PRAYER
Alpha Academy Part Three
How to ensure prayer is at the heart of your Alpha.
Intro
Prayer is the foundation of every Alpha.
Everything we do at Alpha starts with prayer, even inviting others. Prayer is a vital part of invitation. God is already at work in the lives of everyone, so we ask him to help us as we prepare to invite others to try Alpha.
Alpha is designed to fail if God doesn’t show up. That’s the simple truth. And so we ask him to show up, to take all of our efforts and infuse them with his Spirit, so that lives will be changed and people will experience a taste of true encounter with God.
Prayer is the basis upon which we build healthy Alpha courses. So the first planning stage for Alpha is finding a group of people in the church willing to pray for Alpha and giving them the information and space they need to effectively pray for the course, the leaders, and the guests.
We are always amazed to see how - as we rely on the Holy Spirit in prayer - he draws people to Jesus during Alpha.
Let’s look at some more practical tips.
PREPARE
01
with prayer
BEFORE THE COURSE
• Pray for each member of your church to have the confidence to invite someone to Alpha.
• Pray for the Lord to prepare the hearts and minds of those who will be invited.
• Pray for the team helping organise Alpha, including the hosts and helpers, that they would be filled with the Holy Spirit and have the gift of wisdom and the ability to make everyone feel welcomed.
• Pray that the Lord would help all guests to attend each session.
• Pray against anything that may prevent their attendance, such as illness or scheduling conflicts.
• Pray that over the duration of the course each guest would have an encounter with the Holy Spirit and that they would make a decision to follow Jesus Christ.
02
KEEP
it going
DURING THE COURSE
• Pray that every guest feels welcomed at the first session.
• Pray that hosts and helpers are able to personally greet and connect with each guest.
• Pray that people would feel confident to share some of the questions they may have.
• Pray that the Holy Spirit would prompt questions in people’s mind that would help them consider the person of Jesus Christ.
• Divide the names of the guests on your course amongst hosts and helpers so that each can be prayed for by name throughout the course.
• Pray for the hosts and helpers for wisdom in helping to facilitate the discussion.
• Pray that each guest has an encounter with Christ and commits their life to Him.
03
NEVER
give up
AFTER THE COURSE
• Pray protection over each guest as they leave the course, that the enemy would not be able to come in and distract them, but that they would take all they have learned and grow in their walk with Christ.
• Pray for the hosts and helpers, that they would feel refreshed, renewed and rested after leading Alpha.
• Pray for all the guests, that as they continue to journey with Christ they would get connected into a local church.
