The Alpha Course has had such a powerful influence on this church

The Alpha Course has had such a powerful influence on this church over the last 20 years!One of our former ministers Rev Ken Drayton who initially started running Alpha here said in a recent interview, “We started to see Alpha programmes being a very effective means of both developing and enriching the lives of already committed church members, and also reaching out to people who had maybe a traditional Anglican background but for whom the Christian faith hadn’t become a personal experience. Alpha was an excellent programme for doing that.”Of course, there have been others of us who have since come into the programme with no church background and found Christ or who were lapsed churchgoers and then were restored to Christ.The beauty of Alpha is the free meal/dvd/small group discussion format. It’s an easy, non threatening way to introduce people to Jesus over a seven to ten week period.Currently Youth Alpha is being run at the Protter’s and other Alphas are being considered as well.Our Alpha team has been regularly praying all year for this programme and its impact on St Philips and worldwide. We have run Alphas in the church hall and people’s homes, but are always on the lookout for other venues. We will provide all the gear, all the food and, if need be, all the leaders for each programme big or small. Simply speak to Liz Parry for further details.As one who has been involved with Alpha over much of this period I commend it to you. I never cease to be amazed by what God is doing in and through Alpha and when it comes to watching his miracles unfold, I love to see how He does it, working with the most difficult and intransigent of materials – us.Gary Davidson