Is the Alpha Course franchise Christianity? | Opinion
The Alpha Course phenomenon is popping up in Palm Beach County as an evangelism tool for churches and Christian ministries. I’ve been Christian my whole life, however, my church in Delray Beach recently promoted the Alpha Course so I attended the leader training and subsequent nine-week sessions that involved a meal.
Protestant churches have experienced major shifts in worship attendance for decades that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns that prohibited in-person worship services. As churches regain momentum, some are turning to the Alpha Course as a clever evangelism tool for the unchurched or de-churched.
The roots of the Alpha Course began in 1977 at a parish in London and its program has gained global popularity due to its pre-packaged materials that include highly professional videos aired at each small group session. The courses are conducted weekly with a video for up to 11 weeks presenting a 101 cursory introduction to Christianity-lite with the unchurched in mind. The videos feature the same head pastor from the London church that spearheaded Alpha wherein the training materials there are references to the books that pastor authored that can be purchased. Plus, every bit a commercial enterprise, Alpha has an online store to purchase branded merchandise.
Once a church or Christian ministry registers to host the Alpha Course, they are guided to intense training materials for how to run it. The instructions dictate when praying can be done by specifically instructing no public “grace” before each meal, and no public praying until the video about prayer.
At the Alpha that I attended, the scripture was manly introduced within the context of the videos aired during the weekly sessions where each video has a different theme about the Bible. From my Alpha experience, the rigidity of the Alpha Course does not allow the trained leader or helper, as they feel appropriate for their audience, to segue into Biblical scripture reading if it falls outside the template for Alpha.
From my observation, the prevalent video testimonies for the Alpha Course can lead some people to believe that Alpha is its own denomination or sub-Christianity where people’s profession of faith is based on if they believe in Alpha then they are Christian as opposed to being a Christian because of scripture or prayers.
The Alpha Course’s slick marketing should not be lost on anyone as the videos for the weekly sessions include testimonials about the effective power of Alpha to bring people to faith so as an attendee, you’re fed just how great Alpha is. With that said, no one can judge a person’s heart as to how or when they became Christians, but my concern is how can the Alpha course be an evangelism tool when further Bible study and public praying are prohibited within the frame of the weekly sessions especially considering that most Alpha guests grew up Christian or had some prior introduction to Christianity, per statistical data.
It’s also hard to ascertain the evangelism success of the Alpha course because many churches that host Alpha consider its global status their badge they’re evangelizing and their church looks cool no matter how unpredictable the attendance. Meanwhile, Alpha appears to thrive off the numbers with its bragging rights tied to as many churches as possible registering to host the course.
Lori J. Durante is a Delray Beach resident.