So… they started to tell me what they really thought!

The videos are ok… but way too long. Nicky is interesting but you have to get past the pommy accent and the cheesy smile… We’d rather you led the group and that we could focus on our questions…

It seemed that they preferred simple directed conversation rather than video input and then direction. The vids just didn’t work for these guys.

I have to say that for a bunch of upper crust English folk Nicky Gumble is probably just the thing – he looks like one of them, speaks like one of them and the building he meets in looks like a building they could identify with.

But for young Aussies?…

I am thinking of asking Mick Molloy to do an Aussie version of Alpha – I reckon it could be a real winner. At the end of the day we agreed to stop watching videos and begin exploring Christian faith just from the Bible and with our own conversation.

I am not convinced that Alpha is the way to go for non baby-boomers.

It is very cognitive and relies heavily on an apologetic approach to evangelism assuming that information will produce conviction. That’s a bit of an over-simplification but you get the idea.

Is there a place for Alpha?

Of course!

It is a valuable tool in the church’s mission toolkit, but like so many things it became the answer to the church’s evangelistic woes. “if they just come to Alpha…”

I just woouldn’t recommend it for anyone under 40ish…