Campus Alpha
What is it?
Campus Alpha is a seven week course introducing college and university students to the Christian faith. Over the last ten years Campus Alpha has proved to be an effective tool for helping young adults to explore the Christian faith, with over 600 courses now running worldwide.
Campus Alpha contains the same material as Church Alpha and Youth Alpha, except that it has been ‘squeezed’ (into seven weeks), ‘squashed’ (into thirty minute talks) and ‘spiced’ (with multi-media ingredients). The course is structured to fit into semesters and exam schedules, and is perfect for CF groups.
Why should I run Campus Alpha?
What would be the best way to tell your friends about Jesus? How do we share our faith? There are times when we feel discouraged and afraid to share or sometimes we just don't know where to start.
Campus Alpha focuses on the basics of the Christian faith and is an exellent medium for evangelism. Campus Alpha creates a non-threatening environment where everyone can ask anything, there are no wrong answers and everone will have an opportunity to discover God together with a small group.
How do I get started?
- Get together a team: You need small groups leaders and helpers for your discussion time, place a team to be in charge of the food or maybe even create a rota. You should train the leaders and helpers before each session so that they know what the discussion questions are!
- Choose a date and location: Run the course on an evening in a comfortable spot in your campus, church, or even a coffee shop so that people can and chill out and grab a bite before seeking the meaning of life. If the place permits, decorate the area! Balloons, carpets, christmas lights and anything you can think of!
- Invite people: Would you like to come for an Alpha course? It can always be done verbally and that might even be the best! But having handouts such as posters and fliers may help people remember the nitty gritty details such as your address or contact number.
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A typical session: Meal, games, video, discussion. As easy as that! Always serve the food first to satisfy the hungry guests, prepare something different every week for more fun and variety. A game or two helps to get the leaders and guests to kno
w one another. Some game/icebreaker ideas here. Play the Jamie Haith video talk and then discuss about it afterwards, let the questions flow in, remember that there are no wrong answers or questions as everone is entitled to their own opinion. And last of all, be creative!
- Weekend Away: Plan a get away. Somewhere quiet and fun like a beach or a mountain. This is the most important part of the session so don't skip it! Have it on a weekend (As the name suggests) or on a holiday so that more people will be able to make it. It is recommended that you stay for 2 days so that the sessions don't have to be cramped up and more time can be allocated for doing fun stuff!
- Register your course: Do tell us when you decide to run a courseso that we can keep you updated on any new events and also to help other people find a course nearby! Register here!
- Attend a training: Contact Chrisanne Chin to find out if there are any training events happening nearby! Drop us an email at info@my.alpha.org
- Prayer: Prayer = Success. Alpha cannot be run without prayer! In all things put god first and run Alpha for his glory. The most lives are changed at courses where the leaders make prayer a key ingredient to their course
What about training?
Be on the look out for any training events that may be held near you! There you will be able to recieve inspiration, knowledge, training packs and any other materials that you may need. It will be extremely helpful to attend as it trains you and your team to be leaders for the course.
A few of Jamie Haith's videos also shows some key elements that are needed to run the course:
Watch Online Leaders training: Prayer
Download 368.89 MB (mp4)
Watch Online Leaders training: Pastoral Care
Download 240.92 MB (mp4)
Watch Online Leaders training: Small groups
Download 405.58MB (mp4)
Resources
All Campus Alpha Videos and Mp3s are available for free download from here.
Course Notes
Here are the course notes for each week. In true Student Alpha style they have been squeezed, squashed and spiced to make them easier for you to use. You can print out the notes each week and give a copy of them to each of your guests. Enjoy!
Course Admin Notes
Here’s the admin note for each week. It has suggested questions for leaders, registration instructions and ideas for prayer meetings. You can alter it to work for your course.
All the resources needed to run Campus Alpha, including the video talks and discussion notes, are available online:
Campus Alpha on Youtube | iTunes | Student Alpha Site | Facebook