Alpha at St. Johns.
What is Alpha?
Alpha is a practical introduction to the Christian Faith lasting for approximately twelve weeks.
We begin with a meal, and then watch a video. This is followed by a discussion on the area touched by the video presentation. These range from: Who is Jesus? Why did Jesus die? Why, and how should I read the Bible? Does God heal today? There’s no exam, and you can share as much or as little as you wish. Alpha gives the framework on which you can build an understanding of what Christianity is all about, so why not join us?
St John’s runs two Alpha Groups – one for adults and one for teenagers called Youth Alpha.
For more information about the Alpha Groups please contact us
Click Here for the main UK Alpha Website
What do we think about the Alpha Course?
You have surely heard about God or Jesus at least once in your life. But have you ever wanted to know who They are? How a Man who died can rise again? What is the Holy Spirit exactly? How can you feel it and know it is here? How to read the Bible which is the most popular, powerful, precious book in the world? Or simply how do you pray? If so, the “Alpha Course” is the course you need. It answers most of the questions you may ask about your faith and it is a good way to meet other people that you may see everyday in your daily life but you don’t have the occasion to talk with them.
The Alpha group is a very convivial group of people who come to the course with a common point which is to find out more about their faith or Christianity in general. They meet every week for about 4 months, except during bank holidays. The meeting starts at 7.30pm, with an Alpha dinner. This is a very good way to mix with people and start to get to know each other a little bit better. It will help a lot to break the silence during the discussion after having watched the video.
After having dinner, a video of Nicky Gumbel will be shown, with a different topic for each session the video lasts about 40mins.And after a cup of tea, there is the discussion about the video where everybody is welcome to give his point of view about what he has just heard.
During these 4 months there will be one weekend with talks about the Holy Spirit. Generally the Alpha team tries to go somewhere different from the normal meeting place.
Personally, the Alpha course has helped me a lot to know about my faith. Being a French girl, it also has helped me to mix with people, create new friendships, get to know another culture and way of living (for example the memorable moment during the Alpha dinner was when I didn’t complain about having a cold coronation chicken…I thought it should be hot!
I had never heard about the Alpha course either in France or in England, I went to the course after the family I’m working for asked me if I was interested in doing it. I thought it would be a good way to improve my English.
…At the beginning of the Course, I was very shy, I didn’t want to talk, probably because of my English, but after the Alpha weekend talk, which was about the Holy Spirit, especially when the team leaders started to ask God to send his Holy Spirit on me, I started to feel different and more confident. The experience has really changed my life and I’m really pleased I did it because I met wonderful people there who really care about you, and it can change a lot of things sometimes.