On Saturday I had the "fortune" of dining with the family Kool-aide drinker. He is a fucking bat shit loony if there ever was one. Abortion is "bad"(killing babies), but Iraq is a just war(killing babies). He is wating for the rapture.
You can imagine that dinner is interesting, but something came up that I had never heard of before. He is really into something called the Alpha Course. Anyone know anything about this? I would appreciate more info.
I am not into organized religion (nope, never been to a service of any kind), but I value the search for spirituality, and respect it in others. I enjoy Pastordan's series "Brothers and Sisters". So I will respect this Alpha thing if I get good feedback. I might even consider it a sign of hope for brother kool-aide.
However, to my eye it looks more like a cult than religion. The website provides almost no information on the course - instead it tells you to go to a meeting. The meeting itself is not just a presentation, but provides an "environment" for exploring faith. More:
From the website:
There are over 28,700 courses running all over the world -
A course description:
The Alpha Course consists of a series of talks addressing key issues relating to the Christian faith.
- Supper There is a light meal together at the beginning of each session which gives people a chance to get to know each other.
- Talk After each talk we divide into small groups to discuss the topic of the evening, ask questions and express opinions.
- Coffee & Small groups Listen, learn, discuss and discover. And ask anything. Alpha is a place where no question is too simple or too hostile.
Talk titles
- Christianity: Boring, Untrue and Irrelevant?
- Who Is Jesus?
- Why Did Jesus Die?
- How Can I Be Sure of My Faith?
- Why and How Should I Read the Bible?
- Why and How Do I Pray?
- How Does God Guide Us?
- Who Is the Holy Spirit?
- What Does the Holy Spirit Do?
- How Can I Be Filled With the Spirit?
- How Can I Resist Evil?
- Why and How Should We Tell Others?
- Does God Heal Today?
- What About the Church?
- How Can I Make the Most of the Rest of My Life?
They are specially designed to provide practical effective and proven ways of bringing evangelism to your local church.
So what do you think? Legit? Not? Anyone?