Alpha Weekend or Day Away

The Alpha weekend or day away is a crucial part of the course. This is the time devoted to teaching on the work of the Holy Spirit in the individual lives of those on the course - it is also an important time for friendships to be formed.
A weekend away is ideal, although a day works well.

- For a suggested timetable, please see The Alpha Weekend or Day Away.

- For a full guide on the role and format of the Alpha weekend or day, please see ‘How To Run The Alpha Course – Telling Others’ by Nicky Gumbel by clicking here.

- For a step-by-step guide to planning an Alpha weekend or day, please see the Alpha Weekend Guidelines.

If you would like to open your Alpha weekend or day up to other groups, we would be happy to advertise it on our website, please fill in the Alpha Event Registration Form.

Team Training

Small groups are often a favourite part of Alpha – here guests can express their ideas and explore what they have heard. Each Alpha host and helper is crucial and so it is essential that they are properly trained before every course. Even those who have hosted an Alpha small group before will find it valuable – both to refresh their memory and to meet others who are helping on the course.

There are 3 key training sessions: Leading Small Groups, Pastoral Care and Ministry on Alpha. These talks are available on DVD from the Alpha Shop.

The following guidelines will help you to run an effective training session for your Alpha team. Alpha Team Training Guidelines

Track 2 Small Group Team Training has been piloted at HTB and is designed specifically for those who have attended training sessions multiple times. The three sessions aim to give a deeper theological understanding of questions often raised during the Alpha course. Covering issues such as suffering, atheism and the theology of the Holy Spirit, track 2 has proven to be extremely helpful and popular to experienced small group team members.

Please do encourage members of your Alpha team who are well-versed in the hosts' training to register as an alphafriend and listen to these very useful talks.

The Problem with Evil & Suffering – James Orr and Why is there Suffering? – Revd Miles Toulmin

Is Religion Bad For You? – Revd Dr Graham Tomlin

The Trinity – Revd Dr Mike Lloyd

We would be happy to advertise your team training event on the events page of our website, just fill in the Alpha Event Registration Form.

Alpha Prayer Meetings

Prayer is central to Alpha and at every stage we want to turn back to God in prayer. Join with other churches and Alpha courses to pray for the transformation of communities and for God to use Alpha courses to draw people into a relationship with Him. You could invite groups and individuals involved in social transformation in your area to attend your prayer meeting and share their vision for their work and pray for them.

This year Alpha courses and churches will be joining together with Holy Trinity Brompton to pray on or around their Week of Prayer on the 6 - 11th September 2009.

If you are interested in organising a large event joining with other churches, please see the Alpha Prayer Meeting Guidelines. These guidelines have been developed to help you to organise and lead the prayer event, looking at the vision, models of prayer and the practicalities of organising the event.

We would be happy to advertise your prayer event on the events page of our website, just fill in the Alpha Event Registration Form.

Alpha Launch Events

Start your Alpha course with a party! It’s easy for church members to invite people to a fun launch event which will give them a flavour of what Alpha is about and a chance to meet other people taking part in the course.
In 2008 over 120,000 people came to an event to launch an Autumn Alpha course - many of these went onto attend an Alpha course.

The idea is to have a relaxed event including a short talk to introduce guests to the Christian faith, which can be explored further on the Alpha course. Events have taken place in all sorts of venues and formats from sit down meals to band nights in a pub – some with a well-known local speaker, others with someone whose life has been changed by Jesus through an Alpha course.

A model launch event hosted by Nicky Gumbel, explaining the vision along with a suggested format for the evening and example testimonies can be listened to or downloaded here.

Below are examples of different evangelistic talks that have been well received. Click on the speaker name to listen to the talk. Please note, you will need to register as an AlphaFriend to view/listen to the material.

Charlie Mackesy Talk - Video
Nigel Skelsey Talk

A number of speakers are available to speak at larger Alpha launch events where churches are working together. For help finding the right speaker for your event, click here for a speaker request form and please do be in touch with Alpha UK at ukalpha@alpha.org to discuss your plans.

The following guidelines give ideas for how an Alpha Launch Event could work and a practical step-by-step guide to planning the event.
If you are interested in organising a large event joining with other churches, please see the Alpha Launch Event Guidelines.

We would be happy to advertise your event, just fill in the Alpha Event Advertising Form.

If you are unable to organise your own event, why not join in with another event happening near you? See our Events page for more details.