FROM ALPHA TO FAITH MATTERS

Over the past 18 months I have been trialling the Faith Matters course and comparing it to the Alpha course which we have run over many years.
 
Here are few interesting comparisons: Between 2014 and 2018 we had around 100 guests come on the Alpha course. 15 of them made faith commitments; that’s an average of 3 participants per year. Many of the 100 guests were already Christians who wanted to do Alpha as a ‘refresher’.
 
Since we started trialling Faith Matters 18 months ago, we have had around 50 guests, 22 of whom have become Christians.
 
Alpha lasts for 4 months and requires a large number of leaders. It covers a wide range of topics, some of which are more appropriate for people further along on their faith journey. Faith Matters, on the other hand, lasts only for 5 weeks, needs as few as 2-3 leaders at a time, is highly relational and has a strong emphasis on salvation by grace.
 
After some prayer and reflection, I have decided not to run Alpha this autumn but to do a wider launch of the Faith Matters course instead. We are producing leaflets which can be distributed locally and used as invitations which we can all give out personally.
 
As a church we want to develop a Culture of Invitation. We do this because God so loved the world that He sent Jesus to invite the world into a life-transforming, life-fulfilling, everlasting relationship! Jesus is the one who invites but he uses us – his church – to partner with him and to deliver the invitations.
 
Remember the definition of success: Success is one person inviting one person – whether the invitation is accepted or not. We need only to invite; the outcome we can leave in God’s hands!
 
Paul planted, Apollos watered but God gives the growth. 1 Corinthians 3:6
 
Steve Rankin