Alpha Team

Food has a way of bringing people together, whether it’s a group of friends gathered around a kitchen table or a quick catch-up over coffee and cake. It’s no different at Alpha. Every session starts with food because it’s a way to build community and get to know each other with casual conversation. There are so many ways to do food on Alpha from serving snacks to a full hot meal. Here are three practical ideas that groups and churches have used to make eating together a part of their Alpha every week.

1. Have a Potluck

For smaller groups, a potluck can be a fun and affordable idea. For example, the Alpha hosts might provide the main course (eg. lasagna) and then guests could be invited to bring sides (eg. salad). One group that ran Alpha in their home did a fondue every week where everyone brought different types of cheese and chocolate. The great thing about a potluck is it doesn’t require a lot of planning while ensuring there will be some sort of food to share together.

2. Recruit a Kitchen Team

Another option is to recruit a team that can make meals in the church kitchen. This works well for small or large groups and it can cut down on costs if food is purchased in bulk. The kitchen team is usually in charge of the grocery shopping, the meal prep, cooking, and clean-up. They can check with local restaurants as some will gladly donate food items each week. Some churches will freeze make-ahead meals like chili, soups, and lasagnes that can be warmed up the day of Alpha to save time.

3. Hire a Caterer

A third option is to hire a catering service to take the pressure off of the Alpha team to provide food each week. Catering can be expensive so to offset the costs, you could do suggested donations or better yet, provide the meal for free by asking other groups in the church to donate towards the cost.

Ultimately the food at Alpha can be as simple or as elaborate as you want it to be. The main thing is to try to have some sort of food because eating together helps break the ice and pulls people together in a natural way. It sets the groundwork for friendship and hospitality and paves the way for deeper discussion throughout the course.

We recently caught up with Beth Pryor, who runs Alpha for Vintage Church in California, and she shared with us her practical tips on how to assign guests to small groups. Not every Alpha will have multiple small groups (e.g. if you’re running it for a few friends in your home); however, if you’re anticipating a lot of guests, these tips will help you think strategically about placing people to help facilitate great open discussion.

Invite Guests to Register in Advance

Although Alpha is promoted as “no pressure, no commitment,” most people understand that sign up is needed for food preparation including allergy info, dietary restrictions etc. As you gather this info ahead of time, you can also ask about age range and other details. Vintage Church uses an online form or registration card and guests fill out some basic details. They close their registration 48 hours before Alpha begins to assign guests to their groups. Even though Vintage Church had 500 people sign up for a recent Alpha, Beth and her team assigned each person to their group based on specific categories and any other special needs they identified from the registration process.

Group Guests by Age Range & Spiritual Background

At Vintage Church, they have found the most useful information for assigning groups is age and spirituality which are details that guests fill out in the registration process. While this might not work for every group running Alpha, Beth shared why these categories have worked well for Vintage.

For example, Beth and her team found that when they put guests who wouldn’t normally come to church into one group, they felt more comfortable sharing because of similar experiences of faith. In groups comprised of mostly self-identified Christians, the hosts sometimes found that these guests were not as far along on their faith journey as it first appeared. Having the groups divided into these categories has helped the hosts at Vintage facilitate conversation based on the unique needs of their guests.

Vintage also creates groups based on age and finds that their guests tend to form greater community and bonds if they are in a similar life stage. As Beth explained, “An 18-year-old is much more comfortable opening up to a 21-year-old than a 60-year-old. They’re going to have a lot more in common.”

Run Alpha Regularly

Although Vintage Church closes its online registration 48 hours before Alpha starts, they leave space in groups to allow people to join if they show up on the night of Alpha, but only for the first two weeks. After that, if people walk in, they are encouraged to come back on the next Alpha. This is one reason it’s been crucial for Vintage to run Alpha successively (two or three times each year) and have registration open for the next Alpha during the current one.

Usually if guests join late in the game, it is hard for them to follow along since they’ve missed the first few foundational talks. If you’re not able to run Alpha successively, another option for walk-ins is to have a specific group designated for them with a spare host and helper, as needed.

As you prepare to run Alpha, prayerfully consider how you will assign guests to groups. A little pre-planning during the registration process can go a long way to help create a space where loving community is built, where people encounter Jesus and where lives are transformed by the gospel.

One of the common questions people ask is what to do after Alpha, and what they mean is, how can we help guests plug into the life of the church? For many guests, the relationships formed within small groups are strong and they want to maintain a connection. Below are some suggestions and ideas on how to continue encouraging guests on their faith journey and in their relationship with the local church. You might want to share some of these options with your team and guests at your last Alpha session.

Stay Connected

In the last Alpha session, the host and helper can encourage the group to exchange contact information if they haven’t already. Some groups will create WhatsApp groups to stay in touch because it’s a casual way to catch up with people and arrange hangouts.

Plan a Reunion

Another way a small group can stay connected after Alpha is by planning a reunion. Nicky and Pippa Gumbel, pioneers of the Alpha course, have served as hosts or helpers at over 80 Alphas. They always try to do some sort of follow up with guests in their group. Pippa says, “We try to do a reunion supper after every course by having them all back for supper at our house. We do it just to see how they’ve got on, and to help them to work out where they’re going to go.”

