Alpha began at a church called Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) in London in 1977, it was taken by Nicky Gumbel in 1990 and repositioned as a course for those outside the church. The number of people attending Alpha at HTB grew quickly into the hundreds and attracted the attention of other churches across denominations seeking to find an effective tool for evangelism.
This led to the first Alpha conference in 1993 at HTB where over 1000 church leaders attended to learn about Alpha and how to use it in their congregation. As interest grew Alpha conferences were organized internationally and the original Alpha Film Series was filmed in 1994 to make it accessible to the widest possible audience.
Now all over the world millions of people have experienced Alpha and it has been translated into over 100 different languages. The Alpha Talks have been repackaged for today’s audience in the Alpha Film Series and the Alpha Youth Series was created to reach a younger generation with the Gospel. Even as times have changed, the Alpha course has continued to be used by the church as an effective tool to reach the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In 2020, Alpha courses went online. Churches are now able to run the Alpha sessions online through various video conferencing platforms. Learn more about Alpha online.