Canadian Evangelism

People often have questions about the size of an Alpha Course. They will usually be concerned because they think theirs might be too small, as if small meant insignificant. It is true that Alphas come in all sorts of sizes. Holy Trinity Brompton in London, England usually hosts up to 1200 guests on a typical Alpha. A large course here in Alberta might be a couple of hundred. I have personally hosted groups up to about 60-70 guests, but I have also hosted much smaller. My smallest was in our home with two guests. One guest was already a Christian and the other became one during the course, so when I tell about this one, with a smile, I claim it to be my most successful Alpha, because 100% of my guests came to faith on that course. Another point is this: in all my years of running Alpha's, I have found that God Himself seems to bring a balance. Somehow, no matter how uncertain things seemed; Will I have enough leaders? Will anyone come?... things always...

Part of every training or informational presentation on Alpha is a review of what we call, "The Three Essentials" of every Alpha. They have traditionally been Food, Teaching and Discussion. And I specify each time, "Do not leave any of these out! If you do, it’s not Alpha! " So, to review: Every Alpha evening involves food. Some do a meal every time, but that takes a larger team and more commitment. Some do a full meal to introduce the course, then just dessert and coffee for the rest of the sessions. Connection happens over food: eating together is seen as a sign of friendship and it provides a non threatening start to the course. As people connect over the meal friendships are formed. Laughter breaks down barriers. In Revelation 3:20 Jesus says,   Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.     Eating together was considered an important and intimate occasion in ...

I want to sum up a piece of what I see as our Alpha philosophy - our attitude toward every guest who attends an Alpha course. When we look on these guests, we should see them in the light of 4 Biblical themes: Creation: God made man in His own image, so we must look at them in that light. We should see in them the same value that God does. The Fall: All have fallen short . That includes us. I often think of 1 Corinthians 6:10-11 Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.   Now, it may be tempting for the self-righteous among us to stop there, feeling smug that we are not as other men , but let's see what comes next: And that is what some of you were. Yes, let us not forget that we were once in the same position as any of our guests, needing Christ. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus C...

  Calgary Alberta, April 26, 2014  With Wanda Ho, National Chinese Alpha Coordinator Today was a whirlwind trip to Calgary for a conference sponsored by  ESL Cooperative Ministries. I made the trip with Wanda Ho, our National Chinese Alpha Director, and Nora, a friend from Edmonton who is actually leading an ESOL Alpha (English for Speakers of Other Languages). This actually gives Nora more experience than me in this area, and her presence and input was invaluable in our presentation. Wanda actually gave the bulk of the presentation, with experiential input from Nora, while I merely gave a 15 minute overview of Alpha in general at the beginning. My main contribution for the day was as chauffer. We left the Edmonton area at 5:30 AM, arriving at Southwood United Church by about 8 to set up, then the return trip leaving Calgary by about 4. I had made my calculations based on the fact that this was a Saturday. Had it been a weekday we probably would have had to add the be...

I always found this interesting - the highest point on the Yellowhead Highway (Hwy 16) is not even yet in the mountains. It is at Obed, between Edson and Hinton. I lived in Edson for a number of years and found the town's history fascinating, especially the fact that back in the day, when there must have been a real case of railroad fever, two separate railways were racing to build west from Edmonton through the mountains, and neither one would give up. Eventually they both went bankrupt, so one became Canadian National and much of the other right-of-way became Highway 16. As you will read at the above link, the original railroad town was supposed to be Wolf Creek, and if you drive there today you can still see the blocks of streets laid out where the land speculators expected to plant a thriving town. All along that West Central railway line are former railroad towns, now mostly abandoned, but formerly with stations, stores, schools etc. Alpha Stories: There is an Alpha...

