Alpha
Alpha is a 10
week practical introduction to the Christian faith. It is a well rounded,
well balanced video course with an intimate small group setting. The
people involved gather once a week for a dinner, a video presentation, and
a discussion of the material the video covered. There is also a weekend
retreat which deals with the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
Reuben and Debra Smith and James and Cheryl-Anne Fox worked
together to run the course in Salt Pond, Long Island, Bahamas. There were
several elements which made this course a perfect ministry tool for Long
Island. First of all the course was developed by an Anglican Church in
Brompton, England, and since Long Island is over 80% Anglican, it was well
received. In fact, as it turned out, when we met to discuss this with the
Anglican priest whose parish we were planning to conduct this in, he went
over to his book shelf and pulled down a set of the tapes. Father Pratt
(the Priest)
informed us that he was actually planning to run the Alpha course,
but he was waiting for people from Nassau (the nation's capitol) to come
and train leadership for it. Secondly, the course does an excellent job of
covering the issues of: sin, judgment, salvation, and being filled with
the Holy Spirit. It is some of the most solid Christian teaching you can
find, and it is anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit.
The course
causes people to come to a knowledge of the truth about Jesus in
such a way that they are able to intelligently choose to accept or reject
Him. Thirdly, Alpha causes people to learn the basics of becoming a
Christian and receiving the wonderful gifts God has for them while they
build a strong, vital fellowship group together over two and a half
months. God led us to conduct this Alpha course at exactly the right time.
As a result, we built strong ties with people in the Anglican community on
Long Island. Also, a strong core group was established. They either began
their relationship with Jesus for the first time, or had their walk with
God deepened and enlivened. There were times during the meetings when we
could see people really wrestling with the truth, and we could see some
people beginning to understand the gospel for the first time. The Holy
Spirit did powerful work in people's lives and we saw tears flowing freely
as a result. There was one evening when the Lord spoke a word of knowledge
to one of the leaders concerning a physical problem someone had. This
completely astounded the person to whom it applied because they had not
spoken of this to anyone except their spouse. We prayed for their healing,
and we are still waiting to see what God will accomplish in this
situation. On the last evening we discussed what was next. The group
unanimously stated that they did not want to stop meeting. They said
things like, "This is so good", "This has made such an
impact on my life", and " The whole island needs this!" We
offered the group the option of continuing on to the follow up course to
Alpha. This course is called, "A life worth living". It is a
more in-depth Bible study focusing on the book of Pilippians. They
unanimously expressed a desire to do this. Amazingly, it turns out that
when the group nears completion of this second course, there is scheduled
to be a training conference held in Nassau by Nickie
Gumble himself (the developer of Alpha). We are waiting with great
anticipation to see what God will accomplish through all of this.
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