Next Steps

You are a church leader and ready to get involved in an Alpha Invitation. Here are some steps you can take to get started:

1. Pray

Prayer supports all that we do. Only God can change hearts!

2. Enroll

Enrolling in the annual Alpha Invitation is free. We would love to be able to tell people about your course and link you with a local coordinator! Please let us know by contacting our Invitation staff person.

3. Work with churches already running Alpha

Consider if there are any other churches in your area that you can work with to promote the Alpha course – why not get together and put a float in your local parade, or have teams go out and put up posters. Members of Gurnee Church in Lake County, Illinois had a blast in their local parade last summer (see image to the left).

4. Work with churches not yet doing Alpha

Are you already meeting with other churches in your area or denomination? Encourage them to get on board and help to raise the awareness in the community by starting an Alpha Course, or helping with the p

romotions.

5. Set a date to launch your Alpha Course

We recommend you hold your dinners in the third week of September, right before your course begins.

6. Choose a Dinner Venue

Interesting venues can encourage people who may not normally attend a church feeling comfortable accepting an invitation. In the past, Alpha Dinners have been held in museums, town halls, in giant marquees, and restaurants.

7. Form a Team

This team of people will help you organize the dinner. Engage your whole church in making the Alpha Dinner a memorable event. If you get the right people leading and helping on the course you will often get three times more people actually attending the course. The right leaders and helpers are those satisfying this simple test: ‘If I had a friend who was not a Christian, would I be happy to put my friend in that person’s group?’ Into that test is rolled a number of other factors including: are they positive, outgoing people who naturally relate to those outside the church?

9. Promote your Dinner and Course

Order the 2008 Alpha Invitation materials, including posters, signs and invitations. Click here to view and order your promotional products.

For Alpha Invitation downloads (including web banners), click here.