Alpha for Youth Team Training Session

 

Alpha for Youth Team Training Session was held on Saturday, 22 February 2014 at Canning Garden Methodist Church, Ipoh. Conducted by a team of passionate young adults from Alpha Malaysia – Charis Tan, Charlotte Ng and Paul Kong – the training session covered topics such as ‘What is Alpha’, the Principles of Alpha, Practicalities, Hosting Small Group, Giving Life Talks and Spiritual Snapshots.

 

The Gist of Alpha For Youth

Alpha, in essence, is a practical and effective tool that points people to Jesus. Alpha is now run in 169 countries in 112 languages with 23 million people hearing the gospel though this. Currently there are 66000 courses being run around the world. In Malaysia, Alpha is run in English, Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil. There are several variations of Alpha, each tailored to the group in which it is presented to, such as Alpha for Workplace, Alpha for Youth, Alpha for Campus, Alpha for Seniors and Alpha for Prison.

 

 

The vision of Alpha is simple – to give every person in Malaysia the opportunity to attend Alpha and to respond to the good news of Jesus Christ. Thus the A in Alpha stands of Anyone can come, L for Laughter and Learning, P for pizza, pasta, popiah, (phood), H for Hospitality/Helping one Another, and A for Ask Anything.

 

 

Alpha consists of 15 sessions, in which one session per week is recommended. This is because it allows for non-believers to learn and process what they are learning. In each session are four main ingredients – food, games, talk; and small group discussion. Each ingredient has its importance and plays a part in reaching out to those who are in attendance. The food gives everyone a chance to know people and to build relationships; the games gets everyone to warm up; the peer to peer live talk allows the young people to share their experience to their friends; and the small group discussion allows for the participants to share their opinions and ask questions, as well as offering time for the questions to be answered.

 

New in Alpha For Youth

 

 

A new and fresh addition to the Alpha is the Youth Film Series. This series consists of twelve episodes, and is a tool that anyone can use to spark conversation about their faith. It is creative, and brings the good news of Jesus Christ to youths in a relevant way in which young people can relate to. This series was filmed in Vancouver, London, Paris and Jerusalem; and it is an excellent resource which allows youths to discover Jesus for themselves as each episode includes three breaks for discussion.

 

Upcoming Alpha Conferences

 

 

Alpha Workplace Conference 2014 will be held on 26 to 28 of June at Grace Convention Center, with the theme ‘Engaging The 7 Mountains’. This conference is designed for every Christian who wants to reach out to their colleagues with the good news of Jesus Christ, and it aims to use the 7 Mountains or Spheres of Influence (mountain of arts and entertainments, mountain of business, mountain of church, mountain of media, mountain of education, mountain of family and mountain of government) as a means to navigate the workplace and to provide a practical, sustainable, transferable process for working believers to bring God to Work.

Chinese Alpha Conference 2014 will be held on the 14 and 15 of July 2014 at Basel Christian Church, Kota Kinabalu. This conference will cover topics such as ‘What is Alpha?’, ‘How to Conduct an Alpha Weekend Away?’, Pastoral Care and How to Pray for Others and Alpha For Seniors. Those who wish to find out more about these two conferences can do so at www.alpha.org.my and/or www.alphafriends.org.my or call the Alpha Malaysia office at 018 3083001.