Has anyone done the Alpha course?

[antelopevalley]

Just wondering if anyone had done this and what it is like? Is it sexist, anti lesbian and gay? Or is it more general faith in God and Jesus?

I have been thinking about going but I don't want to go if it is sexist and anti gay.
Thanks.

I’ve run it many times. I’ve never run it to be sexist or anti-gay but I can’t speak for all churches and all leaders. I’d get in touch with the one you’re thinking of going to and speaking to the church leader or alpha leaders first about your concerns.

www.heraldscotland.com/news/18599805.opinion-mark-smith-care-catch-christian-courses-teaching-vulnerable-people-sex/

@cestlavielife Thanks for that. Sorry I should have googled.

@PandaOrLion Underlying philosophy matters, not just individuals involved. And I know churches can be anti gay and sexist and say they are not - love the sinner not the sin kind of approach, so wanted to check.

Hmm I'd avoid. It's usually run by a certain style of church (often similar to HTB in style / evangelical/) and there is an underlying motive of wanting to "let everyone discuss" then tell you the"right" answer..../get you to experience the "holy spirit" and into the folds of their church..

I did it about 15years ago. Don't remember it being at all sexist or homophobic. I found a really nice group of people from completely different backgrounds and we had very interesting discussions about all sorts of things.

I did the alpha course once and loved it, met some interesting people, had interesting debates, learnt quite a bit, had some good food and met some good people. I was actually really sad when the course ended (not sure if that makes me a bit pathetic or not🤣)

My local church talked about it and they seem pretty ordinary and not evangelical, but maybe that is unusual for those promoting this? I don't know.

Also didn’t come across as anti gay/ sexist at all to me, was just a welcoming space. Would recommend to anyone x

Lots of churches are evangelical (I think it used to be about 1/3 of the C of E) . It doesn't necessarily mean happy clappy/ scary church but its an underlying belief system that focuses on the need to "accept" Jesus/ heaven/hell etc.

If you like the local church though and are interested it can be fun. They often have a free meal/ nice people . Just be aware it is ultimately a marketing tool.

I have done it twice - I had a lot of Christian friends at university and got invited by two different people at two different churches. I'm very open minded so was interested in going. The type of church that offers it does tend to be the more evangelical kind, another course Christianity Explored is probably more Bible based and offered by a different kind of church. I enjoyed going and found people, including the Christians, had different ideas about homosexuality etc but I don't really remember it being discussed much, it was more about learning and debating the fundamentals of the faith, eg, what do Christians believe, why could the resurrection be true, etc. The final away day was a little overwhelming at one of the churches so be aware of that.

I've done it. It was absolutely fine until a few weeks in when we were all supposed to have transcendant experiences and speak in tongues.

Nobody did and it all got a bit awkward after that.

It might be different if it was run by a church you knew was not evangelical in style.

Thanks I did not know this. I had assumed in my ignorance evangelical was the happy clappy type where they all sway and raise their hands to the ceiling. Not an ordinary church full of older people and families.

As others said , you need to check out the church running it, not the course. Evangelical churches are fond of Alpha and some of those would preach that gay and lesbian people need to be celibate and would not permit women in leadership positions.

Alpha focuses on ‘the big life questions’ rather than gay and lesbian and women’s rights.

Yes I have and really enjoyed it. It's the basic teachings of Christianity 'for beginners'. If you're not sure, you can attend a group online just to get a feel of whether you'd like it or not.

This wasn’t my experience at all 😮… sounds like it differs depending on the church you go to

The full course has built into it a "holy spirit away day" that would encourage speaking in tongues etc.

However that tends to be the more charismatic (into the holy spirit) churches and its quietly dropped by those not really into it and I believe that's considered okay.

My friend at work did it (and was totally converted). Cue lots of awkward conversations about how homosexual people weren't bad but gay sex was sinful and gay people should live chaste lives and that was ok because 'we all had some sort of difficulty or sin to deal with'. Hers was a very evangelical 'bible believing' church.