We know most Alpha courses begin during the month September, which means that right now, there are invitations across the world for people to sign up to a course and discover a personal relationship with Jesus. Will you pray with us in these exciting days? 

Here are just a few areas and parts of the world you can pray for this month:

India

India continues to feel the impact of COVID-19. Every Monday, the Alpha team runs virtual prayer rooms for pastors to intercede for them for one hour. Join us in praying for this initiative and for church leaders up and down the country during these challenging times.

Slovenia

One church in Slovenia had an incredible turn out of 150 guests on a recent Alpha course run online, with people joining from across the country. After the course, the team connected guests who are not part of a church with their local parish. As Alpha continues to run, pray that many would come to know Jesus and find community in their local church. 

Kuwait

An international ex-pat church in Kuwait ran over 300 Alpha Online courses last year and saw many people encounter Jesus. They recently launched The Marriage Course and hope to use this tool to reach more people outside of the church in the community. Pray that many couples would be strengthened and find faith.

Latin America

August celebrated International Youth Day, so we are encouraging churches across Latin America to run Alpha Youth simultaneously over the next few weeks. Through this initiative, we hope to invite over 5,000 young people to explore Jesus on Alpha. Join us in praying!

Kenya

Most churches in Kenya offer services in Swahili, and it’s been our desire to offer Alpha’s materials in their local language. In September, we’re launching the newly translated Alpha Film Series in Swahili. Pray that many would connect with this new resource and encounter Jesus as a result.

UK

We want to see more people come to know Jesus. In the UK, ‘Invite a Nation’ is launching in September, a citywide invitation initiative with bus adverts, launch events, and mass invitation drops. Please pray that many would accept the invitation, try Alpha, and discover a relationship with Jesus.

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To reach more people with the amazing testimonies of lives changed by Jesus, the Alpha team in South Korea are taking a new approach to storytelling. Stories are made into illustrations which then form a series of carousel images on Instagram. Coupled with text, the experience is very much like reading a short story book on social media.

Read below the story of one Alpha guest who had a powerful experience of God’s guidance whilst doing an Alpha course online in South Korea.

The post A New Approach to Storytelling appeared first on Alpha.

Food has a way of bringing people together, whether it’s a group of friends gathered around a kitchen table or a quick catch-up over coffee and cake. It’s no different at Alpha. Every session starts with food because it’s a way to build community and get to know each other with casual conversation. There are so many ways to do food on Alpha from serving snacks to a full hot meal. Here are three practical ideas that groups and churches have used to make eating together a part of their Alpha every week.

1. Have a Potluck

For smaller groups, a potluck can be a fun and affordable idea. For example, the Alpha hosts might provide the main course (eg. lasagna) and then guests could be invited to bring sides (eg. salad). One group that ran Alpha in their home did a fondue every week where everyone brought different types of cheese and chocolate. The great thing about a potluck is it doesn’t require a lot of planning while ensuring there will be some sort of food to share together.

2. Recruit a Kitchen Team

Another option is to recruit a team that can make meals in the church kitchen. This works well for small or large groups and it can cut down on costs if food is purchased in bulk. The kitchen team is usually in charge of the grocery shopping, the meal prep, cooking, and clean-up. They can check with local restaurants as some will gladly donate food items each week. Some churches will freeze make-ahead meals like chili, soups, and lasagnes that can be warmed up the day of Alpha to save time.

3. Hire a Caterer

A third option is to hire a catering service to take the pressure off of the Alpha team to provide food each week. Catering can be expensive so to offset the costs, you could do suggested donations or better yet, provide the meal for free by asking other groups in the church to donate towards the cost.

Ultimately the food at Alpha can be as simple or as elaborate as you want it to be. The main thing is to try to have some sort of food because eating together helps break the ice and pulls people together in a natural way. It sets the groundwork for friendship and hospitality and paves the way for deeper discussion throughout the course.

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Nicky and Pippa Gumbel recommend estimating that there will be three times as many guests as members on the Alpha team. If you have 50 team members, estimate 150 guests. Pippa explained that “it isn’t an exact science by any stretch of the imagination. It is very linked in to the people [on your team] and we try to get as many people [to help] who are new to Alpha because they have all the friends.” For this reason, HTB always goes “for quite a big team.”

Beth Pryor, Director of Alpha in Los Angeles typically estimates based on the number of guests who pre-register. “It’s normally around the number who register as they don’t all show up, and then you get the people who just show up on the night.”

