Last September at the Advance conference, I (Adam Martin) was inspired to hear how God is using the Alpha course in all sorts of cultural settings. Once back at our church here in Derby, UK, we discussed the idea of running an inter-generational and inter-cultural Alpha course. There was real enthusiasm to give to a go, so we promoted the course through the Christmas season. When we launched it in January we were astonished to have 70 people turn up!
About half the group were Farsi speakers who had already begun a journey to find Christ. The others were a complete mix of ages and cultures. To be honest I expected the numbers to drop off as the course proceeded. Although a few left, others asked to join and we still had about 70 with us by the end.
A real high point was taking the entire group into the Derbyshire countryside for the Holy Spirit day. Many of the group had a powerful encounter with God on that day. One young British man in his 20s, a window cleaner who used to clean the church windows, surrendered his life to Jesus that day and gave testimony in front of the whole church the next day. He is so excited to be a Christian, and along with most of the seekers who came on the course, he’s been coming to church meetings ever since.
One of the benefits of hosting such a diverse Alpha course has been the way friendships have developed across cultures which has been our prayer for a long time.
Last Sunday we launched three new Alpha courses; one will meet in homes among a group of neighbours, the other two will be meeting on Sunday mornings. I’m excited that we now have about 40 people from Hong Kong starting the course!
