Anyone done the Alpha course, can you tell me a bit about it please?

[zulubump]

I've never been a churchgoer and none of my family have, but I've always felt a bit of a spiritual "hole" in my life. The idea of going to church always seemed a bit scary, though. Dh's family are regular church goers but he stopped a few years ago and is not at all keen! Then I had dd who is now 18 months. I've recently started taking her to a Sunday service at a local methodist church. My reasons being that I'd like to give her a chance to see whether Christianity is right for her and also taking her along gives me an excuse to go and see whether it is right for me.

However, attending the services has thrown up all sorts of questions in my mind about Christianity. There are bits I don't understand or aren't comfortable with or even totally disagree with. When dd is older I want to be able to discuss things openly with her so I feel I should try and get some of these things straight in my head. Is the Alpha course somewhere where I could feel safe asking questions like "what's so wrong with being gay?" or "I don't think I believe in the devil" etc?

i grew up in a Christian family..and became a christian myself when i was 16 and then did the alpha course with my husband who is/was Catholic just to give us both a refresher after uni...

It was definitely a place to ask any question you wanted. Our course was at a church full of people our own age and i think that made us feel comfortable. If answers start to sound judgemental then...it would be wise to remember -'judge not, lest you be judged'. Make sure that you find a good course, one where the people running it are ACTUALLY excited about their faith.

hi justa! Maybe wiggling uncomfortably, but you're doing it with style!

justa, well, if it makes you feel any better, I struggle greatly with that specific issue on a personal level, but I agree that Jesus Christ is bigger than the disagreements.

But I hate Alpha, so I'm not sure why I'm even on the thread

I am an Anglican evangelical and I can safely say that my church is not at all homophobic. We are not phobic about anything.

We have never had any preaching on sexuality (ie homsexual/extra-marital), both in Sunday sermons or in our cell groups - even at the height of the Windsor report. You might get a few individuals who have these (private) views, but they are by no means corporate or even on the agenda. I honestly could not tell you what the views of our clergy are on this subject - they just haven't shared.

We have cohabiting couples in our church and they are loved and welcomed. Our belief that in matters where someone is unrepentently living a life that separates them from God, then it is not for us to judge them or preach to them. We pray for discipleship - that the Holy Spirit will put on their hearts as to what to do. It is not for us to decide or even disapprove. As individuals, we can only live our own lives and encourage, uplift and edify our brothers and sisters in Christ.

I get tired of hearing the evangelicals believe this and that - it is simply not true on the ground.

Our priorities are not to meddle in private lives when we have so much else to do. Our community is broken and hurting, and it is the job of our church to transform it. Any deflection towards worry about sexuality is the work of the devil, and something that bounces of a praying, worshipping church.

It's convenient for anti-religious types to believe that the church, particularly evangelicals, are unloving and judging, but it is so far from the truth. I would invite anyone who is skeptical to come to my church and see us in action - you'd be amazed.

IME, it's really quite a rare thing for even an evangelical church to be openly teaching against homosexual activity/orientation nowadays.

I don't think that's a new thing, Kay.

The big picture is about transforming our communities, not about sweating the small stuff.

Oh, I don't know that it's not a new thing - I think it's certainly more the case in the last 10 years perhaps.

I've read this thread with interest - thanks! I was sort of considering the alpha course for a while, but a liberal minister I hugely respect isn't a fan and my own church (Church of Scotland) is running it's own evening home groups and I'm going to stick with that.

I love that Protestant churches have such variance within them. dizietsma I think you'd find that there's such a range of churches that it's impossible to characterize them - the one I went to in Vancouver marched in the gay pride parade. They weren't refraining from commenting on homosexual activity, but openly celebrating love and marriage between two adults of any gender. It was that inclusivity that brought me back to the church and I feel that has to be a good thing.

Yes Kay and scienceteacher - the evangelical churches I went to in the 90's were certainly preaching against homosexuality. A youth group leader (who was gorgeous and fancied by all the girls) came out and was offered "intense counseling and prayer at anytime of the day or night" by the pastor - he was round there so often that I suspected the pastor fancied him himself . An evangelical Anglican church locally to me "sacked" one of their lay assistants halfway through the year when he came out, and that was in about 2000 . That is a church which won't run Alpha and has written its own course, which is very cringey and twee.

Many evangelical Christians, though, are changing their minds about homosexuality, ime. My parents would have lapped up preaching against it in the 80's, but God has softened them and they are now are furious about homophobia, and would agree with scienceteachers description of her church; that we all have sin in our lives and that fellowship is about encouraging each other to drawer closer to God so he can show it to us and help as deal with it. Its for God to say what is sinful, and pointing out our prejudices as sin in another just detracts us from the planks in our own eyes, so to speak...

Would have to agree with scienceteacher etc on this, I've recently completed an Alpha course and though I don't think I could class myself as an evangelical Christian I regularly attend a modern, liberal church with a kind of evangelical bent (certainly compared with what I'm used to). And I came across nothing on Alpha and have since experienced nothing within my church (where the course was run) that suggested a homophobic attitude. Gay people worship there and presumably feel welcome otherwise they wouldn't be there.

Having said that, I have met Christians elsewhere with what I would describe as homophobic views but not in connection with the Alpha course. And anyway, I've met plenty of atheists with homophobic views.

Love how the liberals think they represent the truth (& are inclusive) and yet won't include someone who holds a different view. then others are so controlling that they don't think God could use imperfect things or programs. I think thee name for ask of this is religion and not christianity!

Zulubump, Did you go to alpha? What was your experience?

I think sgrant had the best idea. If you didn't go to alpha and haven't read the bible, open one up in Mark's Gospel. Discover who Jesus is. Maybe God will speak to you, but allow him to shape & transform your understanding instead of a bunch of christians/agnostics/atheists who are too busy pushing their own agenda of what they see as the truth