Alpha Course: Exploring the meaning of life

At St Martin's we run the popular Alpha Course (http://www.alpha.org/), a ten week course that looks at the claims of the Christian faith in a fun, friendly and informal way. This is the second course that we've run since I've been in Walsall, and last night was the second session of the course. Last night's topic was 'Why did Jesus die'. It's such a privilege to be able to explore with other people issues relating to God and the Christian faith. In total we have fourteen people on our current course (this includes group leaders), and we vary in age from a teenager up to people in their sixties. The evening begins with a meal, followed by a presentation and then an opportunity to divide into groups to discuss the topic of the night. The great thing about Alpha is that it gives permission for people to discuss the big questions in life, in a safe and non judgemental environment. We're all on a journey with God, a lot of people on the course are searching for answers, looking for God, others have been Christians for some time and are using the course as a refresher, looking again at the essentials of the Christian faith.

At St Martin's we tend to vary the presentation week by week, so some weeks I do the talk, using clips from films when appropriate, and other weeks we use the Alpha DVD which contains the talks given by Nicky Gumble.

I've been on quite a number of Alpha Courses over the years, but what I find is that each one is different, and I always come away feeling as though I've learnt something new. It's a wonderful privilege.

There is a link to the main Alpha website on this blog as as through our church website (http://www.walsallstmartins.2day.ws/), if you're looking for answers, and exploring the meaning of life, I'd recommend you give Alpha a go.