Ideas For Evangelism - Way of Life Literature

Evangelistic Bible StudiesThe more liberal denominations are using a programcalled Alpha to increase their membership. The Alphacourse, “a short practical introduction to the Christianfaith,” grew out of a study program started in the 1970sby Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), one of the largest andmost influential Anglican parishes. The program consistsof 15 sessions and runs for ten weeks. It covers suchbasic topics as who is Jesus and why did He die, how andwhy should I read the Bible, why and how do I pray, howdoes God guide us, and what about the church? Thecourse has been extremely successful among Anglicanparishes, so much so that some churches that had beenclosed were reopened. In 1991, the Alpha program wasrevised by Nicky Gumbel, one of the pastors of HTB, foruse in other churches. Since then Alpha has crosseddenominational lines and has grown rapidly. Only 600people attended the courses in 1991, but by 1996 thatnumber had exploded to 250,000 per year. By 1997, itincreased to 500,000 participants worldwide. There were5,000 Alpha courses being conducted in the UnitedKingdom alone by 1997, and the materials had beentranslated into 14 languages.While the Alpha program itself is dangerous because ofits weak doctrinal content and its ecumenical/charismaticphilosophy, and while we sound the loudest possiblewarning against participation in it (see our article “TheAlpha Course” at the Evangelism section of the EndTimes Apostasy Database at the Way of Life web site); atthe same time, the underlying concept is interesting andcould be used to good advantage by Bible-believingchurches.