13 The British newspaper The Independent has an article by Matthew Bell on the Alpha Course , which it describes, interestingly, as “British Christianity’s biggest success story.” Being the Independent , and standing at the far distant extreme of secularism, there are some inevitable digs.
Likewise, Cambridge University was established in 1209 by Christian leaders. Saint Andrews, Scotland’s oldest university, was founded principally for the teaching and study of theology. The commitment of these religious founders might be suspect, but many of the later colleges were founded by Bible -believing Christians.
"The Alpha course, because of its didactic style, its narrow-mindedness and its closed nature, doesn't facilitate alternative views", he says. "I happen to believe it therefore leads people into a self-centred religion which is not the same as the genuine Christian discipleship ."
It's tempting to see it as the wisp of suspicion that, rightly or wrongly, lingers over Britain's most powerful evangelical church. This is the birthplace of Alpha, the "informal, friendly and fun" course now practised in 169 countries, which numbers the new Archbishop of Canterbury among its recruits.
The Alpha Course had been founded in 1977, by the Reverend Charles Marnham, but Gumbel developed it into its current format. Courses involve sessions over a 10-week period, which are preceded by informal suppers.
It started as a course for church members regarding the basics of beliefs commonly held by many believers in Christ, but then began to be used as an introduction for those interested in the faith.
The Revd Nicholas (Nicky) Gumbel has been Vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), since 2005. He read law at Trinity College, Cambridge, Theology at Oxford and practised as a barrister from 1977-1983.
PIPPA GUMBELNicky Gumbel / Spouse (m. 1978)
Afterall, Alpha didn't come from the Catholic Church. Alpha started in an Anglican parish in London called Holy Trinity Brompton. It was further developed and popularized by an Anglican vicar named Nicky Gumbel. And it has gone on to be used in churches of virtually every Christian denomination and tradition.
The Greek alpha comes from the Hebrew and Phoenician aleph, a form of the word for "ox," eleph, possibly because the character resembled an ox's head.
Nicholas Glyn Paul Gumbel (born 1955), known as Nicky Gumbel, is an English Anglican priest and author in the evangelical and charismatic traditions. He is known as the developer of the Alpha Course, a basic introduction to Christianity supported by churches of many Christian traditions.
BritishNicky Gumbel / Nationality
Holy Trinity Brompton with St Paul's, Onslow Square and St Augustine's, South Kensington, often referred to simply as HTB, is an Anglican church in London, England....Holy Trinity Brompton.Holy Trinity, BromptonCountryEnglandDenominationChurch of EnglandChurchmanshipCharismatic evangelical AnglicanWebsitehtb.org18 more rows
London, United KingdomNicky Gumbel / Place of birth
67 years (April 28, 1955)Nicky Gumbel / Age
The Bible in One Year: A Commentary by Nicky Gumbel by Nicky Gumbel | Audiobook | Audible.com.
A small cloud hangs over the drab Victorian church of Holy Trinity Brompton, in west London. It's tempting to see it as the wisp of suspicion that, rightly or wrongly, lingers over Britain's most powerful evangelical church.
What makes an Alpha male? They may not all clap happily and speak in tongues, but they are all part of an evangelical tide; a global Anglican phenomenon
The first is the fact that it seeks to teach Mark’s gospel. The second is that it seeks to teach the wonder of God’s grace against the background of our sin and God’s judgment.
This is particularly the case given that Alpha began in 1977 under Charles Marnham as a four week course for new Christians. The course grew under the leadership of John Irvine (who expanded it to ten weeks and introduced the Holy Spirit weekend) and Nicky Lee, until it was taken over by Nicky Gumbel in 1990.
To be fair we must note that the Alpha material does also speak of God’s justice and other attributes of His character , but the overwhelming message of the course is that God is love. Yet the Bible is clear that love is not the only attribute of the God who has revealed himself in creation and in the Scriptures.
According to Steve Chalke of The Oasis Trust, Alpha is the most effective and transferable introductory course to the Christian faith I know.’. Whilst we would expect high praise from the late John Wimber and Loren Cunningham of YWAM, some comments come from more surprising sources.
The best thing about Christianity Explored is its commitment to teaching Mark’s gospel. In so doing it is able to make the transition from evangelism to discipleship smoothly as it follows the two key questions of Mark’s gospel: who is Jesus’? (chs 1-8) and what does it mean to follow Jesus (chs 9-16). Thus after the weekend/day away, there are four more weeks focusing on what it means to follow Jesus. One church I know has split the course in two so that after seven weeks of Christianity Explored they encourage guests to do the next four sessions under the title of Discipleship Explored. In so doing the course avoids the confusion of Alpha. The more one investigates Alpha, the more it seems that the authors haven’t decided whether it is a discipleship course (as it started out) or an evangelism course (as it’s ended up).
According to its website, ‘Alpha is a 15-session practical introduction to the Christian faith.
