 PETER:
I first learned about Alpha in 2000 from friends in a nondenominational
church. I laughingly said to them, “I’ll never do that, because it just doesn’t fit my style of evangelism.”
Nonetheless, following a call from an Episcopal priest who is a great friend of mine, and at the leading of the Holy Spirit, I decided to investigate Alpha.
When I first viewed the videos, I thought, Wow, this is really good stuff. I knew that Catholics needed this. Through North Shore Christian Ministries, a team of us now offers training and resources for Catholic churches. We’ve also developed traveling teams — experienced Alpha people who will run the course for a church that’s interested, helping their people learn to do it themselves the next time.
Alpha can be a challenge for Catholic parishes because of the tradition and the ecclesiology. You see, traditionally in the Catholic Church, all programs and materials come through the diocesan offices, so a pastor typically does not devise programs for his individual parish.
To help with that, we point to priest-advocates, saying, “Here are priests who have done this and who would recommend it. And this has been the fruit. Please speak to them.”
Also, when it comes to Catholic ecclesiology, there’s no current history of significant lay evangelism. In the past, everything had been done by sisters or brothers. Yet Alpha is a lay-run movement.
Also, the traditional, conservative Catholic puts a primary value on sacramental realities as opposed to the proclamation of the gospel in an evangelical sense. So for the parish priest curious about Alpha, presenting Alpha is a paradigm shift.
To adapt Alpha to the Catholic setting, we do several things. We try to bring in the notion of the Eucharist and sacramental confession to our retreats, so that Alpha is appended to Catholic practice. That has proved to be successful.
The fruit of Alpha is seeding the church with a worshipping Catholic Christian with a heart for the Lord. We’re also sensitive to Catholic issues during table discussions. While it is acceptable if a guest wants to discuss the rosary or some Marian devotion, we will gently attempt to bring it back to the focus of the evening: “Why did Jesus die?” and, “Let’s discuss this from a
scriptural perspective.”
That having been said, you would not notice a big difference in our courses; it would not be significantly visible, because we have very skilled teams and insist on continual sharing and training.
One of the most remarkable breakthroughs recently is the increased interest by priests in Youth Alpha. There is such an awareness that youth are not attending Mass. So there’s a new openness to investigate Youth Alpha as a formation tool for young adults.
Even with adults, we have many, many stories about reconciliation with Christ and the church. As an example, two years ago at an Alpha retreat, about 125 adults attended sacramental confession. This was almost the entire adult audience, and it amazed the priests. As a consequence of Alpha, the guests recognized sin in their lives; they recognized the need for repentance; and they entered back into church life.
Boy, if you’re a pastor, that’s what you want. My experience is that when Catholics attend Alpha, they say, “Wow, why did I not understand that before?”
I had a good Catholic friend who said about Alpha: “It filled in all the cracks in the road for me.”
Peter Carpentier is a retired attorney and an Alpha for Catholics advisor in New England. Since 2000, Peter has led the team training for many Catholic Churches in the Boston area, including the presentation of area-wide retreats.
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 HEATHER: I am a big believer in Alpha, and it is the launching pad for what we at National Community Church call our “discipleship map” — our strategy for helping NCCers progress strategically in their spiritual growth and relationship with Christ. Alpha is the first island on the map, and it’s where we encourage every NCCer to start.
National Community Church is nondenominational, yet we are affiliated with the Assemblies of God and the Willow Creek Association. The Assemblies of God is our theological connection, and the Willow Creek Association is our methodological connection.
Alpha gives us a tremendous opportunity to teach on the person and gifts of the Holy Spirit in a way that is rooted biblically, consistent with our theology and relevant to our congregation.
Our church is very young and reflects the demographic of the Capitol Hill environment: 73 percent of our congregation is single and under age 35.
Many come from unchurched or dechurched backgrounds. “De-churched” means they grew up in the church but stopped attending at some point.
We are a multi-site church, and our vision is to meet in movie theaters at metro stops around the D.C. metro area. We also hold services on Saturday nights in our church coffeehouse, Ebenezers, which is the largest coffeehouse on Capitol Hill.
We like to characterize ourselves as being orthodox in beliefs but unorthodox in practice. Alpha is a perfect fit for us as we create environments for people to connect with God and connect with others.
Alpha is all about loving people into the kingdom, and it serves as a front door to our church. Yet it’s also a spiritual “nursery.” People who request information on following Christ are guided toward Alpha to get their questions answered. People who cross the line of faith or go public with their faith are guided toward Alpha to put down roots.
Alpha is also a connecting place. It’s easy to get lost in a large church, but Alpha provides a great environment for people to plug into relationships with others. That’s why we encourage all new NCCers to start with Alpha, regardless of their spiritual maturity.
Finally, Alpha is a virtual leadership launching pad. We have more leaders emerging from our Alpha Course than from any other place in the church. Yesterday, we held our annual Baptism by the Bay service, and we baptized more than 25 people. Most of the baptism candidates had recently completed the Alpha Course.
The most important decisions in life should be the most informed decisions, and faith decisions are the most important decisions a person will ever make. Alpha offers us a welcoming environment to give people the information they need and to love them into the kingdom of God.
Heather Zempel is pastor of discipleship at National Community Church in Washington, D.C. She has been a fan of Alpha since 2004 and has helped lead five Alpha Courses.
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