Top Ten Questions of a New Course
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- How do I plan to have enough food and space when I don’t know how many guests are coming each week?
- Tell me more about the Celebration Supper. When do I hold it?
- Do we really need to do a Weekend or Day Away?
- How do I publicize and market my course?
- Can I make changes to the format of the Weekend or Day Away, such as letting my pastor teach about the Holy Spirit?
- Is it necessary to have music or worship time included in the course? If so, does it need to happen every week?
- When is the best day of the week to run the course?
- How do you decide the members of each small group?
- How do I explain the cost of Alpha to the church board?
- Do I need to provide child care? If so, is there an Alpha study for the kids?
1. How do I plan to have enough food and space when I don’t know how many guests are coming each week?
Setting up an Alpha course requires some faith because you never know exactly how many people to expect. If this causes you some anxiety, you are in good company! The good news is that you already know one third of the course members – your Leaders and Helpers. When planning food and space for your course, keep in mind that each small group is generally made up of 3-4 Leaders and Helpers, and 8-10 guests. Try to get a feel for how many groups you might have and add the numbers of each group together.
When planning meals, be sure to add in the number of task force workers helping out. The number of guests could vary quite a bit in the first few weeks of the course. A good way to ensure you have enough food for all the guests during those weeks is to have your task force workers eat after everyone else has filled their plates.
Planning space for your Alpha course depends on your resources and desires. Some courses choose to hold Alpha in a home. Many choose to meet in a church or other public space, such as a community center or coffee shop. If you choose to meet in a public space you can use the same room for eating, singing, hearing the talk and gathering into small groups. Or you can use separate rooms for some or all of the above. Keep in mind that eating at a table is usually most comfortable, although eating on laps is an option if your space is limited. Also, having separate rooms for each small group is ideal because noise and laughter from one group will not distract the others. If your space does not allow separate rooms, try to keep your small groups as far apart as possible to limit distractions.
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2. Tell me more about the Celebration Supper. When do I hold it?
The Alpha Celebration Supper is a festive event with a dual purpose: to celebrate the completion of an Alpha course and kick-off a new course. The initial Celebration Supper generally occurs 1-2 weeks prior to the first Alpha course. After that, it is held at the end of each course. The longest time gap between Celebration Supper and course kick-off is generally between the end of a spring course (June) and the beginning of a fall course (September). To bridge this gap, some groups hold a second Celebration Supper 1-2 weeks before their fall course.
The Celebration Supper is a relaxed evening of food, music, mingling and an explanation of the Alpha course. To help make guests feel at ease, we recommend creating a non-church feeling environment by:
- Billing the evening as a festive “Dinner and a Movie” type event.
- Playing instrumental or jazz, rather than worship music.
- Decorating without using overt Christian symbols.
- Coaching the Leaders and Helpers to steer away from conversations about their church involvement.
- Showing the short “Mr. Bean Goes to Church” video by British comedian Rowan Atkinson to help people laugh about all the amusing things we associate with church. If you use this video, be sure to explain to guests that Mr. Bean is not Nicky Gumbel (a common misconception!). Click here to find The Best Bits of Mr. Bean DVD on Amazon.com.
The only religious talk at a Celebration Supper is the Alpha presentation: “Is There More to Life Than This?" (formerly know as "Christianity: Boring, Untrue and Irrelevant?”). This talk is specifically designed for the Celebration Supper because it acknowledges and explores people’s basic questions concerning Christianity. It doesn’t push guests to accept Christianity, but prompts them to investigate it further through the Alpha course.
Most Celebration Suppers also include short testimonies from 2-3 former Alpha participants. These testimonies are usually structured in a question-and-answer format. The course director invites each person to come forward and proceeds to ask him or her two or three questions relating to his or her Alpha experience. In order to keep participants from overly preparing their testimonies, the course Director usually does not invite them to share until just before guests start to arrive.
Sample Celebration Supper Agenda
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3. Do we really need to do a Weekend or Day Away?
