no condemnation, preaching nor pressure.
Alpha originated at Holy Trinity, Brompton in London and has been running for many years in various forms. It has been very successful with hundreds of men and women of all ages finding God as their Father, Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord, and the Holy Spirit as the One who comes to live within them. It has now spread all over the world.Alpha does work, nowhere more so than in our own church. For example - Kate came to Alpha (held in the hall behind the church) for three weeks before she ever set foot in the church sanctuary - no pressure! Kate has come on strides since then. Five weeks into the course Kate accepted God as her personal Saviour - again, no pressure!. She finished one course, helped with the next one and then jointly led one of the groups at the next one. Kate also took on the weekly cleaning of the church premises.
During this time, Kate's husband, Bob, found a difference in his wife and eventually he came to an Alpha group where he, too, gave his life to Jesus. Now, as a family, along with Jenna, their daughter, they have become church members and thoroughly enjoy every aspect of their Christian life and experience.
If you would like to know more about our Alpha Courses please contact the Minister.
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