We’ve got something exciting in store… when the January blues hit, when it’s cold and dark outside, St Luke’s are opening our doors wide to people on a Tuesday morning. The door will be open to a warm welcome, hot coffee and breakfast and a chance to be together to explore the bigger questions of life, faith and meaning.
I’m sure the Alpha course is familiar to most of us – and it certainly holds a special place in my heart because it is how I came to learn about Jesus all those years ago. I want to share some of the heart behind it all in this week’s blog, and the word I’d like to use to do this, is the word “invitation.”
We can never underestimate the power of an invitation; so, when has an invitation changed your life? Maybe you found a friend you connected with? Perhaps an invitation to a party led you to meet your spouse? Or finding a new hobby you love? The feeling of being wanted, included and ultimately valued is really powerful. A personal invitation shows that someone cares about us, and wants us there. I’ve shared before that joining a church community made me feel like I really belonged somewhere, a place where people loved and cared for me. And it all came about because someone invited me. Simple as that.
To invite someone to an Alpha course has genuinely life-changing potential. A well-run Alpha course will make people instantly feel like they belong, and that their opinions are valued and interesting. It’s a rare gift in our cultural climate today that we are allowed a space to come and talk about deeper things, to just have a space to think, to connect and to wonder; Alpha opens up this space in a really profound way. Alpha lets people find out about the person of Jesus, and gives space to delve into other aspects of the Christian faith like prayer, the Bible, healing and the Holy Spirit. There is a feeling that people are searching for something real and true in a world of fake news and fear; so to be welcome into our beautiful church to think about our beautiful Jesus might be just what people need.
Our heart for the Tuesday morning slot is so that parents and carers who drop off their children at school or Greenshoots can come up straight after, and spend some time in community together. So, while an invitation might be scary, and the fear of rejection is real, I think the benefits far outweigh the challenges. My question to us is – “who will you invite to have a potentially life changing experience?”