Flu, Alpha Course and Laptops

Well folks we had a great Christmas and hope you did too! Unfortunately our eldest daughter bought us the flu along with the three grandchildren and so as she left on Thursday I took to my bed!

Anyway, thank God for laptops because rather than stare at the ceiling feeling sorry for myself I have at least been able to do something productive inbetween the medications, food and sleeping bouts.

I have managed to put an Alpha Course section on our web site. You can see this at www.hiltonchurch.org.uk/alpha/ and it contains details of the next course, how to find the venue and also allows you to print off invitations/registration forms. Gwen will put some of these in the church foyer for folk to take as well.

As I have started preparing for the course I have to confess that this last Advent season is the first that I have really taken to heart. We are blessed at Hilton with many different speakers and contributors which gives a richness of approach that I have not encountered before. As an unchurched man ‘Advent’ has always been another of those fancy ecclesiastical words that are of little or no value to modern man. How wrong of course but I wanted to use this illustration to remind our folk, most of whom are from some kind of church background, that those outside the church are indeed a ‘long way away’.

I went through the equivalent of an Alpha Course some 28 years ago and the effects were just dramatic and very wonderful. I was privileged to be given a clear understanding of the main building blocks of Christianity and a steady process of change and renewal has continued to this day. I will always be so grateful to the man that was brave enough to tell me he was a Christian, and knowledgeable enough to give me a brief and challenging explanation of what that meant.

The next Alpha Course will be starting on January 28th and it is an opportunity for us all to pray and summon up some courage to tell someone about it. That’s our Mission. Yet the course is also relevant for ‘churched’ folk too because many have never really had either time or inclination to stop and ask the really deep questions. So, whether you are challenged to tell someone about the Course or whether challenged to come along yourself I want to encourage you take that next step and as we so often say at Hilton ‘Go for it!’.

See you all soon.
Rob

Alpha Course Promotional Video

click to play