James Thinks : social

writing is a kind of thinking

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My experience of the alpha course

Over the last couple of months, I've attended a local Alpha Course, organised by a friend I used to work with. I expect some who know me think that is a bit odd, given that I'm a non-believer, philosophical naturalist, agnostic-atheist, secular humanist, etc
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Alpha course 5: Why and how should I tell others?

The next evening's subject was evangelism. However the feel of the video was a lot less pushy than the word "evangelism" usually implies. In contrast to the earlier alpha course videos, I didn't feel like I was sat in church, being preached to.
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Alpha Course Introduction

A friend I used to work with, Matt is running an Alpha Course locally, so I agreed to go along. Actually he prefers to say "facilitating" than running. It seems they're really keen not to come off as preachy or laying down the law, saying "All opinions welcome."
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Alpha course 7b: Does God heal today?

This post describes the latter part of a single alpha course evening session, the first part was about the church
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Alpha course 4: How do I have faith?

I arrived in the now familiar upstairs room of the coffee shop for the fourth proper session of the Alpha course a bit before 7pm. I spent the first half hour chatting with Matt, Katie and Mandy, mostly about children.
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Alpha course 7a: The church

The final session of the alpha course had two themes, the role of the church and asking whether God heals today. I think it was a bit of a shame that the two sessions were crammed into one as I think there was a lot to discuss here.
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Alpha course 3: Why did Jesus die?

Tonight's half-hour video was called "Why did Jesus die?", presented by a youthful and charismatic chap called Toby.
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Alpha course 6: How can I resist evil?

The alpha course video on the theme of evil featured a woman who was a sports presenter, although I didn't recognise her. Hardly surprising as I tend to play more sports than I watch. She told some somewhat amusing anecdotes about people getting into mild peril, but also highlighted the shocking scale of present day human trafficking.
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Alpha Course 1: Is there more to life than this?

Back for the second session of the Alpha Course and there were indeed more people, as well as the familiar faces from last week.