SusanB-M1
Incurable Optimist
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2006
- Messages
- 3,766
Four years ago I attended a full Alpha course, so Thought you might like to hear an atheist's view of it.
Reasons for attending:
- Three dear friends had attended courses; all three changed , closing their minds to discussion on that particular subject.
- I had recently joined the local BHA group and had read the text of a talk given by one of the members on the Alpha course.However, he had attended only the first session and read the book.
- It would not be fair to criticise or comment on something I knew very little about.
- I had recently renewed acquaintance with a colleague/friend whom I had not seen for at least ten years and who was just about to go on a course. She, J, belongs to a local evangelical, somewhat happy-clappy community, but is far more open to discussion on belief than three above mentioned friends.
Course structure:
The package consists of ten, 3-hour evening sessions plus a Sunday, all day social gathering. Videos are provided for each session and a set of books and leaflets. The presenter on the video is the Rev Nicky Gumbel, of Trinity Church, Brompton a good-looking, charismatic, well-rehearsed speaker with considerable acting talent. The course is free, although a contribution of £1 is asked for the book iirc. There is no pressure put on people they say and that is mostly true - there is no need, as they all seemed to me to be convinced before they started.
Each evening begins with a social twenty minutes, followed by a sit-down meal, provided, cooked and cleared up afterwards by those who have previously attended courses and are keen for others to do likekwise. There is a five-minute intro/welcome and a prayer; the video and then discussion groups of about 8-10 people per group. Break up at 10:0 p.m. The group leaders meet once during the week.
The day out is just chat, maybe an organised walk and a restaurant meal, for which we paid, followed by video and short talk, but not group discussions.
My views:
J was always evangelical with a very strong belief that God runs just about everything. She is a genuine, kind and thoroughly nice person. I mentioned my interest and she suggested I join her. I made it absolutely clear that I was (still am of course!) an atheist and that I wanted to see what went on and was the Pastor, John, prepared to have someone who would like to put an opposing point of view. She checked with John and assured me that this was fine. The 30 or so people who attended, mostly local, were all lovely and did not resent my sceptical presence at all!
The first discussion group turned out to be simply agreement with everything said in the video. I waited in vain for any differing view, so made some very mild preliminary comment, which was countered with, 'But what about Noah?' I was just about to say, 'Surely you cannot believe that ....' when the meeting had to break up.
At the start of the next meeting, John came up and asked if he could have a word. He tactfully mentioned that he hoped I wouldn't mind being in a smaller discussion group with him, his wife and J. 'What you mean is I'm a disruptive influence!' I said. He said no, no, no, this was not the case! From then on, I must say I did enjoy the discussions (three against one!), pointing out the mistakes in the videos and so on. John challenged me to read St John's Gospel. Well, I went one better, borrowed the N/T from the Library (audio of course) and listened to the whole thing!! The three were impressed but couldn't understand how it had not changed my life. Well, for a start I said that the St Paul's letter where every other word is 'circumcision' made me laugh out loud!
Conclusion:
There were one or two there who had more open-minded views but unfortunately I was not able to join their froups. However, generally speaking the course only re-affirmed their entrenched opinions. They all said they would pray for me!
The main link from Google is: http://alpha.org/organisation/origins/index.htm
Note: to be fair to the course, it is certainly not to draw people into a cult but the friends I mentioned, intelligent women all, developed an added anxiety about saying anything against God. So it's an area of conversation that never comes up.
The courses are run by C of E, Methodist, etc churches and they are the ones who benefit from the more regular attendance of those who have been convinced. I do not know whether Rev Nicky Gimbel is still Vicar in Brompton but the videos were filmed there and it is C of E. (Well, I haven't checked, but I'm pretty sure .)
Reasons for attending:
- Three dear friends had attended courses; all three changed , closing their minds to discussion on that particular subject.
- I had recently joined the local BHA group and had read the text of a talk given by one of the members on the Alpha course.However, he had attended only the first session and read the book.
- It would not be fair to criticise or comment on something I knew very little about.
- I had recently renewed acquaintance with a colleague/friend whom I had not seen for at least ten years and who was just about to go on a course. She, J, belongs to a local evangelical, somewhat happy-clappy community, but is far more open to discussion on belief than three above mentioned friends.
Course structure:
The package consists of ten, 3-hour evening sessions plus a Sunday, all day social gathering. Videos are provided for each session and a set of books and leaflets. The presenter on the video is the Rev Nicky Gumbel, of Trinity Church, Brompton a good-looking, charismatic, well-rehearsed speaker with considerable acting talent. The course is free, although a contribution of £1 is asked for the book iirc. There is no pressure put on people they say and that is mostly true - there is no need, as they all seemed to me to be convinced before they started.
Each evening begins with a social twenty minutes, followed by a sit-down meal, provided, cooked and cleared up afterwards by those who have previously attended courses and are keen for others to do likekwise. There is a five-minute intro/welcome and a prayer; the video and then discussion groups of about 8-10 people per group. Break up at 10:0 p.m. The group leaders meet once during the week.
The day out is just chat, maybe an organised walk and a restaurant meal, for which we paid, followed by video and short talk, but not group discussions.
My views:
J was always evangelical with a very strong belief that God runs just about everything. She is a genuine, kind and thoroughly nice person. I mentioned my interest and she suggested I join her. I made it absolutely clear that I was (still am of course!) an atheist and that I wanted to see what went on and was the Pastor, John, prepared to have someone who would like to put an opposing point of view. She checked with John and assured me that this was fine. The 30 or so people who attended, mostly local, were all lovely and did not resent my sceptical presence at all!
The first discussion group turned out to be simply agreement with everything said in the video. I waited in vain for any differing view, so made some very mild preliminary comment, which was countered with, 'But what about Noah?' I was just about to say, 'Surely you cannot believe that ....' when the meeting had to break up.
At the start of the next meeting, John came up and asked if he could have a word. He tactfully mentioned that he hoped I wouldn't mind being in a smaller discussion group with him, his wife and J. 'What you mean is I'm a disruptive influence!' I said. He said no, no, no, this was not the case! From then on, I must say I did enjoy the discussions (three against one!), pointing out the mistakes in the videos and so on. John challenged me to read St John's Gospel. Well, I went one better, borrowed the N/T from the Library (audio of course) and listened to the whole thing!! The three were impressed but couldn't understand how it had not changed my life. Well, for a start I said that the St Paul's letter where every other word is 'circumcision' made me laugh out loud!
Conclusion:
There were one or two there who had more open-minded views but unfortunately I was not able to join their froups. However, generally speaking the course only re-affirmed their entrenched opinions. They all said they would pray for me!
The main link from Google is: http://alpha.org/organisation/origins/index.htm
Note: to be fair to the course, it is certainly not to draw people into a cult but the friends I mentioned, intelligent women all, developed an added anxiety about saying anything against God. So it's an area of conversation that never comes up.
The courses are run by C of E, Methodist, etc churches and they are the ones who benefit from the more regular attendance of those who have been convinced. I do not know whether Rev Nicky Gimbel is still Vicar in Brompton but the videos were filmed there and it is C of E. (Well, I haven't checked, but I'm pretty sure .)
