Just curious: What are you favourite Alpha hacks? What have you done with the Alpha Course to adapt it to your context?
I see that there is already Catholic Alpha and Youth Alpha and Armed Forces Alpha as well as Alpha for the workplace, and prison. And I am sure each one of these has its own hacks and customizations.
The church I preached at last week, up here in the north of Scotland, has an Alpha course on a Wednesday night. Its held in the town hall so the environment is not as informal as it was intended. And they have been using the default videos from suburban middle class England which doesnt really seem to fit the local context. And as far as i can tell, they have not yet hacked into the Alpha system to contextualize or adapt the material. Interesting to note that both the adult Alpha and the youth Alpha are being run by English who have moved to Scotland.
The youth up here have a different attitude. Youth Alpha just started up and my son is going along. Even in the planning stages they were talking of making their own videos to go with the series - something more gritty and urban than whats on offer.
And another thing. What happens AFTER alpha? Are people spoiled for "real church" after Alpha or are they plugging in nicely to the traditional Sunday morning service model? Do you know of any Alpha groups that become their own church?
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