After your church runs Alpha for the first time, you should be able to have a better estimate for the following course you run. Just remember that as you continue to run Alpha Courses, momentum builds and the number of guests typically increases. So look for patterns such as Nicky, Pippa, and Beth found in their churches.

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We recently caught up with Beth Pryor, who runs Alpha for Vintage Church in California, and she shared with us her practical tips on how to assign guests to small groups. Not every Alpha will have multiple small groups (e.g. if you’re running it for a few friends in your home); however, if you’re anticipating a lot of guests, these tips will help you think strategically about placing people to help facilitate great open discussion.

Invite Guests to Register in Advance

Although Alpha is promoted as “no pressure, no commitment,” most people understand that sign up is needed for food preparation including allergy info, dietary restrictions etc. As you gather this info ahead of time, you can also ask about age range and other details. Vintage Church uses an online form or registration card and guests fill out some basic details. They close their registration 48 hours before Alpha begins to assign guests to their groups. Even though Vintage Church had 500 people sign up for a recent Alpha, Beth and her team assigned each person to their group based on specific categories and any other special needs they identified from the registration process.

Group Guests by Age Range & Spiritual Background

At Vintage Church, they have found the most useful information for assigning groups is age and spirituality which are details that guests fill out in the registration process. While this might not work for every group running Alpha, Beth shared why these categories have worked well for Vintage.

For example, Beth and her team found that when they put guests who wouldn’t normally come to church into one group, they felt more comfortable sharing because of similar experiences of faith. In groups comprised of mostly self-identified Christians, the hosts sometimes found that these guests were not as far along on their faith journey as it first appeared. Having the groups divided into these categories has helped the hosts at Vintage facilitate conversation based on the unique needs of their guests.

Vintage also creates groups based on age and finds that their guests tend to form greater community and bonds if they are in a similar life stage. As Beth explained, “An 18-year-old is much more comfortable opening up to a 21-year-old than a 60-year-old. They’re going to have a lot more in common.”

Run Alpha Regularly

Although Vintage Church closes its online registration 48 hours before Alpha starts, they leave space in groups to allow people to join if they show up on the night of Alpha, but only for the first two weeks. After that, if people walk in, they are encouraged to come back on the next Alpha. This is one reason it’s been crucial for Vintage to run Alpha successively (two or three times each year) and have registration open for the next Alpha during the current one.

Usually if guests join late in the game, it is hard for them to follow along since they’ve missed the first few foundational talks. If you’re not able to run Alpha successively, another option for walk-ins is to have a specific group designated for them with a spare host and helper, as needed.

As you prepare to run Alpha, prayerfully consider how you will assign guests to groups. A little pre-planning during the registration process can go a long way to help create a space where loving community is built, where people encounter Jesus and where lives are transformed by the gospel.

The post Practical Tips on How to Assign Guests to Small Groups appeared first on Alpha.

One of the common questions people ask is what to do after Alpha, and what they mean is, how can we help guests plug into the life of the church? For many guests, the relationships formed within small groups are strong and they want to maintain a connection. Below are some suggestions and ideas on how to continue encouraging guests on their faith journey and in their relationship with the local church. You might want to share some of these options with your team and guests at your last Alpha session.

Stay Connected

In the last Alpha session, the host and helper can encourage the group to exchange contact information if they haven’t already. Some groups will create WhatsApp groups to stay in touch because it’s a casual way to catch up with people and arrange hangouts.

Plan a Reunion

Another way a small group can stay connected after Alpha is by planning a reunion. Nicky and Pippa Gumbel, pioneers of the Alpha course, have served as hosts or helpers at over 80 Alphas. They always try to do some sort of follow up with guests in their group. Pippa says, “We try to do a reunion supper after every course by having them all back for supper at our house. We do it just to see how they’ve got on, and to help them to work out where they’re going to go.”

Invite Guests to Church on Sunday

The host and helper could also invite their small group to meet at an upcoming Sunday service so that the group can attend church altogether. This makes it less intimidating if the guests are not regular church attenders. It’s more likely that guests will develop the habit of coming to church on Sundays if they have friends they look forward to seeing.

Another idea is to have a pastor of your church come to one of the last few Alpha sessions and introduce themselves to guests. They can explain what a typical Sunday morning looks like and extend a personal invitation to guests.

Invite Guests to Help on the Next Alpha

Consider inviting guests to help at the next Alpha. This is a sustainable way to build your Alpha team and it’s also a great way to support guests in their faith journey. Think about a guest’s individual gifts and help them identify ways to be involved. Encourage them to think of people they know who may be interested in participating in your next Alpha.

