Your Alpha Australia Annual Report 2019 500,000 Guests… with Your Support We Can Double It
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Your Alpha Australia Annual Report 2019 500,000 guests… with your support we can double it Thousands of Australians continue to answer the call of the Great Commission around the clock face of every part of the Church, Melinda Dwight faith. Hasn’t it been great to sharing around tables and see banners across Australia exploring faith together. Alpha Australia National drawing the attention of Director We are so grateful for the passers-by? All glory and generosity of all who give, @melindadwight thanks to God who has serve, pray, volunteer and prompted by the Holy Spirit invite, so that each of these What an amazing year! 500,000 to be Alpha guests. stories is made possible. We’ve loved celebrating Together we are seeking with you that through local All of us still know friends to make Jesus’ great churches running Alpha that haven’t come to faith. commision our first priority. 500,000 Australians have God cares about each of heard about the good them and so do we. Every Thank you for being hope news of Jesus. Great work person matters. Every story bearers and facilitating everyone! is important. Together let’s change in the faith climate facilitate another 500,000 to in Australia. Please keep Together there’s been participate in Alpha. praying that we can serve much prayer for people to many more people through explore faith, and many Thank you for your powerful Alpha and together see His conversations that have partnership in the Gospel. kingdom come. lead to invitations, and in As you can see in this some cases, acceptances. Much love and thanks, report there are many Remember the invitation is wonderful stories, across Melinda the win as we move them Alpha was a watershed moment in my life — a journey from absolute emptiness in my relationship with God, to making Him the primary focus of my life. Alpha Guest at Mary Immaculate, Eagle Vale Our Vision The The The Evangelisation Revitalisation Transformation of the Nations of the Church of Society Our Growth 2,500 50,000 2,000 40,000 1,500 30,000 # Courses 1,000 20,000 # Guests (per year) # Churches 500 10,000 0 0 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 #Churches 326 588 768 1078 1260 #Courses 694 975 1316 1906 2441 #Guests 8034 14723 19871 38960 45158 2019 ANNUAL REVIEW More churches, more volunteers, more guests We have so much to be grateful for, and even more to look forward to Christianity in Australia is churches. They faithfully Dan Daniels facing some significant and tirelessly prepare challenges. However, in their teams, invite their CEO & Founder, the face of these guests, organise meals and Daniels Health Alpha continues to grow and fervently pray, creating an Alpha Australia Board strive toward its goal to environment of welcome Chairperson see 1 million Australians and grace. We estimate take part. over 6,300 volunteers While Alpha globally can helped serve in some way trace its history back to In 2018, we saw a 16.8% in 2018 - to each of you, we beyond the early 1990s increase in the number of are so grateful and want to from Holy Trinity Brompton in churches running Alpha extend our thanks. You are London, this year marks the from the previous year. the hands and feet in this twentieth year of operation Those 1,260 churches who move of God. here in Australia. Alpha took part represented was established to help almost every Christian Next year will be an Australian churches in their denomination, with exciting time as we release mission to invite people Baptists, Australian Christian new courses (Marriage to explore and develop a Churches, Catholics and and Marriage Preparation), relationship with Jesus. Anglicans making up nearly reveal a new and 50%. A pleasing trend is improved online Alpha Twenty years on, we are seeing local churches Digital Platform (hosting celebrating 500,000 Aussies run Alpha more often, all our Alpha and training who have taken that now averaging 2 or more videos), as well as faith journey. These are courses per year. This is Australian-specific Invitation significant milestones and resulting in ever more and Promotion Materials. worth pausing to praise guests attending and our God and King who exploring faith in Jesus. We hope and pray you will deserves all the glory. We continue to benefit from praise Him for raising up The significant uptake of these resources as well as donors like you who have Alpha in Australia is thanks the training support Melinda made this story happen. to our many volunteers and and her team are more leaders serving in local than willing to provide. ALPHA AUSTRALIA Our Board & Leadership Chris Sadler Mark Hutchinson Angel Hutchinson Consultant & Alpha Former President & Senior VP, International Board CEO, GE Europe Amber Chloe Member Josephine Marshall Kevin Bailey Melinda Dwight Director & Philanthropy & Pastor & Alpha Decorator, Development Australia National One Rundle Trading Co Director The changes God has brought me through Alpha are: confidence in self, a renewed love for my partner, a greater awareness of my surroundings; I find myself communicating more freely with people, a sense of hope has returned and the peace has not left me. Alpha Guest at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Orange A Strategic Solution The release of the Alpha Film Series in Having run the Alpha Film 2016 has been pivotal in growing Alpha’s Series at Gateway four times impact in Australia. The series covers all in the last 12 months, we the familiar Alpha topics, but has two have seen new momentum new presenters; Gemma Hunt, a CBBC in some key areas. Firstly in TV presenter, and Toby Flint, an Anglican evangelism, as we are now clergyman. Alpha pioneer Nicky Gumbel reaching the unchurched features, along with a number of other people, sharing inspiring stories and through a culture of invitation. interviews from all around the world. Secondly, Alpha provides Other than the vibrant new format taking a tool of discipleship as we guests on a spiritual journey, it is also FREE journey with people who to download the talks, the Guest and have made faith decisions. Team Guides, training, promotional and Thirdly, Alpha has created a planning resources from Alpha’s website. leadership pipeline for raising We’ve also seen an increase in the number leaders, and finally, Alpha of resources translated to languages has grown the relational other than English being accessed. The strength of our church, as most popular being Mandarin, Farsi, and people have found a sense Spanish. Thanks to your generosity, these of belonging. We have resources are FREE and are accessible to more churches, and people of all ages been thrilled to see Alpha’s and all nations. impact to our congregation, our church strategy and our Our team continues to connect with and local community. support more churches to run Alpha. We are encouraging those who already run it to do so more regularly, 2 or more times a Craig Guntrip year. Over 80% of leaders say they found Gateway Church live training beneficial. It not only gives Devonport, Tasmania them an opportunity to connect with the Alpha team, but also with other church and Alpha leaders in their region. ALPHA AUSTRALIA Mobilising Local Parishes The Catholic Church in Australia is increasingly aware of the need to intentionally evangelise and grow missionary disciples, and by many parishes Alpha is viewed as an excellent tool for this task. Over the last three years, 12,000 people have participated in an Alpha run by over 200 Catholic parishes and schools. Alpha has helped reinvigorate a passion for people without faith, and has been effective and fruitful in bringing people closer to Christ. This enthusiasm has been propelled further by Ron Huntley and Fr James Mallon from Divine Renovation Ministries. They have communicated to over 1,100 Catholic bishops, clergy, diocesan staff and lay people, laying out a vision of a growing, engaged Church supported by the disciple-making process of Alpha. Live training events have equipped parish and school teams across 13 Catholic dioceses nationally. L-R Back: Fr Mauro Conte, Brett Larsson, Victoria Laban. Front: Vanessa Comninos, Jessica Thompson, and Judy Fakaosi Siaki with her daughter at Springfield Parish. Lives are being changed through Alpha at Springfield Parish, Brisbane. The four parishioners pictured above said they were originally apprehensive, skeptical and reluctant to join Alpha. After Alpha, Judy Fakaosi Siaki said “We went to Alpha with the intention that we were only going so we could baptise our baby. But now we’ve come away with so much more – an ultimate unwavering knowing in my heart in being a Christian, and who Jesus and God are, and that I am His daughter.” Jessica Thompson said the weekend away during the Alpha program changed her life. “After all the bad decisions from my past, I had been filled with the Holy Spirit.” Brett Larsson stated that “I started reading the Bible, something I had never done before.” Mrs Laban felt that Alpha helped her marriage, “The events that unfolded during the weekend changed me as a wife, a mother, and as a disciple of Christ.” Vanessa Comninos Our Lady of the Southern Cross Springfield, Queensland Celebrating 500,000 Aussie Guests After reaching 500,000 Alpha guests in Australia this May, the Alpha team have been celebrating by delivering cake and certificates to some of the churches and parishes who have significantly contributed to this milestone. Here are just a few! Your prayers, your time, your money and God’s grace have allowed half a million people try Alpha in Australia. The Alpha Youth Series has The generosity of supporters means more guests are attending Alpha’s across the country been the most and many lives are being transformed by Jesus.