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FINDING JESUS
The Alpha Miracle
By Wendy Griffith
CBN News Reporter
August 29, 2002
Alpha is a ten-week course that gives Christians and non-believers an opportunity to explore the Christian faith in a relaxed, non-threatening manner.
CBN.com – It has been called the Alpha miracle, and some say the Alpha Course is the most dynamic thing to happen to Christian evangelism in a long time. It all started with a handful of people in a London church about 10 years ago, but since then, millions have heard the truth about Jesus through this seeker-friendly approach.
When CBN News first reported this story in early 2001, some two million people had taken the Bible study course. Now, just a year and a half later, that number has jumped to more than four million worldwide.
Nicky Gumbel, the developer of the Alpha Course, said, "It's been astonishing, it’s been so exciting, particularly to see the way it’s spread through all the denominations: the Catholics, Anglicans, Pentecostals, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, house churches, all different denominations are running it."
Alpha is a ten-week course that gives Christians and non-believers an opportunity to explore the Christian faith in a relaxed, non-threatening manner. A typical night includes a meal, a talk, coffee and small group discussion.
Gumbel says Alpha provides answers to life's most important questions like, "’What is the meaning of life?’ ‘Is there a purpose?’ ‘What happens when I die?’ ‘Is there any answer to my guilt, is forgiveness possible?’"
In fact, the course manual begins with the question, "Who is Jesus?" It goes on to examine other issues of Christianity such as "Why and how do I pray?" "Does God heal today?" and "What does the Holy Spirit do?"
Gumbel explained, "We know that only in Jesus Christ do we find the answers to those questions, but we need to provide a place where people can find that relationship and I think that is what Alpha is doing."
In England, where the church has been in rapid decline for some time, Gumbel calls the success of Alpha "a shoot of new life." An estimated 1.3 million people have gone through the course in England in the last few years.
"I'm here because I'm seeking and I've got questions to ask and I want the answers," one English woman said.
An English man who is the leader of an Alpha group said, "For me the most rewarding aspect is to see people coming on it the first week who are sad, who have expressionless faces and seeing them transformed with the love of Christ and the spirit of God."
The success of Alpha is also being felt in the United States where more than half-a-million people have taken the course. Jeff Salzman of Virginia Beach, Virginia, is one of them. Jeff was raised Jewish but accepted Christ shortly after his wife became a Christian. Still, Jeff did not know much about Jesus or the faith he was now professing. The one thing he did know was that most Jews do not believe that Jesus is the messiah.
"And I just kind of always felt and knew inside there was more to it than that, and then when I got a little info on the Alpha Course since it was suggested to me that I might want to attend, I just found that that might be an avenue for me to find out what that was really all about. And in fact it was," Salzman said.
A major part of the success of Alpha may be Nicky Gumbel himself. At a church in Virginia Beach, participants listen as Gumbel asks the tough questions. "What is the evidence that it really is true? The place I think to start is obviously the person of Jesus Christ," he said.
For Laura Shorty, this was the question she had been waiting all her life to find an answer to. And she accepted Christ as her personal savior during the Alpha course.
She said, "I think I had been floundering around trying to find a way to go about doing it but had never been in a place where I could get open, honest discussion about it [like], ‘If you want to be saved, you should say this prayer,’ and, ‘You can expect this.’ And that's what was so wonderful for me, because I felt I belonged and I felt I was doing it the right way."
Salzman said, "I think in general everybody has questions about religion, but they'll come to learn that it's not religion they're going to learn about. They're going to learn about their own relationship with God and Jesus, and I feel that's what I've gotten out of this course."
The Alpha Course is now being taught in 133 countries and according to Gumbel is still spreading like wildfire.
For more information on Alpha and where the course is being offered you can log on to their website at http://www.alphana.org or you can call toll free at 1-888-WHY-ALPHA.
Log on to the Alpha web site in the United Kingdom at http://www.alpha.org.uk
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