Invite Guests to a Small Group

If guests are interested in exploring more about the Christian faith, help them to get connected in a small group at your church. This is most effective if they can go to the same small group as their Alpha host or with someone else who was on the course with them. As more people are added, the group can divide as needed.

More Resources

There are other resources that can contribute to the ongoing spiritual growth of guests.

Bible in One Year

The Bible in One Year is a free Bible reading app with a daily commentary by Nicky and Pippa Gumbel. Since its development in 2009, the app has had over a million unique downloads and subscriptions in close to 200 countries. It can be downloaded for free on the App Store and Google Play. https://www.bibleinoneyear.org

The Marriage Courses

The Marriage Course and The Marriage Preparation Course act as a bridge between the church and the local community by recognizing the need to go beyond the social as well as physical walls of the church to help couples with their relationships. Often, guests who attend Alpha will then attend The Marriage Course with their spouse or vice versa, because running one can help raise the profile of the other.

As people encounter Jesus for the first time or in a fresh way during Alpha, they’re usually eager to continue their faith journey. It’s so important that guests know about the next steps they can take to connect with Christian community and continue to grow in their relationship with Jesus. This is also why, in the leader and team training, we emphasize the value of relationship— we know that it’s a personal invitation that really encourages guests to get connected to the life of the church.

The post What’s Next? What to do When Alpha Ends appeared first on Alpha.

The core ingredients of Alpha are food, an Alpha talk, and small group discussion time. But these elements are just part of seven best practices that make for the most effective Alphas. If your church decides to run Alpha you will have access to leader training sessions that cover the best practices in depth but here is a brief overview of each practice and the value behind it.

Prayer

Prayer is the foundation for a healthy Alpha and so the first planning stage for Alpha is finding a group of people in the church willing to pray for Alpha and giving them the information and space they need to effectively intercede. We are always amazed to see how as we rely on the Holy Spirit in prayer he draws people to Jesus during the 11 weeks of Alpha.

Evangelistically Positioned

Alpha is specifically designed to create a space for people who are followers of Jesus to invite their friends who wouldn’t normally come to church. In this way, Alpha is distinct from a lot of other great resources that we might use in our local churches-it’s not foremost about teaching or training. The Alpha talks cover essential elements of the Christian faith in a way that is easy to understand for people who may have never heard the gospel before. If your church decides to run Alpha it’s important to be intentional about encouraging your congregation to invite their friends. We’ve developed a three-week small-group curriculum to use leading up to Alpha with interviews and stories of invitation to encourage your church to lead invitational lives.

Team Training

The size of the group your church anticipates for its Alpha will determine how many volunteers are needed to make it happen. Regardless of the number of volunteers, it’s essential for them to go through Alpha team training so they understand the values behind Alpha. We’ve created team training sessions to equip Alpha volunteers for their different roles so that they can be empowered to serve and lead well.

Hospitality

Hospitality is the reason Alpha always begins with food. Breaking bread together is one of the ways Jesus dismantled social barriers and shared life with people and so we encourage every Alpha to have food before the Alpha talk. How food is done is entirely up to each group and their resources; some groups will do a full catered meal, others will do a potluck or just an array of snacks but the point is to build friendships in a comfortable and familiar context paving the way for deeper conversations to take place.

Alpha Talk

The Alpha talks are designed to bring guests on a journey of faith as they explore key elements of the Christian faith. The talks also give guests an opportunity to encounter Jesus by setting up specific times for prayer ministry. To learn more about the Alpha talks view the trailer here.

Open Discussion

After the Alpha talk, there’s a time of small group discussion guided by a host and helper. This is an essential time during the Alpha experience for guests to share what they thought about or learned from the Alpha talk. The open discussion isn’t a time for teaching by the host but rather a time where guests can feel comfortable to dialogue about life, faith, and God in a space that’s judgment-free. It’s creating a space like this that motivates guests to return each week allowing for genuine friendships to form.

Time Away

The Alpha time away usually happens around the seventh week of Alpha and is done for several reasons. For one, it’s an opportunity for people to get away from the distractions of everyday life to reflect on what they’ve been learning so far on Alpha. It’s also a way for friendships to grow stronger through fun activities, more conversations around the Alpha talks, and times of prayer. Churches will often get creative depending on resources to make a weekend or day away happen. For many guests, the Alpha weekend is the high-point of their Alpha experience.

