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Changed Churches
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Gary Gulbranson Senior Pastor |
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Westminster Chapel
Bellevue, WA
“We’ve run Alpha for 11 years; it is center stage evangelism for us. The course is well laid out and relational, and allows people to safely work out their faith. Westminster is a large, 45-year-old church. A few years ago, we decided that we wanted to better relate to our community - to go out to them as opposed to waiting for them to come to us. Alpha was the right thing for us at exactly the right time. We began to see results. Lives were changed. Alpha brought back the ‘wow’ factor to our ministry.”
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Joe Castronova Senior Pastor |
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Worship Center
Lancaster, PA
“Alpha helped us focus on reaching the lost in an intentional and streamlined way. Alpha helped to change us from an inward-focused church to an outward-focused church. Alpha has engaged the gifts of hundreds of people in our church in the work of ministry and outreach.”
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Caroline Boehnke-Becker Teaching Pastor |
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Lutheran Church of Hope
West Des Moines, IA
“God has blessed Hope with tremendous growth. In a big church, it’s difficult to have community; Alpha gets people to connect with one another. God moves dramatically on the Alpha course. A majority of our Alpha guests are now people who have never been in a church before. People whose lives have been dramatically changed can’t help but say to their friends, ‘You’ve just got to come to Alpha!’” |
“I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Matthew 16:18
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Monsignor Thomas Murray, Priest (left) Michelle and John Doma, and Bruce and Susan Landis, Alpha Leaders (right) |
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Visitation of the
Blessed Virgin Mary
Norristown, PA
“We are a large parish with four priests and a busy parish school. People can come to Mass for years and not know anyone. Once people go through Alpha, the Mass becomes alive, and they really begin to connect with other people in the parish. Alpha grads have begun new ministries, adding to the spiritual vitality and easing some of the burden on our priests as the laity step up and serve one another.”
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Jim Anderson Senior Pastor |
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The Harbor
Hastings, MN
“When I arrived at The Harbor, my first priority was to help people see that we exist in the community for those who were not yet coming to church. I took eight of our key staff and leaders to an Alpha conference in 1999. I told them that Alpha needed to be embraced and integrated as our front door. We have grown from 180 to 650 in 12 years. Forty percent are new believers who were unchurched and came to faith through attending an Alpha course.”
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Wayne Okamoto Senior Pastor |
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Hope Community Church
Lindenhurst, IL
“Hope replaced its regular Sunday morning service with the Alpha course for 10 weeks. “We had no idea whether unchurched people were going to wake up on a Sunday morning for Alpha. I’ll never forget that first morning ... a ton of people came out!” reported Pastor Wayne Okamoto. “At Hope, Alpha gives members a heart to reach out to people. We’ve seen God transform lives and our church through the Alpha course.” |
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