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THE NETWORK OF ALPHA CHURCHES: Together on a mission
“What unites us is infinitely greater than what divides us.” - Reniero Cantalamessa
The truth is, aside from the common centrality of Jesus, churches look pretty different from place to place. And through our differences, the Holy Spirit brings His unity. He breathes His life into all forms of real faith. This year, churches across Southern California who run The Alpha Course formed the Network of Alpha Churches (NAC). The Network is designed for churches, of all different denominations and backgrounds, to join together in outreach, sharing effective Kingdom initiatives, discussing Alpha best practices and in praying together.
The NAC met four times this year and will continue to meet quarterly. This year’s topics included “Attracting more guests on Alpha”, “Sustaining Alpha”, “Prayer and Alpha” & “Engaging Your Community.”
In July, the NAC was blessed to have a special guest speaker all the way from London, England: Pete Greig. Pete is the author of God on Mute, Founder of 24/7 Prayer and the Director of Prayer for Alpha International. He spoke to the NAC about ‘Prayer and Alpha’. Here is an exert from his talk:
“God is not looking for a product to promote a religion. God is looking, He’s always been looking, for a people to host His presence. That is actually what I love about Alpha. It’s fundamentally about - ‘How do we get close enough to people and journey together, so that some of His presence within us spills onto others?’
“It seems to me, too often as Christians, we are trying to spread a virus we’re not carrying. If I wanted you guys to get the flu virus today, because I’m a nice guy like that, but I didn’t have the flu, then it would be really hard. I could sing a song to you about ‘the wonders of flu’. I could make an enormous paper-mache nose with a big nostril and I could train midgets dressed in florescent green outfits to summersault out of the nostril and do a beautiful and quite moving dance about how one sneezes and the virus spreads. Or I could get scientific for those who think ‘it’s all too emotional’ and we could have facts and microscopic slides of the flu virus. You could go away knowing everything about flu and you wouldn’t catch it, because that is not how it spreads, right? And I do think we are often like that as Christians. But, if I was carrying the flu virus, which I am glad I am not right now, but if I was and I just get close to you and we talk, then it doesn’t really matter what we talk about, because your probably gonna catch it.
“And so you say, well how do we get infected with the Jesus virus? It’s in His presence. He breathe’s out and a pile of dust like you and me, suddenly, becomes a bit more alive: we’ve all been filled with the Spirit. We become a bit more colorful, a bit more animated, a bit more forgiving, a bit more inspired! So we come more alive, more human, more ourselves, and we become infected with life. Then we start to breathe on people. To breathe on people is really hard to do from behind a microphone where there is twenty feet to the front row. But it’s really easy to do if you just come close and start to hug and talk and listen. Alpha gives us a mechanism for getting close to people, journeying with them, and opening up with them. Then the Holy Spirit weekend comes and gives us a way of helping people become hosts of the presence of God themselves. What a wonderful thing.”
Listen to the whole of Pete's Talk here
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