by Marti Clark

Before Luther officially started ?The Reformation? many other reformers preceded him. Luther got the press but they paved the way. Perhaps the same comparisons could be made with the missional movement. The missional movement is primarily about refocusing the church’s attention back on the people Jesus misses most. While some see this as a new idea it is actually an old idea gone fallow. Groups like Alpha have been exploring how to make this connection for a number of years with much success. Marti Clark is the Alpha Regional Advisor for the Southern California area and an Off the Map colleague. We asked her to tell us about her work with Alpha.

These are the words of Melissa (not her real name), a 28 year old “never-churched” psychic, previously involved in Reiki, Tarot, and other “New Age” activities, who only a few weeks before had described Christianity as a “dead religion”, and her goddess as “a vibrant, life-giving force.”

Melissa developed a spiritual friendship with Brian. She and Brian are both teachers. Brian’s church was joining with three other churches in the Southern California region to launch an Alpha Course so he invited Melissa to come along.

The Alpha Course is an 11-week practical introduction to the Christian faith. Perhaps because many conventional churches have embraced Alpha, I have heard it sometimes dismissed as “just another contrived program dreamed up by the modernist church

Being the leader of a missional community and a long time participant in Alpha, I have come to appreciate the intentionality and thoughtfulness of Alpha. In fact one of the primary missions of our community is to serve traditional churches by helping them put on Alpha events.

Here are some elements of Alpha that I think the missional movement might learn from as it seeks to find its way toward intentional missionality and faith sharing in contemporary culture.

Food: Each Alpha session begins with a meal. Small groups eat together. Friendships form around a shared meal. That sense of friendship provides a “safety net” for spiritual conversation. For Melissa, that friendship spilled over into email conversations with her new Christian friends.

Joy: Laughter, jokes, and fun are an important part of the Alpha ethos. Humor defuses the intensity that so often accompanies spiritual discussions. It’s interesting to me how Jesus used humor when communicating spiritual truths. It was a relief to Melissa that these Christians didn’t take themselves too seriously.

Grace: Alpha training places the highest value on gentleness, humility and deep respect towards every person, regardless of their beliefs and attitudes. The aim is to make the church a safe place for people with questions. Melissa told us that until meeting Brian and coming attending Alpha she had avoided Christianity, because she didn’t think “the Christian god had a place for people like me”.

Content: At some point we need to communicate the content of our faith in a culturally relevant way. Alpha expresses that content of the gospel through talks that are carefully screened of any jargon or language that would be incomprehensible to people like Melissa, and make them feel like outsiders.

Conversation: After each talk there is a time for small-group discussion. The rule in Alpha is that no question is too simple or too hostile. This discussion time is by far the favorite part of the Alpha evening. Group facilitators are trained not to “answer” questions, but to encourage discussions around them. As George Hunter has said, the “ministry of conversations” over time has perhaps never been as important as it is in our current culture. It doesn’t seem to matter whether we can answer their questions. In fact regarding such questions as suffering and evil, they (our Alpha guests) don’t necessarily expect satisfying answers. Just the experience of conversation about things that matter has a powerful influence. Most inquirers like Melissa have never in their lives had an intelligent conversation with a Christian that didn’t become defensive or judgmental in the face of penetrating questions.

Power of the Holy Spirit: Melissa and many of her contemporaries are very experienced in encounters with the supernatural. Any faith claim that leaves out the experience of the transcendent is for them “a dead religion”. The Alpha Course includes a “Retreat” that concentrates on the person and work of the Holy Spirit, and a teaching on “Healing”. Both sessions include “ministry times” where participants are invited to receive prayer. Countless Alpha guests have had life-transforming experiences through these encounters with the Holy Spirit. The ministry time on the Healing night was a moment of power encounter for Melissa. “I felt a powerful presence that I can only describe as the “fire of the Spirit” surging through my body. I knew God was talking to me?”

Community: Alpha allows people to “belong before they believe”. Their faith exploration takes place in the context of a community that is there for them through all stages of their journey. Melissa again: “When I went up to the front, the other members of our group went up to pray for me. The love and support I received from them was absolutely wonderful!” Like many small groups formed in Alpha, Melissa’s group has chosen to continue to pursue their journeys of faith together. They are even planning to do Alpha again and invite some of their non-Christian friends.