Conclusion:

The seven best practices are a guide for helping churches run an effective Alpha and the leader training sessions on the digital platform provide the practical steps your church will need to get them off the ground. To find out more, create an Alpha here.

The post What are the Seven Best Practices of Alpha? appeared first on Alpha.

Providing food every week at your Alpha is a lot of work, but a simple yet delicious meal plan can help streamline the planning process, food prep time, and reduce budget costs. The seven sample meals below give you an idea of what types of food can work well for any size of group, and these are super easy recipes you can find online. These menu ideas are from a group that served approximately 30-50 people at their Alpha each week.

1. Spaghetti & Meatballs

Sides: Garlic Bread and Caesar Salad
The beauty of this classic meal is that it doesn’t have to be done from scratch. You can buy pasta in bulk and add store-bought meatballs and sauce. Garlic bread and salad dressings can also be bought pre-made so the prep time required for this meal is minimal.

2. Shepherd’s Pie

Sides: Greek Salad
Shepherd’s Pie is another great meal option because it’s easy to buy frozen or make it from scratch with ingredients that can be found during any season. It’s also a simple meal to adapt for people with food allergies.

3. Chicken and Rice Divan

Sides: Green Salad
Any meal with rice is great for a small or large group and is an easy filler to reduce the cost of food while satisfying everyone’s appetite. The chicken, rice, broccoli, and cheese are baked in a creamy sauce–perfect comfort food on a cold winter’s night.

4. Chili

Sides: Corn Bread and Salad
Chili is always a popular meal at Alpha because it can be made a dozen different ways. It is easy to adapt for vegetarians and people with food allergies, and it goes far to feed a crowd. Cornbread is also cheap and quick to make with a boxed mix or from scratch.

5. Beef Stroganoff

Sides: Rolls and Salad
Stroganoff is another crowd-pleaser that packs a punch of flavour and can be made in advance and heated up the day of. Any large pot mains like stroganoff make for an ideal Alpha meal.

6. Enchilada Casserole

Sides: Corn on the cob or corn salad
Enchilada casserole is an easy to build main dish that can be adapted for a vegetarian or meat option. Instead of rolled up, the ingredients are layered in a deep dish so the chicken, beans, tortillas and cheese melt together in delicious harmony.

7. Pulled Pork on Rolls

Side: Coleslaw
This is another meat dish that can be prepared in advance and heated up right before Alpha or simmered all day in a slow cooker (crockpot). It’s easy to buy pork in large quantities and prep quickly. This may not be the best option if your guests are from cultures that don’t eat pork so consider having alternatives on hand.

Other meals that work great for Alpha are curries, soups, and lasagnas. Any recipe that can be thrown into one pot or pan is ideal because it’s going to be easy for a team of volunteers to prep and cook. Finally, a great idea for desserts is to ask the hosts and helpers to bring something to share with their group each week. This can make the meal feel more personal and welcoming.

The post Seven Meal Options That Work for Any Group Size appeared first on Alpha.

Alpha Team

From running five Alphas a week in Stockport to combining courses in South London, church leader Jon Lindsay-Scott shares how a pragmatic approach to Alpha empowered him to have a fruitful church outreach.

Effective church outreach can take many forms – just ask Jon Lindsay-Scott, who’s been experimenting with what Alpha can look like over the last few years. In November 2017 Jon became minister of Springfield Church in Wallington, South London, after working at St Chads Church in Romiley in Stockport. At both churches Jon’s used Alpha as a way to evangelise to his local community.

We sat down with Jon and asked him to share his story and the lessons he’s learned along the way.

1. Get the whole church involved

When Jon was tasked with running outreach at St Chads, he knew that he wanted to use Alpha but quickly uncovered a challenge that was preventing engagement. ‘The general populous of the church were excited about Alpha, but not inviting people to it,’ he says. The root cause of this disconnect was simple. ‘If you’re inviting somebody to something you’ve never done, it’s harder to be enthusiastic about it – and harder to sell it.’

Their solution was to run Whole Church Alpha. ‘We promoted it as something for the whole congregation,’ Jon explains, ‘especially for those who had never tried Alpha before.’ They advertised their course with the strap line ‘for you and your friends’ – encouraging members to both try Alpha for the first time and also invite their peers.

The scale of engagement was unprecedented – with five Alpha gatherings running each week and 250 people attending their Alpha Weekend. ‘For a parish church on the outskirts of Manchester, the response really was significant.’

They also ran Alpha Youth with their young people and kids groups, ensuring that it truly was a whole church affair, from top to bottom. All in all they estimated that two thirds of those who attended were church members and one third invited from outside the church.