Perhaps the most significant contribution that Alpha has made is the emphasis it places on the value of relationships. The practice of guests returning to the same group each week and enjoying a relaxed meal together insures that people are set at ease and are better prepared to listen to the talks and ask their questions. It is here that we part company from the otherwise excellent analysis of Alpha by Chris Hand. Hand is critical of that which contributes to the ‘softly-softly’ method including the good food, friendly conversations, and the ‘small group feel’. However, this is precisely where Alpha is at it’s strongest. It makes hearing the gospel accessible, and in part explains why so many seemingly unlikely people have wanted to do Alpha. It is not hard to see why Christianity Explored has adopted this emphasis on friendly, supper party based evangelism, and have rightly acknowledged their debt to Alpha in this.
The Alpha Course is an effective form of evangelism when done by and through the local church. By focussing on the essentials of the Christian faith, it opens the door for Alpha to be used in almost any context so that everyone has the opportunity to see their friends’ lives transformed by the gospel.
Alpha began at a church called Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) in London in 1977, it was taken by Nicky Gumbel in 1990 and repositioned as a course for those outside the church. The number of people attending Alpha at HTB grew quickly into the hundreds and attracted the attention of other churches across denominations seeking to find an effective tool ...
The Alpha Talks have been repackaged for today’s audience in the Alpha Film Series and the Alpha Youth Series was created to reach a younger generation with the Gospel. Even as times have changed, the Alpha course has continued to be used by the church as an effective tool to reach the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
As interest grew Alpha conferences were organized internationally and the original Alpha Film Series was filmed in 1994 to make it accessible to the widest possible audience. Now all over the world millions of people have tried Alpha and it has been translated into 112 different languages.
Before you run Alpha, you can preview all the videos for all of the Alpha series.
In 1992, there were five Alpha courses in Britain, 100 rusty churchgoers attended that year. By 1994 there were 26,700 attendees. By the end of last year, there were 14,200 courses around the world, with 1.5 million attendees. Nicky has sold more than one million books.
The Tablet added, "He has done Alpha not once but three times, graduating from a humble student to a helper who pours coffee.". Gumbel's supporters say that, within C of E circles, he is now more influential than the Archbishop of Canterbury; they claim that Alpha is saving the Church.
Nicky says that the Holy Spirit has often been ignored by the Church, because it sounds "weird and supernaturally evil". He says that the Church fears change, that he once said to an elderly vicar, "You must have seen so many changes", and that the vicar replied, "Yes, and I have resisted every single one of them".
His 10-week courses, intended to turn agnostics into true, speaking-in-tongues believers, have reaped an astounding number of converts. Jon Ronson signed up. Being Jewish, he presented a special challenge.
This is historically accurate. He quotes the Jewish historian Josephus, born AD37: "Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works ... the tribe of Christians so named after him are not extinct to this day.". I am with Nicky thus far.
We do recognize, however, that the Alpha Course has been a tremendous help to many Christians. Many people have come to faith in Jesus Christ through the Alpha Course. Many more have been strengthened in their faith and knowledge of God’s Word because of the Alpha Course.
We must be discerning in evaluating the qualifications of the person or people teaching the course. The Alpha Course was started in the United Kingdom, at Holy Trinity Brompton Church, by Nicky Gumbel and Sandy Millar in 1977.
The Alpha Course is ecumenical, and any course that can appeal to the wide range of traditions and denominations, as the Alpha Course does, has to sacrifice many essential Bible truths. A wide tent that is inclusive of those who hold teachings contrary to the tenets of the faith for which we are to contend ...
The problem is that the Alpha Course can be very different depending on the church/organization that is using it. In the hands of a solidly evangelical teacher, the Alpha Course can be excellent. In the hands of someone trying to push beliefs and practices that are biblically questionable, the Alpha Course can be used to indoctrinate and mislead.
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Oxford —Once Christian? Many of America’s and England’s oldest universities were established as religious institutions, but now they advocate evolutionary thinking. What happened?
Likewise, Cambridge University was established in 1209 by Christian leaders. Saint Andrews, Scotland’s oldest university, was founded principally for the teaching and study of theology. The commitment of these religious founders might be suspect, but many of the later colleges were founded by Bible -believing Christians.
Harvard was named after a Christian minister. Yale was started by clergymen, and Princeton’s first year of class was taught by Reverend Jonathan Dickinson. Princeton’s crest still says “ Dei sub numine viget, ” which is Latin for “Under God she flourishes.”. In the United Kingdom, the earliest university-type establishment was probably the College, ...
A Fractured Foundation. The cracks first appeared in the late 1700s and early 1800s, culminating with the influence of Charles Lyell’s three volumes of Principles of Geology in the 1830s.
This old-earth belief permeated universities by the mid 1800s, setting the stage for Darwin’s evolutionary model in 1859 ( Origin of Species) and his later work on human evolution The Descent of Man (1871), both of which required long ages. After Christian universities adopted these compromises, the slide from biblical Christianity to naturalism soon followed.
The Radcliffe Camera at Oxford University, built between 1737–1749, was originally used to house the Radcliffe Science Library. Most of the colleges in the United States that started over 300 years ago were Bible -proclaiming schools originally.
The book The Sacred and the Secular University (2000) is an insightful study by Roberts and Turner , two secular historians who show no evidence of overt Christian bias. They discuss the change in American universities from the Christian worldview to naturalistic philosophy.