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What is The Alpha Initiative?

The Alpha Initiative is a major promotional campaign which aims to involve all churches running Alpha courses.

The aim of The Alpha Initiative is three-fold:

- to raise public awareness of the Alpha course
- to support churches in attracting guests to their Alpha courses
- to strengthen Alpha courses through training.

How it started: the UK story

In 1997, a group of churches in a small English town called Thanet joined together to advertise their Alpha courses in the local press. The ad simply said: ‘The Alpha Course – an opportunity to explore the meaning of life. Coming soon to a church near you.’ It was followed by details of 22 churches of all denominations running Alpha in the town.

The Thanet idea was a powerful demonstration of churches working together, and we decided to use this model when the time was right to run the first nation-wide advertising campaign in the UK.

Advertising - the first campaign

In 1998, thousands of churches contributed to the cost of a national campaign. Alpha adverts were displayed on billboards, church noticeboards, homes, shops and clubs, and in the regional press. There were many local publicity events and around 4.5 million invitations to Alpha were distributed by Christians in the UK. The advertising campaign has evolved over the years to include billboards, bus-backs and radio spots, and is reinforced by hundreds of regional and local publicity campaigns mounted by local churches.

‘Inviting the nation to supper’

In 2000, the first UK ‘Alpha Supper Initiative’ was held. The vision was that everyone in the country should have an opportunity to attend a celebration Alpha supper, hear the talk ‘Christianity: Boring, Untrue, Irrelevant?’, and receive a follow-up invitation to a local Alpha course. The suppers were a huge success, and have remained at the heart of each subsequent initiative in the UK.

Training

Training is vital to the quality and effectiveness of Alpha courses. As part of preparing for each Alpha Initiative, churches are encouraged to attend two-day Alpha conferences and Alpha Regional Days (one-day training in the Principles and Practicalities of Alpha), and to hold joint Team Training days before their autumn courses.

Prayer

Nothing we do is of any value without prayer, and each year we co-ordinate a concerted prayer drive to undergird The Alpha Initiative. Thousands of churches join together in regional prayer meetings to pray for the impact of the initiative, praying through the same agenda on or around the same day. Each year, we have seen a wonderful increase in the number of churches and individuals coming together to pray.

Impact

The Alpha Initiative has had an amazing impact on the awareness of Alpha in the UK, and on attendance at local Alpha courses. MORI research shows that between 2000 and 2002, awareness of Alpha as a Christian course nearly doubled, increasing from 9% to 17% of the UK population. This means that Alpha is now recognised by the biggest proportion of the population since the course’s inception. A survey by Christian Research shows that the numbers of non-churchgoers coming to Alpha suppers and courses has increased year on year.