 One of the essential elements behind the Alpha plilosophy is invitation. Life in the 21st Century It sometimes doesn’t seem that easy being a Christian today. The cultural climate is similar in many ways to the challenges faced by the early church; not yet the persecution, but in the sense that they faced a world largely unsympathetic to their message and, as it’s becoming in our own time, unfamiliar with it. More and more people are growing up having no church experience. Early Christians were faced with challenges in the workplace (1 Peter 2:18); unbelieving family members (1 Peter 3:1;6) and insults for being a Christian (1 Peter 4:14).   In many ways the church has once again found itself on the margins of society .   Often we might see this as a negative thing, because we are not familiar with a culture and society where the church is not central. It makes us uncomfortable.   However, let’s look at this new paradigm as one that is exciting and ripe with opportu...

These were from my recent trip around Southern Alberta; specifically the transition from the flat-as-a-pool table farms to the badlands along the South Saskatchewan River and back to prairies as I travelled from Nanton to Medicine Hat. My trip included holding lunch get-togethers for churches who ran Alpha in 2013 in Nanton, Medicine Hat and Lethbridge. At Nanton I met with two churches from that town, as well as the Pastor of High River Baptist - a church, at the moment, without a building, as they lost theirs in last year's flooding. When I arrived in Nanton I went to the local Subway restaurant, which is where I always get my food for these lunches. The lights were out. They had had a heavy wet snow that morning and the whole town was without power. As I sat waiting for them to make my platter of subs, another customer placed an order and when he tried to pay by credit card, was told, "We have no power so we can't process the card." It dawned on me that I would be ...

Here is the introductory talk for the latest Alpha Film Series, "Is There More to Life Than This?" This talk's title in the original Classic Alpha was, "Christianity; Boring, Untrue, Irrelevant?" I hope you enjoy it, then go find yourself an Alpha. Blessings, John

Alberta2013 was originally the vision of Pastor Gary Taitinger of Millwoods Assembly in Edmonton Alberta. Here is his explanation of his vision. So, it was not originally an Alpha Canada initiative, but when we caught wind of it, we joined in enthusiastically. A team consisting of myself, Gary, Shaila Visser, Alplha Canada's National Director and Charlie Loshbough of Millwoods travelled the Province, selling the idea and encouraging churches in every corner of the Province to participate. The goal was to evangelize 30,000 Albertans with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that was actually met and even slightly exceeded, so the program was a great success. I will post numbers as soon as they are released officially. My challenge in 2014 is to visit each and every one of the churches who ran Alpha in 2013, to gain feedback and to encourage them to maintain the momentum in 2014.

I was born in 1945, a month or so after WW2 ended in Europe and a couple of months before the atomic bomb was dropped in anger for the first time in history. My maternal grandfather (he died before I was born) had been a Methodist minister in Southern Ontario until 1925, when his denomination became part of the United Church of Canada. My mother, then, was a loyal churchgoer and I grew up going to Fifty United Church in Winona Ontario, every Sunday until I was about 20. It really meant very little to me at the time, other than the fact that all my friends were there. So, when I left home, I also left the church. For the next twenty-five years I focused on the usual young-adult pursuits. I got married (1968), had a couple of kids (girls) and worked to be successful in my career. By the time I was 45 I had most things that a man of my age could want. We had moved to Alberta and owned a successful business, a nice house, a couple of nice cars. There seemed to be n...

Welcome to my Alpha diary. Let me introduce myself. My name is John Kivell. I am the Regional Director for the Province of Alberta, Canada, for Alpha Ministries Canada. This, since 2011, is my, "retirement" career, although I have been active with Alpha for over 20 years. Alpha has been variously billed as a practical and non-threatening introduction to the Christian faith, a venue encouraging one to, "question everything," an opportunity to come and investigate life's big questions and an opportunity to explore the meaning of life. It originated in Holy Trinity Brompton, a church in London England, and was developed (although not originated) to it's current world-wide status by Nicky Gumbel. My first experience with Alpha was in the early '90's, when a member of a home Bible study group mentioned it. At that time, it wasn't even on VHS video tapes. My home church was  St Paul's Anglican in Edmonton. The Pastor, Michael, had family in Brit...