ChristianityExplored

I'm a bit confused, how else might I have meant it? --RobHu

(PeterTaylor) Sensitive charismatics could interpret it as saying that charismaticism is unevangelical.

More that I don't know what "evangelically conservative" would mean. Unless you mean "conservative within the evangelical spectrum". Which I guess is probably what you meant. Okay, all that's happening is I'm getting confused by the phrase. How about we reword it as: A course similar to the AlphaCourse and just as evangelical, but more conservative (as opposed to charismatic). --AC

I think 'just as evangelical' is highly debatable --RobHu

Then what did you mean by "evangelically conservative"? I know very little about ChristianityExplored (and may be confusing what little I do know with ChristianityExplained?), so I make no statement about its evangelicality or otherwise; I was just attempting to rephrase the original line into something I could understand. Looks like I failed; could you have a try? --AC

I think Rob means Alpha is less evangelical than ChristianityExplored ... or am I confusing things even further? --Rachael

As far as I understand it (from the shady background stuff that isn't said publicly) Christianity Explored came into being because the conservative evangelical people (I'm not sure how else to define them) were unhappy about Alpha because they felt it didn't spend enough time on the 'core gospel' and that it put too much emphasis on what they saw as secondary issues/spiritual gifts/stuff that is random mumbo jumbo (delete as appropriate). So they do the 'gospel' (as seen from an Evangelical perspective) element (which is only focussed on in the first 3 (?) weeks of Alpha) and made the whole thing about it. They also took out all the 'Holy spirit weekend' type stuff. --RobHu

(PeterTaylor) There's a different target audience (if you'll excuse the phrase). CE is evangelistic: Alpha is also intended for new Christians and so covers issues like the Church and prayer. I'm sure CE's creators wouldn't call those secondary issues (unless the bit on the Church is a lot more focussed on ecclesiological models than I remember), but they appear to feel they're not appropriate for an evangelistic course.

I think I'd generally agree with that, except that although Alpha was originally for that purpose it now appears on bill boards around towns inviting people to find out about Christianity. While it was originally for bringing in people on the fringes of the church and new Christians I think it is equally used as an evangelistic thing now. I would wonder though about people who were new Christians and would need the gospel reiterated quite so quickly, either they need to know it or they don't... Also isn't there a post-Alpha course? Surely that is the thing for new Christians? --RobHu

I took the AlphaCourse as a new Christian (having signed up for it as an interested non-Christian, and then become a Christian in the 3 weeks before it started). I found it very useful for clarifying many things and setting excellent foundations. Although there were many aspects of the things discussed that I may have covered to some extent in the conversations with friends that preceded my making a commitment to God, there were many more things that it was very helpful to hear reiterated, set out clearly, reasoned, explained, or what have you, with the opportunity to ask questions. --AlexChurchill

I do think this is something that Christianity Explored lacks - follow up for those who become Christians. As I was leaving the church I remember they had (or were going to) do some kind of follow on thing... --RobHu

I went to an 'Arena' course two years ago, organised by StAG, which I think is basically the same as ChristianityExplored. It consisted of going through Mark's gospel, and we had talks on various bits of Jesus' life, death and resurrection from it, and discussion about it. It was definitely primarily aimed at non-Christians rather than new Christians. (I wasn't a Christian at the time.) - MawKernewek

As I remember Alpha only spends the first (three?) weeks on the gospel message itself whereas Christianity Explored spends all it's time on this... Also Alpha has been criticised for not defining or concentrating on sin sufficiently. I've only been to StAG once (that was in fact when I stopped being a Christian!) but I imagine they would spend more time on the issue of sin. --RobHu

The course I went to was 4 or 5 weeks long, Alpha is longer isn't it? I can't remember how much time was spent on sin but it was definitely mentioned when the cross was covered but the focus of it was to go through the gospel and examine the claims that Jesus is making for himself.  --MawKernewek

Depends what you count as "the gospel message" as to whether Alpha only spends 3 weeks on it. But yes, Alpha has 12 sessions plus a day/weekend containing 3 sessions on the Holy Spirit. --AC

(PeterTaylor) I said "also", not "instead". If there is a post-Alpha course (other than the HTB Marriage Course), it's new this year.

... and? Originally it was not created to be evangelistic (at least to those outside of the church), yet that is one of the main ways it is used today. --RobHu

(PeterTaylor) There's been some miscommunication - I got the impression that you thought I'd said that Alpha wasn't used evangelistically. In actual fact, I believed its current dual "audience" to be the original intent.

Wikipedia says "It started as a course for church members on the basics of the Christian faith, but then began to be used as an introduction for those interested in the faith. Nicky Gumbel, a curate (assistant minister) at Holy Trinity took over the running of the course and oversaw its expansion." which is what I thought, although I didn't originally get that thought from Wikipedia... --RobHu