Alpha underway - Rector's Rambling for October 17, 2021

     Our Alpha Course is now underway.  Please keep us in your prayers, especially on Tuesday nights from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.

We have a good starting group which meets each week for dinner, then a short video teaching by Fr. Nicky Gumbel, a priest in the Church of England (our mother Church).  Although he is an Anglican Priest, the Alpha Course is a Basic Christianity Course that crosses all denominational lines, from Roman Catholic to Baptist.

Those taking the course this session are ‘already churched’ (a churchy phrase meaning they are members of a church).  One aspect of the Alpha Course is to help those already in the Church to renew and re-evaluate their own faith in Jesus Christ.  No matter how advanced we are in the spiritual life it is good sometimes to take a step back to make sure we still embrace the basics. 

Additionally, those of us “on the inside” of the Alpha Course (and in the parish as a whole) can use it to help us to learn to share the faith with others.  We all are called to ‘know Christ AND to make him known”.  Those who take Alpha will have some basic foundational wherewithal to be able to share the faith with others by helping to host Alpha at St. John’s and to share Jesus individually with their friends and family.

We should be praying too that we are also will be able to use Alpha as a way to draw those who are ‘unchurched’ to Jesus Christ.   The course is ultimately intended for those who do not know Him yet.  We all should in the next year take Alpha so we are all on the same foundation, and be praying for and inviting others to try Alpha.

Next session begins in January, ending in March.  A question for us to ponder now is “what day of the week is best for the next session?”  Sunday afternoon (lunch/video/discussion), Sunday evening after Evening Prayer (dinner/video/discussion), or a different weekday evening?  It is something for us to figure out soon so people can make plans for this winter for Alpha at St. John’s.

Lots of things to pray about...but then again it IS one of the things the members of the Body of Christ are called to do!  Pray for the increase in our holiness and new members of the Body of Christ.