Alpha’s Weekend or Day Away is essential to the success of the Alpha course. In fact, omitting it is one of the top causes of an unsuccessful course because it is the proven time for guest transformation. As Nicky Gumbel describes it, the Weekend or Day Away is the time when the penny drops eighteen inches: from the head to the heart. It is often the time when guests commit or recommit their lives to Christ.
The Weekend or Day Away is different from the rest of the course because it gives guests the space, time and environment needed to thoroughly process and reflect on what they are learning. It also helps guests, Leaders and Helpers get to know each other better and form lasting relationships. On Alpha evaluation forms, guests consistently indicate that the Weekend or Day Away was the best part of their course.
If planning the Weekend or Day Away seems daunting to you, take a look at the other resources listed below. If you are still unsure about doing the Weekend or Day Away, consider teaming with another church in your area to do the Alpha course, especially one that has been successful with Alpha in the past. You can learn invaluable information from your peers. Below are links to more information and resources:
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4. How do I publicize and market my course?
The best publicity for the Alpha course is personal interaction. This includes church members and past Alpha participants inviting their friends and sharing the stories of changed lives that occurred because of the course. This link will tell you more ways to get out the word about Alpha: Promoting Your Course (Information in the library)
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5. Can I make changes to the format of the Weekend or Day Away, such as letting my pastor teach about the Holy Spirit?
Holy Trinity Brompton, the church where the Alpha course began, has issued a copyright statement to protect the essential character of the Alpha course. This copyright indicates that material can be adapted only if the content and teaching of the course is not changed. One way this copyright plays out is in allowing courses to have a live speaker do the talk on the Holy Spirit, but not allowing them to omit the Holy Spirit talk. Each of the Alpha talks must follow the general outline described in How to Run the Alpha Course Director's Handbook.
The Holy Spirit talk is especially pertinent to each Alpha course because it teaches guests about the presence and power of the Holy Spirit – an essential element of the triune God in whom Christians believe. It is important for Alpha to give guests the opportunity to see and respond to the Holy Spirit of God – without requiring a response or judging them according to it.
If you are considering using a live speaker for any of the Alpha talks, we recommend that you read the following materials:
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6. Is it necessary to have music or worship time included in the course? If so, does it need to happen every week?
Singing is often the first experience that people have in communicating with God. As a result, Alpha guests can find worship time to be quite uncomfortable when they begin the course. However, by the end, many have said that they turned out to greatly value it. Including worship time in your Alpha course not only gives guests the opportunity to communicate with God, but also paves a familiar path that makes it easier for them to enter into the church to worship.
The first evening of the Alpha course is the recommended time to introduce worship (after the Celebration Supper). To make worship time as comfortable as possible for guests, be sure that there is at least one team member that knows the songs and can carry the tunes. If not, use a high-quality worship compact disc to listen and sing along to, or do not use singing to worship.
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7. When is the best day of the week to run the course?
The day and time of day to hold an Alpha course varies from church to church. When choosing your time and day, take the following three things into consideration:
- The day and time at which you can engage the necessary number of Leaders, Helpers and task force members.
- The day and time at which guests most likely to attend.
- They day and time at which the desired space is available.
Attracting guests and having an adequate number of workers are the top priorities for Alpha, so if your desired space is not available at the prime time for the people involved, consider looking for a new venue.
Because the days and times at which people can help out with or attend Alpha varies so greatly, many churches change when they offer the course throughout the year. For instance, a church might offer Alpha on Sunday evenings during the fall and Saturday mornings during the spring. A rotating schedule like this helps to get more people involved in Alpha – both workers and guests.
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8. How do you decide the members of each small group?
The answer to this varies depending on the size of your course. If you have one or two small groups, then most of the guests can be divided up by talking to your small group leaders and helpers to see which of their friends or family they want to have in their groups.It is advised to ask guests who are coming as couples if they would like to stay together or if they would appreciate being in separate groups.
If you have a situation where people have signed up and you do not know them, here are two suggestions. In both cases, start with prayer. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and bring each person to the exact right small group for their situation in life.