Invite Guests to Church on Sunday

The host and helper could also invite their small group to meet at an upcoming Sunday service so that the group can attend church altogether. This makes it less intimidating if the guests are not regular church attenders. It’s more likely that guests will develop the habit of coming to church on Sundays if they have friends they look forward to seeing.

Another idea is to have a pastor of your church come to one of the last few Alpha sessions and introduce themselves to guests. They can explain what a typical Sunday morning looks like and extend a personal invitation to guests.

Invite Guests to Help on the Next Alpha

Consider inviting guests to help at the next Alpha. This is a sustainable way to build your Alpha team and it’s also a great way to support guests in their faith journey. Think about a guest’s individual gifts and help them identify ways to be involved. Encourage them to think of people they know who may be interested in participating in your next Alpha.

Invite Guests to a Small Group

If guests are interested in exploring more about the Christian faith, help them to get connected in a small group at your church. This is most effective if they can go to the same small group as their Alpha host or with someone else who was on the course with them. As more people are added, the group can divide as needed.

More Resources

There are other resources that can contribute to the ongoing spiritual growth of guests.

The Bible with Nicky and Pippa

The Bible with Nicky and Pippa is a free Bible reading app with a daily commentary by Nicky and Pippa Gumbel. Since its development in 2009, the app has had over a million unique downloads and subscriptions in close to 200 countries. It can be downloaded for free on the App Store and Google Play. https://www.bibleinoneyear.org

The Marriage Courses

The Marriage Course and The Marriage Preparation Course act as a bridge between the church and the local community by recognizing the need to go beyond the social as well as physical walls of the church to help couples with their relationships. Often, guests who attend Alpha will then attend The Marriage Course with their spouse or vice versa, because running one can help raise the profile of the other.

As people encounter Jesus for the first time or in a fresh way during Alpha, they’re usually eager to continue their faith journey. It’s so important that guests know about the next steps they can take to connect with Christian community and continue to grow in their relationship with Jesus. This is also why, in the leader and team training, we emphasize the value of relationship— we know that it’s a personal invitation that really encourages guests to get connected to the life of the church.

The core ingredients of Alpha are food, an Alpha talk, and small group discussion time. But these elements are just part of seven best practices that make for the most effective Alphas. If your church decides to run Alpha you will have access to leader training sessions that cover the best practices in depth but here is a brief overview of each practice and the value behind it.

Prayer

Prayer is the foundation for a healthy Alpha and so the first planning stage for Alpha is finding a group of people in the church willing to pray for Alpha and giving them the information and space they need to effectively intercede. We are always amazed to see how as we rely on the Holy Spirit in prayer he draws people to Jesus during the 11 weeks of Alpha.

Evangelistically Positioned

Alpha is specifically designed to create a space for people who are followers of Jesus to invite their friends who wouldn’t normally come to church. In this way, Alpha is distinct from a lot of other great resources that we might use in our local churches-it’s not foremost about teaching or training. The Alpha talks cover essential elements of the Christian faith in a way that is easy to understand for people who may have never heard the gospel before. If your church decides to run Alpha it’s important to be intentional about encouraging your congregation to invite their friends. We’ve developed a three-week small-group curriculum to use leading up to Alpha with interviews and stories of invitation to encourage your church to lead invitational lives.

Team Training

The size of the group your church anticipates for its Alpha will determine how many volunteers are needed to make it happen. Regardless of the number of volunteers, it’s essential for them to go through Alpha team training so they understand the values behind Alpha. We’ve created team training sessions to equip Alpha volunteers for their different roles so that they can be empowered to serve and lead well.

Hospitality

Hospitality is the reason Alpha always begins with food. Breaking bread together is one of the ways Jesus dismantled social barriers and shared life with people and so we encourage every Alpha to have food before the Alpha talk. How food is done is entirely up to each group and their resources; some groups will do a full catered meal, others will do a potluck or just an array of snacks but the point is to build friendships in a comfortable and familiar context paving the way for deeper conversations to take place.

Alpha Talk

The Alpha talks are designed to bring guests on a journey of faith as they explore key elements of the Christian faith. The talks also give guests an opportunity to encounter Jesus by setting up specific times for prayer ministry. To learn more about the Alpha talks view the trailer here.

Open Discussion

After the Alpha talk, there’s a time of small group discussion guided by a host and helper. This is an essential time during the Alpha experience for guests to share what they thought about or learned from the Alpha talk. The open discussion isn’t a time for teaching by the host but rather a time where guests can feel comfortable to dialogue about life, faith, and God in a space that’s judgment-free. It’s creating a space like this that motivates guests to return each week allowing for genuine friendships to form.

Time Away

The Alpha time away usually happens around the seventh week of Alpha and is done for several reasons. For one, it’s an opportunity for people to get away from the distractions of everyday life to reflect on what they’ve been learning so far on Alpha. It’s also a way for friendships to grow stronger through fun activities, more conversations around the Alpha talks, and times of prayer. Churches will often get creative depending on resources to make a weekend or day away happen. For many guests, the Alpha weekend is the high-point of their Alpha experience.

Conclusion:

The seven best practices are a guide for helping churches run an effective Alpha and the leader training sessions on the digital platform provide the practical steps your church will need to get them off the ground. To find out more, create an Alpha here.