For each of their gatherings they used the Alpha Film Series. ‘That was a big step for us as a church,’ says Jon, ‘because it meant that we we could run Alpha anywhere and anytime.’ They took advantage of this newfound flexibility with their five gatherings timed to suit different demographics and schedules, from a Wednesday lunchtime course for parents, following their baby and toddler groups in the morning, to a Tuesday evening course for young professionals.

‘It was definitely a step of faith,’ Jon admits. ‘It quickly became apparent that we either go all in on this or don’t bother.’ He attributes much of the success of Whole Church Alpha to the level of commitment that the leadership showed. ‘My learning’s been that if you run Alpha as an add on, you miss out on so much fruit – but people can really get on board with something when they realise the church is taking it seriously.’

2. Combine courses and resources

In November, Jon took on his new role at Springfield in Wallington. Running Alpha at a new church presented Jon with a new set of challenges, but he took on board the lessons learned from his experience of Alpha in Stockport – and again got creative with how to get the most out of the course.

A key difference between the two churches is that Springfield don’t own their church facility, Sunday services are run in a local school. In the past, the church had run Alpha once a year using another church’s building just down the road as their venue – but this time around they decided to take the collaboration one step further.

‘They had a new vicar as well and he and I got talking,’ Jon explains. ‘We were both really keen to run Alpha, so we decided to run it together.’

Working together the two churches were able to combine resources and volunteers. They ran joint training sessions with members of both churches, clubbed together for the Alpha weekend and continued to host the course at their partner’s building. While some resources were simply combined, they also managed to ease some of the logistical pressures of running a course – ‘each church took it in turns, every other week, to provide food for the session.’

Combining with another church bolstered Jon’s ability to run Alpha for his congregation, and for both churches it enabled a bigger course. There were small challenges that arose from combining courses admits Jon, such as slight differences in theology and some difficulties in knowing which guests would be invited to whose church after the course. But altogether it was an experience that gave both churches a greater capacity to share the gospel in their shared local community.

3. Run Alpha anywhere, for anyone

Despite the broad enthusiasm for their first ever combined Alpha, there was still a need within Jon’s church, and a familiar request was made by not one, but three members of his team.

When his youth pastor approached him and asked him if he could start running Alpha for Youth, he said: ‘Absolutely, go for it.’ Then his young adults home group leader got in touch; the timings of the combined Alpha wouldn’t work for them, so the young adults home group decided to run it together. Then his seniors minister, who had attended and been inspired by the recent joint training, suggested that she run it for older people in a local care home.

Before he knew it, at the start of 2018 the church were running four simultaneous Alphas. ‘I’m building up a reputation for this,’ jokes Jon, ‘but it’s all out of recognition that with the option of using videos you can effectively run Alpha in any living room!’ The combined church Alpha and the young adults group used the Alpha Film Series, the youth group played the Alpha Youth Series and at the care home they found that the Alpha at HTB videos were most effective for their audience.

Jon describes the Alpha Weekend as ‘critical’ to any Alpha. This year they used the Alpha Weekend as an opportunity to bring their combined church Alpha and smaller living room Alpha groups together. ‘There was a sense that this was special, there were more people, more buzz.’ At an Alpha Weekend ‘you break the cycle of evenings,’ says Jon. ‘You break the cycle of just cerebral listening and talking, and it brings experience and the Holy Spirit into the equation.’

All four courses just came to a close, and Jon describes them all as big successes for the church, but for all of them the Alpha sessions were just the beginning.

4. Make a plan for after Alpha

‘One thing we knew that we wanted to get right was to address the question of what to do after Alpha,’ explains Jon. His solution has been to keep the groups meeting together and to transition out of Alpha sessions to discussing notes around their church sermon subjects. By doing this Jon hopes to make the transition between Alpha and church as easy for guests as possible.

So far this tactic seems to be working with 90% continuing to meet together after the course finished. ‘Frankly, the groups that are meeting now are meeting because they like talking with each other – they’re meeting because they want to meet.’ Keeping the framework of the groups and the timings has managed to provide a space for guests who’ve finished Alpha but aren’t yet ready or able to join the church as guests at Sunday services.

Altogether, Jon’s experience of running Alpha can be summed up as pragmatic – sometimes it’s worked to run Alpha as a big collective event, other times the familiarity and flexibility of airing the Alpha Film Series in someone’s living room has proved best. One thing is consistent though, which is his belief that commitment is essential for fruitful church outreach – ‘you’ve got to go all in or don’t bother.’

