Alpha and The Emerging
Church – Oil and Water?

Todd is currently the President of Alpha USA, an organization that is focused on motivating and equipping Christians to connect with missing people in natural ways. This role allows Todd the opportunity to express his leadership and creativity in his core area of passion -- evangelism. Todd is the former President of the National Association of Vineyard Churches and has been involved in church planting and leadership development for 25 years.Over the past few years Todd has spent a great deal of his time working with young/emerging church leaders.

OTM: Todd, Why would emerging church types be interested in Alpha? I’ve heard some of them talk about it as just another contrived, modernistic church program?

The emerging church scene may be interested because the vast majority of them instinctively know that the movement as a whole (and most of its parts) is not doing a bang up job at evangelism. I believe we all want to, but we are stuck having deconstructed things we don't like but have not yet put forward positive alternatives. If by contrived one means "made" or "manufactured" that may not be a bad thing, because anything we build, including the emergent church, has been "made." If on the other hand, one means the negative nuances of the word like "false" or "hypocritical", then I don't believe that to be an accurate description of the Alpha Course. D.L. Moody (I think) responding to one of his critics, who was not engaged in evangelism, is reported to have said (Hunter-paraphrase) "I like the way I am doing evangelism with all its faults better than I like the way you're not doing it."

My honest assessment of Alpha is that it has both modern and postmodern aspects to it. Thus, I can certainly see why some people might look at it and observe the modern components and say that it doesn't fit the postmodern world. Others, however, notice the postmodern components and believe that they can work around the modern parts.

OTM: Most secular postmoderns tend to be suspicious of Christian truth claims, and turned off by apologetic approaches. How does Alpha navigate that?

It would be important to know whether such a person was turned off by "truth claims" in general; meaning that they had a radical epistemology that leads them to believe there is no truth, or that they were turned off by specific Christian truth claims. It is also important to note that every religion makes truth claims, as do agnostics and atheists. There is no way of doing basic human communication without truth claims.

Having said that, Alpha is a good marriage of truth claims and relationship. The Alpha Course puts forward the historic tenants of the Christian faith. One might think of it as a contemporary catechism. In fact, the subtitle for the Alpha Course is "A Basic Introduction to the Christian Faith." But, on a well-run Alpha Course, this happens in the context of relationship, community and honest dialogue wherein, regarding guests on the course, no question is too naïve and no assertion too hostile.

Postmodern people who care about evangelism could be really helped by British missiologist Leslie Newbigin. In Newbigin's Proper Confidence, he makes accessible the work of philosopher Michael Polanyi. Polanyi's great contribution to philosophy, and Newbigin's application of it to evangelism and missions, is the undoing of the Cartesian notion of utterly objective knowledge. Polanyi, and Newbigin after him, show that there is no "knowing" without a prior personal commitment. This is not just true for Christian apologetics; this is true for any kind of knowing. Thus, we do not need to be bashful about telling our distinctly Christian story; of course we are personally committed to it --- just like everybody is committed to some story or world view.

OTM: An even harsher critique, some bring, is that Alpha is manipulative?

Alpha manipulative? Decidedly no; on the contrary, on an Alpha course we work very hard to create a relationally and intellectually honest environment. No one is backed into a corner, no one is tracked down if they decide to leave; we honor their journey and the work of the Holy Spirit in it. Manipulation means "to control or to play upon another by artful, unfair, or insidious means; especially to one's own advantage." In dealing with people it means, "to give them an appearance of, but not a real choice in a matter, and to do so for selfish interests." Nothing could be further from the truth on a well-run Alpha course.

OTM: Isn't Alpha really more appealing to "the boomers"?

When I first began investigating the Alpha Course, I too thought that might be the case. While Alpha is reaching a lot of boomers who are churched, but unbelieving, in mainline congregations, that is not the only place Alpha works well. Here are two representative courses that demonstrate another large and growing aspect of Alpha. In Midtown Manhattan-normally thought of as a center for secular, post-Christian, postmodern culture-- at St. Bartholomew's Episcopalian church, my friend Nancy Hanna ran an Alpha course for several years. A couple thousand people went through the course. The average age of people coming to faith was 26. A sociologist measured this phenomenon and discovered that these young people not only made "decisions" but became rooted in that community of faith, gave of their time, money and energy, served the poor, etc. In central London, also normally viewed as secular, postmodern, post Christian culture, the same phenomenon can be seen at Holy Trinity Brompton, an Anglican congregation (www.htb.org.uk). Several hundred young people are on each of their three annual courses. Again, the average age of people becoming Christ-followers on the course is in the mid-twenties. These two examples and others I have seen since lead me to believe that a thoughtful person who honestly loves secular, postmodern, post Christian people, can use the Alpha course in a way that appeals to all age groups. It just takes a little thought and creativity.

OTM: For people who don’t like to "plan", how do you manage to get them to commit to a ten week course?

I just ask them to come the first night and come back if they like it. If not, no pressure. If one misses a week here or there they can always catch up by watching the video and by having offline conversations with the people in their Alpha small group.

OTM: What can Alpha contribute to the emerging Church movement?

A way but not THE way, of doing evangelism. One of my big concerns, as an insider, of the emerging church movement is that we are stuck in deconstruction regarding evangelism. In my view, we too often confuse "intention" with manipulation. Intention is simply the determination to act in a certain way, to aim at a target; it's the resolve to will something into being; to focus one's capacity to choose an object or course of action. We all do this everyday. You are reading this article because you intended to do so and had you not, you would not be reading it. If you’re interested you can read another article I wrote called "tension with intention", One thing I hope Alpha can contribute is to demonstrate a way of doing evangelism that is intentional without being manipulative. I think I know how to do it: take the Alpha Course, or your chosen approach to evangelism, and baptize it, dip it, immerse it in the Golden Rule and the Great Commandment---treating others the way you would want to be treated out of love for them and love for God. Do this and most any approach to evangelism will be "safe."

OTM: There are a couple of learning events coming up for people who want to know more about Alpha, where and when will those be taking place?

I am doing two upcoming workshops, one in Los Angeles (April 8-9, 2005) and one in Chicago (April 11-13, 2005), at the Alpha Conference. For more information, go to www.alphacourse.org or email me at toddhunter@alphausa.org