Then here is what some leaders have done:
1) On the registration form, have a place where they can identify their age. Then group people together who are similar in age. Being at the same stage of life can be beneficial and help in bonding.
2) Others have found it helpful to place people in groups based on geography so they are connecting with people who they are more likely to live near.
In both of these situations, you will need to be ready to place people into small groups on Weeks 1, 2 and 3 when they just show up on that night and have not preregistered. It is not advisable to add new people to small groups after Week 3 since the most foundational talks of the course have been covered. The guest will get a better experience of the course if they can come and be a guest on the next course and get the benefit of hearing all the talks.
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9. How do I explain the cost of Alpha to the church board?
The cost of your Alpha course will depend on which resources you choose to use. When starting, most churches choose to purchase the course videos/DVD their first year and use them throughout subsequent courses. If you choose this route, you can expect to spend around $500-$600 on one-time startup costs.
- Just Beginning Kit: All you need to start and run the Alpha course for 25 guests. Contains: 1 Alpha Course DVD, 25 Manuals, 1 Leader's Training DVD, 4 Leader's Guides, 1 Director's Handbook, 50 Why Jesus, 4 Questions of Life, 2 Searching Issues, 3 each Searching Issues booklets, 2 Smiling Man posters, 1 Multiple Face Invitations/Pack of 100, 1 Multiface Postcard Invites/Pk of 50, and 1 Alpha Cookbook.
- Guest costs are approximately $5.00 per guest. Each guest needs a copy of the Alpha Course Manual and the Why Jesus? booklet. After your first course, your ongoing Alpha costs will be approximately $5.00 per person for both Guests and the Leadership team members.
Other resources and costs you can expect to include in your budget:
- Alpha Course Manuals (if you think you will need more than the 25 included in the Just Beginning Kit)
- Publicity Materials (e.g. posters, banners, and brochures beyond what is in the Just Beginning Kit)
- Name tags (if you buy better ones, the holders are reusable, but cost more up-front)
- Retreat Facility deposit
- Retreat supplies
- Retreat scholarships
- Childcare supplies (if needed)
- Meals (to extent not covered by freewill offerings)
- Alpha Training event attendance for selected members of Leadership Team
- Miscellaneous expenses
At Alpha, we believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ should be freely offered to all who will come and hear. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you do not charge guests for the Alpha course. However, because the Weekend or Day Away is a retreat, it is appropriate to ask guests for an offering or specific fee to help offset the cost of it. If you have guests that cannot pay the full amount requested, consider asking church members to “sponsor” those guests’ Weekend or Day Away, or take an offering while on the retreat.
The cost of meals needs to be estimated and budgeted by each church. How fancy you make the meal will be a big factor. You can create a very good meal for a relatively low price if you have a menu plan and a good chef.
Other meal planning considerations:
- Shopping at discount locations can easily make a 5 to 10% difference in prices.
- Using all throw-away plates and utensils, although very convenient, is more costly. If your church has washable dishes this can save up to a $1.00 per person.
- Do you plan to buy pre-cooked meals, or cook them at the Alpha location?
- Even if every person contributes to their meal, there is still the potential for over estimating how many you might serve.
- The meal costs will even vary from week to week as menus are varied.
- Some people may request a vegetarian meal, which may have a different cost factor than the others.
- Sometimes a group of previous Alpha guests will want to return to Alpha and help prepare a meal as a gift.
Here is a sample budget. This 5-page Excel document is full of financial details as well as ways to help cover costs in creative ways. ^ Back to Top
10. Do I need to provide child care? If so, is there an Alpha study for the kids?
Many churches have found that offering childcare at Alpha is helpful, and in many cases is the deciding factor as to whether or not parents (especially single moms and dads) will attend the course. One way to estimate the need for childcare is to ask guests and team members to indicate their interest on the registration cards they fill out at the Celebration Supper.
Alpha makes no specific recommendations as to childcare provision, policies or procedures. The Alpha course dynamics of a meal, talk and small group discussion are designed for adults and mature teens.
There are great resources for doing and Alpha course with youth. Check out our Youth Alpha section for more details.
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