Alpha, Back To Church Sunday .....

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 15 September 2008 10:17:43

Ok, so it's v. easy to knock Alpha and Back to Church Sunday as initiatives which local congregations invest a large amount of time and money for relatively little return. Numerous books of the "post/beyond evangelical" type contain the list of arguments why these types of things are selling a particular package of Christianity and perpetuate the concept of churches expecting people to come to them rather than taking the Jesus approach of going out to where people are. Also individually, as jaded Christians, we may have at some point done an Alpha course and found it somewhere between dry and offensive. Yet, we all know the stories about the people for whom Alpha provided a door into the church. Often these are the stories of people who really embrace the church, but in a culturally aware way.

So with Back to Church Sunday nearly upon us and a new series of Alpha starting soon after, (as the adverts on the side of buses are often reminding us), are they worth the investment? Well, after years of being an anti mostly for the reasons above I'm turning into an I'm not really sure. It's the way they provide a point of continunity across the country which is starting to appeal and also the way that they are encouraging people to think creatively about how to present their churches to people.

Yet there are still the issues about reeling them in and then expecting them to fit into the types of church services which they often felt alienated from in the past. Anyway think that is all a way of saying if you want to explore these things, this is the season to be able do it.