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Quick tour:
About The Alpha Course
Reverend Sandy Millar
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Questions about God have fascinated
human beings since time began. Many men and women today experience
a very real sense of spiritual hunger without having any contact
with a church. One of the most frustrating aspects of church life, until
recently, has been our ineffectiveness in reaching people
with this hunger and getting them within the sound of the
gospel.
We have longed to find a way of enabling them to discover
the liberating, life-changing power of God, revealed in his
Son Jesus Christ through his Holy Spirit, in a way that allows
them to explore in an unthreatening atmosphere of love and
acceptance. Until recently they have been hard to interest.
This I think is one of the reasons why the Alpha course has proved to be so
popular in such a wide variety of countries and cultures. The issues are clearly
put and the claims of Christ examined - all in the company of other searchers.
By taking account of literally thousands of questionnaires,
the Alpha course has been adapted and improved so that it
is truly moulded to the perceived and experienced needs of
this generation.
Stripping the gospel down to its bare essentials, it makes
Christianity accessible to men and women of today's culture.
It is not of course simply hard work which has brought about
the growth of Alpha - although there has been plenty of that.
The teaching and the experience of the Holy Spirit has brought
the course to life from beginning to end.
Hunger is created in the hearts of those who are taking part
for the reality of God. The Spirit alone can satisfy that
hunger.
By revealing the power of Jesus Christ to forgive, release,
empower and equip, many people have found the reality of God's
love and become committed to Jesus Christ. If you are wondering whether to start an Alpha course I would
encourage you in every way I can to have a go.
Most people who start do so with a lot of questions and a
good deal of hesitancy about their own abilities.
I am confident though that if you do run an Alpha course
you will find over a period of time that many people come
into the kingdom of God and will be grateful to you into eternity.
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