Alpha and the Meaning of Life
Catholic Online carried a story yesterday about the kick-off of the Alpha Course's national million dollar advertising campaign in Canada.
For those who aren't familiar with Alpha, let's just say that it is the global juggernaut of evangelical/charismatic evangelistic processes. Alpha started at a charismatic Anglican church in London and has been experienced by 10 million people all over the world (30,000 courses are taking place in 163 countries right now, many of them in Catholic parishes and settings).
For more on Alpha from a Catholic perspective, go here
and here
(To put these numbers in perspective, consider that 8 million have attended Cursillo since its beginning in the 1940's and that 60 million Catholics have attended Life in the Spirit seminars since the late 60's.)
What is striking is how media savvy Alpha leaders are. Take a look at some of their marketing video's on the Alpha home page. (If you search for Alpha marketing videos on YouTube, you will find dozens in different languages (Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, etc.)some produced by local churches to market their course, others produced by Alpha International.)
How do the videos stike you? Remember that they are aimed, not at the churched, but at the unchurched of all backgrounds or none. Think about your non-practicing Catholic friends and family members. Would they be drawn or put off by these videos? Why?
posted by Sherry W @ 1:33 PM
2 Comments
Links to this post
2 Comments:
I really like both the cartoon video at the top and the one that shows a typical evening on Alpha. I think the cartoon video would be very appealing to those that I know that aren't committed, intentional disciples of Jesus.
The video has a way of affirming the built in sense that we all have of a greater purpose and meaning - everyone, except dogmatic atheists, would agree with this. Its also inviting people to "explore the meaning of life." The gospel will be, in the words of JPII "proposed" not "imposed." I think that is appealing to the postmodern generation.
The second video is appealing because of the people and the social interactions. Christ present in his body, in the hospitality - and in the conversations in small groups.
I just ran a similar dinner course like Alpha, that my apostolate ChristLife is developing called Discovering Christ, at a local parish for sixty young adults (18-25) and there was so much enthusiasm during the course - and part of it was just the numbers of young adults getting together. They were like "wow, there must be something here happening, if this many of my peers are interested!" More on this course at http://www.christlife.org/youngadults/dc.html
Combining faith with food / drink is helpful too. It puts the focus on building relationships and not getting through a program so I can continue in my individualistic program for holiness (as if such a thing existed:)
We are getting ready to begin this course at a local university in Maryland - please say a prayer for me and my team - we have training day for about 10 young adults tomorrow!
General comment about non-Catholic Christian movements and their often enthusiastic reception by Catholics - I believe that many (not all) catechists, priests, and even theologians mistakenly understood "ecumenism" after Vatican II. I say this because most of my education at Catholic schools (16 yrs) seemed to emphasize the importance of following Christ (very positive), but also de-emphasized the importance of the role of the Catholic Church in our faith journey with Christ. Teachers /courses presented other faiths as similar and different, but not inferior to the Catholic faith. Kind of a "Let's just all get along" mentality. Let's learn about what makes us different and what makes us the same, without placing any value on either of those things. Let's not offend anyone either.
My education during those years left a lot to be desired in terms of the actual teachings of the Catholic Church and the logic, reason, truth and beauty behind those teachings.
To be honest it has been mainly because of so many passionate converts to Catholicism that I have become more aware of the fullness of the Catholic faith and been motivated to learn more about it!
I agree with you about the dangers of embracing non-Catholic programs such as Alpha. This is true of many homeschooling programs and was part of my education in trying to educate my kids - some are overtly anti-Catholic, others are not overtly so but, like Alpha, leave out so much of what our faith believes that you have to do remedial work to fill in those gaps and by then it might not be all that effective.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home