church planing & alpha course by penny meyer

Danny and I planted a new Vineyard a little over three years ago with about 200 committed followers of Jesus.  After a short time, I had a very powerful dream about reaching out to the lost in our area.  My first thought was, “Alpha!” and my second thought was, “I can’t start Alpha because we don’t have a building.”   We were just renting space at the local school for Sunday mornings and our office set up was not ideal for starting an Alpha group.  As I prayed about it, I felt the Lord encouraging me to move ahead with the tried and true Alpha program.  For the past couple of years, I’ve been leading an Alpha Group that is working.  What I mean by that is:  people are coming to know Jesus, they are inviting their friends, and the new converts are getting assimilated into the church.  Against all odds of not having an ideal meeting place, Alpha has proved to be a wonderful source of church growth, a way to reach the unchurched, and a overall blessing to our new church plant.

 

Here are four simple steps to what we did:

 

1. The first thing was deciding to run the course out of our house each week.  Being small, we knew that the first group would also be small and our home would serve as a wonderful place for folks to feel comfortable and safe.  We only had about six newcomers sign up for the first class and only three actually showed up. 

 

2. What about food? I made a simple meal like Taco Salad for our first class and ordered pizza for our second class.  After that, we decided to make the meal a “potluck” so that everyone could contribute.  I decided on a theme like Mexican or Italian for the coming week and we passed around a sign up sheet for different dishes.  I.e. Main dish, side dish, dessert, etc. We found that folks loved bringing their favorite dishes to impress the group and it also gave us something to talk about each week while we were getting to know one another.   “Ownership” of the group was their’s simply because everyone had something to contribute.

 

3. Buy the DVD’s of Nicky Gumbel teaching the Alpha course.  Everyone loves to watch a movie in our culture and so it seemed quite normal to move the group from the dining room into our family room to watch Nicky teach the different topics like,  “Who is Jesus?” or “Why Did Jesus have to Die?”.  It seemed quite natural to watch a DVD with friends in the comfort of our home and everyone seemed to like the “show”.  To be honest, I think it would be a little strange to teach it yourself to such a small group of  “seekers”. 

 

4. We then moved the group back into our dining room for dessert and coffee as we, in a very natural way, discussed the teaching.  Surprisingly, they opened up on the first night with all their questions about God and after the third week, we saw our first conversion. 

 

Our Alpha group outgrew our home just in time for our new building.  We now have a thriving group at the church building, but I have wonderful memories of hosting our first Alpha group in the warmth and comfort of a home.  If you have more questions about the specifics of running the Alpha Course, go online to AlphaUSA.org and check out the website.