I'm sure other's experiences may well be different, but, as requested, these are some of the experiences of the two Alpha courses that I took part in.
On the first one, which was a CofE group, I attended alone and made it quite clear from the outset(i.e. at the communal meal where we were to be introduced to each other) that I was highly sceptical and that I was not a Christian. This seemed to cause no problem for the people there. At some point two people stood up to 'bear witness' I presume of how they had been 'saved' by their faith in the Christian God. Interestingly, both these people spoke in extremely emotional tones of how they had found God whilst going though a particularly stressful period in their lives, one, who had had a very upsetting divorce, and one who had lost someone dear to her. They spoke at some length on how they had found consolation in their new found faith.
Later we started the sessions proper. Each one started with a televised introduction featuring a certain Nicky Gumbel speaking to groups of what looked like pretty affluent young people, probably in his home church at Brompton. He came over as an extremely handsome, well groomed and extremely assured individual. I was considerably struck by the way that the TV cameras seemed to focus at times on his audience, seemingly to emphasise their enjoyment and delight in his spoken words. What he had to say, however, for me, was full of empty assertions, often backed by a liberal use of Biblical quotes.
I didn't really put much value by his prosletysing, I was much more interested in the reactions of our group of circa 10 to 12 people. They all watched and listened in rapt attention. Very quickly I found out that they all were Christians, from the same church who knew each other well, and the reason they were at the Alpha course was simply to renew and refresh their faith. I was disappointed, hopefully expecting that there might be others there who, at the very least, were not committed Christians.
I was asked what I thought about the Nicky Gumbel 'sermons'. I told them I was not impressed at all. Rather than ask why I felt like this, my comments were met with a wall of seemingly embarrassed silence, and they quickly moved on.
Now I won't bore you with lots of details. Rather I will pick out several interesting 'moments' from the sessions which I attended.
1) I asked the question why they thought their particular faith was any more correct than say, Islam? I was met with the response that we were not here to talk about Islam, and my question was not answered at all.
2) In session 2, the lady who was leading the session gave out a printed sheet to each of us. On this sheet were so called 'sins'. Each time a sin was mentioned on the sheet, there were a possible two answers we could give. a) whether we had actually committed that sin b) whether we had committed that sin in our mind.
Such sins included, for instance, actions/thoughts of lust and actions/thoughts of stealing for example. I think the list included about 15/20 different sins.
People were asked, in turn, to comment on how many sins they felt they were guilty of either in thought and action. Everyone had something to say, and all admitted to some of these sins especially in thought rather than deed. Then it came to my turn. I was asked, and I simply said ,"None".
Back came the anticipated response: "Really, so you consider yourself perfect, do you?" to which I replied, "Good grief, no. I simply reject your idea of 'sin'. Many, if not all of these, are entirely dependent on circumstances as to whether I consider them wrong or not, and, even on that level, I could not easily give you such simplistic answers."
Again there was a silence. not even a challenge, and they moved on to the next person.
3) In one session, I can't remember which, we started talking about how we have this spiritual dimension, which comes from God. I brought up the point that actually we are animals descended from apelike ancestors. So, did they have a spiritual dimension too? There was a chorus of disapproval at this, with one lady saying, "that isn't true because they haven't even been able to find the missing link, have they?"
As the sessions wore on, I realised that almost everything I said was causing consternation amongst some of the group. They obviously did not agree with me, and, furthermore, did not welcome anything I had to say. There was no attempt to actually respond to any of my questions. They simply moved on, safe in the knowledge that all the others were of like mind.
After the eighth session I decided to leave, partly because I could see I was upsetting some members of the group, and partly because there was no actual engagement of ideas, except, in my view, within the confines of their exceedingly limited mindset.
The second Alpha Course I attended with my wife. I wanted to see if a different set of people might have more open minds. my wife was intrigued by my experiences and wanted to attend just to see what it was all about.
This was again a CofE Alpha Course orignated bt the members of what they called a charismatic CofE church.
Again we found out very quickly that all the people who came to the sessions were committed Christians, and were involved, in some way, with their parent church. Again I was disappointed but I was still prepared to take part, as was my wife.
Here I will point to two very interesting experiences:
1) In the first session we were told of the overwhelming evidence for the existence of Jesus, especially from the writings of Tacitus, Suetonius and Josephus. I suggested that the paucity of references to Jesus himself in these writings was not overwhelming, and even if there was such a person there was certainly no evidence, outside of the NT, that the things attributed to him were true. No real challenge came from the other members on this point. They simply emphasised the importance of the NT.
However, one member of the session, got up and, obviously in highly charged emotional state, stated that she had been on drugs and she had found Jesus, and how dare I challenge what she knew to be absolutely true. I simply said that we would just have to agree to disagree. That seemed to inflame her further and she continued her verbal assault. Several other members tried to calm her down, and eventually succeeded. I realised that already I was not the flavour of the month.
2) In Session 4 the focus was on prayer. Now, so far, my wife had said very little. Again I had challenged the group with a series of questions, which had largely been ignored. There came a short break, and then the leader of the group suggested that we break into two smaller groups to gather in two different rooms. The ladies would be in one group, the men in the other, and our subject would be the importance of prayer. I looked at my wife, we both smiled, and said we would be happy to go along with this, even though we both clearly suspected that this was simply a ruse to separate my wife from myself, in order to hopefully influence her without me being around.
As far as I was concerned I obviously confused some of the men, because I said I have nothing against prayer to some extent, as I could see that it may have beneficial effects on the person praying, especially if the prayer was regarding the health and well being of the person prayed for. I did also say, of course, that the actual act of praying showed not the slightest evidence that their God existed.
However, after talking to my wife, later, she told me this:
One lady had told the other people there that some years back she and her husband had really wanted the house that they now lived in. Unfortunately, someone had made an offer on this house, which had been provisionally accepted, so they had little chance of getting it themselves. So she had prayed to God that things might change and that they, themselves, might be successful. And, indeed, the other person had had difficulties raising the mortgage, so they eventually acquired the house they were after, and the one she lived in today. She put this down to the power of prayer. My wife simply asked about the person who had had difficulties raising the mortgage. Did God not look kindly upon him because he hadn't prayed, then?
I won't bore you with any more. Suffice it to say that, after Session 6, we received a phone call saying that due to various commitments, some of the people had dropped out, and the Alpha Course wasn't going to continue. I think that that was probably a good thing, as both of us were now beginning to be bored with it.
