Alpha and the Invitational Life

 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 opportunity – to see the gospel in action and lived out! Let’s look at it as a challenge and an exciting opportunity.

The Challenge of Contemporary Pluralistic Culture:

The new buzzword is tolerance – not that all views are allowed, which is true tolerance, but that all philosophies are considered equally valid.
 

The challenge is that we find ourselves in a world where there are many competing ideas on how life should be lived and multiple viewpoints influencing our culture, all with a different message about what life is really about. The result is a world and a society that is left with a major identity crisis. God made us with a hunger, a desire, even a curiosity, if you like, for Him. Ecclesiastes tells us that God has put eternity in the human heart. St. Augustine wrote, “You have made us for Yourself and our souls are restless until they find their rest in You.” G.K. Chesterton wrote, “If people turn away from believing in God, they will not believe in nothing, they will believe anything.” 

According to a new survey by the National Science Foundation, nearly half of all Americans say astrology, the horoscope, is either “very scientific” or “sort of scientific.” The “new atheists” hope to draw us away from religion into what they see as a more rational society, but I believe, as society seems to be abandoning its Christian foundation, we seem to be heading toward nothing but goofiness. That and moral decay and relativism.

 So the question becomes:  How do we share the Gospel in a world where there are a variety of competing religions or worldviews and where many perceive Christianity as irrelevant, or at least no more valid than any other? If the challenges we face today are in many ways similar to the early church, there is great hope.  We can learn from the ways that the first Christians faced this diversity and challenges they encountered. The early church prospered when it was on the margins, so perhaps we can be expectant about what God is going to do through us if we are open to hear and obedient to follow. 

In Luke 14 Jesus tells the parable of the “Great Banquet”.

A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests.  When he sent his servant out to call the guests, the servant found that they all made excuses.  The master was upset by this and sent out his servant again, but this time with the instruction to scour the streets and alleys of the town and gather the poor, crippled and blind.  The servant obeyed and reported that there was yet room for more.  The master then opened his doors even wider.  At first only a select few were invited, then the master called all those in the town; finally, he sent his servant down the roads and into the country.

The master instructs the servant to go and invite all the people to come, and to even “compel” them. He doesn’t invite people because He has needs, but He wants his room to be full. The Bible says that God is not willing that any should perish.  He wants everyone to have the opportunity to know him. The master did not just stop with his friends and family, he went to every corner of the land and every strata of society; the rich, the poor, the sinners, the outcasts.  ALL are invited to the Kingdom banquet, there are no exclusions.  But… we see that not all who were invited, accepted. But that was up to them. They excluded themselves, so to speak. All were invited.

What role can Alpha play in OUR living a Life of Invitation?

How can WE begin to live an invitational life?  How can we make inviting a lifestyle – a habit.
Remember when Nathanael was told about Jesus, he scoffed, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” (John 1:46 - a skeptical, confrontational question) “Come and see,” said Philip. He didn’t feel forced to answer the question, and didn’t attack him with an argument – he  just answered, “Come and see.” And that is what we do on Alpha. We’re not preaching – we’re just saying, “Come and see.”

So, who might God be asking you to invite, to include in your inner circles, that you might not have thought of?  When Jesus commissioned the disciples to share the gospel and make disciples, he reminded them that they will not be alone. He will be with us to the end of the age.  He promised them that He would send the Holy Spirit to be our helper. God never intended us to carry on his mission on our own or in our own strength.  After Pentecost, the Church engaged in evangelism the likes of which we have not seen since.

Our work is simple – just inviting. It’s God’s job who comes. We need to invite everyone,- not to eliminate those we don’t think will come. That’s not up to us. We don’t pre-judge.

I constantly hear stories of the most unlikely guests, from the most unlikely backgrounds, coming to faith on Alpha. I spoke to one church who ran the 7-week Alpha with a group of single mothers. One guest came to 2 sessions because she couldn’t, for one reason or another, make it to all of them. She came to, ”Who is Jesus” and the last session of the course, and accepted Christ on that last session. Don’t decide ahead of time who will come and who won’t. That’s not up to us – that’s God’s business.

Remember - the servant in the parable was probably surprised at who the master was inviting.
Blessings,
John