Do you need some ideas on how to make Alpha more engaging? If so this article may help: 9 tried and tested ways to make Alpha fun

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Alpha Team

Looking for ideas on how to make your Alpha as fun as possible? We’ve got you covered. Here are nine top tips from Dave Larlee in Texas that will keep your guests engaged, entertained and coming back for more.

Having run forty-two Alphas – twelve in his current home of Texas – Dave Larlee has been around the Alpha block! From his experience at All Saints Dallas we pluck nine top tips on how to find the fun…

1. Go location shopping

In a city with more Bible Studies than coffee shops, Dave wanted to differentiate their church outreach. Having initially run Alpha in their building’s ‘horrific’ basement, Dave realised it was key to frame the course in an environment that was fun. ‘We didn’t want going to Alpha to be synonymous with going to church,’ he explains, ‘We wanted it to be like, ‘Why don’t you come for a fun night out?’ so we started to look for a location where guests would feel more engaged.’

2. Break expectations

What better place to invite friends to a night out at than a wine cellar? We can’t think of many. That’s where Dave and his team decided to host Alpha. ‘All of a sudden, everything started to change in a positive way. When the first question you ask people is ‘Red or White?’ they’re caught off guard, because here in Dallas that’s quite counter cultural. After three courses being run in the cellar we outgrew it and once again we’re on the search for a location that would be equally appealing to our guests!’

3. Make every penny count

There’s no two ways about it, the processes of thriftiness and budget management don’t get many of us excited—but if you know what you have and how you can spend it, a little budget can go a long way! ‘I have someone on my team who knows that for $10 a head we can do this, for $12 we can do that,’ Dave explains, and they didn’t stop there, they even carried research out into the flow of business on a Tuesday night in the city so they could approach the right venue, haggle on price and run the best Alpha possible on their budget.

4. Go big or go home

One of Dave’s team works as an events planner and once they’d outgrown the wine cellar he suggested a venue where he’d recently thrown a fundraiser. The venue was one of Dallas’ most popular nightclubs and, after running one Alpha in the function room, they rented the entire club. ‘Our ceiling jumped from 65 guests—which was the most we’d ever had—to 110 at the course we just finished. It just took off!’

5. Get invitational

An invitational culture is essential for effective evangelism. At All Saints Dallas, they’ve been making a conscious effort to encourage their congregation to feel comfortable inviting their friends. ‘We noticed that the church is very welcoming, however, welcoming does not mean inviting.’ The solution? Three years ago they set up an annual church Christmas party where members could invite their friends and everyone could have a good time together. ‘It’s given our members confidence that they can invite their friends to a church event and it will be good.’

“For guests, a social event before Alpha can inform them about the course and give a small taste of what to expect.”

6. Make fun part of your wider church culture

For Dave and his team, the culture of fun runs deeper than just Alpha. He describes the three key values they endorse as ‘Love, listen and fun.’ ‘We don’t run many programmes, but we do run a lot of events. For instance, we don’t run a newcomers’ class, but we do have a newcomers’ Happy Hour’ he explains. The aim is to make sure that every event the church runs is enjoyable and in a location that people will want to come to.

7. Try the Alpha Film Series

There are many different ways to present Alpha—with live talks, video talks, or with the Alpha Film Series. All Saints in Dallas decided to show the Film Series to take a fresh approach. The series of episodes travel around the world, with a mixture of stories, animations and interviews that all explore a different question around Christianity. Find out more about the Alpha Film Series.

8. Connect outside of the course

As part of the Alpha course, Dave and his team run an Alpha Day or Weekend where the group spend a block of time together. But what they also do is invite everyone back for an After Party in the evening, outside the course structure. It’s a chance to spend time, have fun and socialise together without a set programme.

9. Get former guests involved

A team who are passionate and excited to be involved with Alpha can make all the difference! At All Saints it’s a requirement that everyone who helps has experienced the course themselves. ‘If someone’s enjoyed it, I’ll often invite them to come back as a helper,’ explains Dave. If you build your team with people who know what it’s like to try Alpha, it can help narrow the gap between helpers and guests, and lead to great friendships being formed.

As a leader, you can set the tone for how engaging and welcoming Alpha can be. Dave’s experience is a reminder that spending time focusing on handpicking the location, food, course format and team members who help run Alpha, empowers you and your team to make Alpha a fun experience for those attending.

Follow us on Instagram to keep an eye out for the next blog posts that are coming your way!

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