As we wrap up our look at Alpha Course, one fact stands out above all others: This isn’t a very persuasive series. We’ll bring everything home now by summarizing the entire thing, then evaluate it for effectiveness.
(This post first went live on Patreon on 7/28/2026. Please support my work—see the end of this writeup for options, and thank you for whatever you decide to do! No voicecast today, but this should be the last we miss. I decided to run this retrospective instead, since it doesn’t lend itself to voice format anyway, and I hope you enjoy it! I’m seriously on the mend and doing better. Thank you so much for your patience.)
SITUATION REPORT: The goals of Alpha Course, such as they are
Alpha Course is an extensive multi-session course meant to both introduce newbies to Christianity and to deepen and intensify the faith of existing Christians. First originated by an Anglican pastor in the UK, it took off much later under the leadership of Nicky Gumbel. Now, it’s an international phenomenon that tries hard to cater to every kind of Christian.
The course contains 12-15ish parts—it’s been rejiggered a few times since its creation. Each part of the series consists of a video or lecture regarding one theme, followed by discussion groups that talk about the theme. A big part of Alpha Course involves “Spirit Weekend,” which takes place about 2/3 through and is meant to be the high point, emotionally speaking, of the entire experience.
Self-reported numbers from Alpha indicate that this is a massively popular course with huge participation numbers. These self-reported numbers also indicate that more people than ever are participating in recent years. Objective, third-party research is, as you might expect of these things, nonexistent regarding retention, churn, impact on church growth, or long-term success.
So Alpha Course’s fans and leaders say that Alpha Course is fantastically effective and successful. Yes, churches can run this program and endure its costs and resource outlay with cheer. It will totally draw new members into the sheepfold.
The reality of the videos, however, doesn’t support any of it.
Video 1: Is there more to life than this?
The first video of Alpha Course wants viewers to ask if there might be more to life than our entire universe. But it really doesn’t answer that question.
Instead, Nicky Gumbel offers his totally-used-to-be-an-atheist testimony (those are still trendy in the 2020s). He talks about how very dissatisfied he was with his life. The other two hosts, Gemma and Toby, tell us everyone’s dissatisfied with their life. In the video, we watch celebrities say they’re dissatisfied with life.
The answer, of course, is to become a fervent Christian. Then and only then will life’s dissatisfactions be cured. Then and only then can someone feel truly fulfilled in life. For good measure, we get a classic and oft-debunked apologetics argument, C.S. Lewis’ “Liar, Lunatic, or Lord” false trilemma. The trilemma has nothing whatsoever to do with the topic of the video, but I guess it sounded impressive to Nicky Gumbel.
Video 2: Who is Jesus?
This video assumes we know nothing whatsoever about Jesus. I suppose increasing numbers of Zoomers and Alphas might not know much about Christianity. But to anyone who does, this episode of Alpha Course will sound utterly desperate to find some shred of PROOF YES PROOF that Jesus existed and really was/is a god and loves humanity and does stuff for us all the time.
We already know there is absolutely nothing in the historical record of 0-35ish CE that supports the existence of anyone like the Jesus of the Gospels. Nothing in that record attests to his teachings (as connected to him—though they were circulating around Jerusalem from other people), his family, his disciples and followers, his miracles, his trial and execution, or any of the constant disruptions the Gospels say he caused around the area.
So instead of using objective, compelling evidence to demonstrate their claims about Jesus, the hosts of this video use what Christians have always had to use instead: Bad arguments, miracle claims, false historical claims, emotional manipulation, and more.
Nobody at the watch party was terribly impressed.
Video 3: Why Jesus died
Now that we’ve totally established that Jesus was a really for realsies person who really for realsies died and self-resurrected and is a god who loves humanity, the third video asks why he had to die at all.
This video reminded me of something my 4th-grade class did in Gifted & Talented in like 1980: We got an illustration of a weird stair-step-like object and brainstormed ways it could be used. We came up with about 50 ways to use it. That’s what this video did. It threw every single possible explanation at the wall in hopes that something might stick. For good measure, we also got some conversion testimonies that have nothing to do with the topic of the video.
I still thought this video was interesting because of what it didn’t cover at all. Throughout Christianity, the explanation for Jesus’ death has changed. Explanations became popular, then ebbed away as a new one arose and gained supporters. Right now, penal substitution theory still has a lot of influence, but I’m seeing Christus Victor gaining legs.
It’s a very simplistic video with very simplistic ideas, but I suppose for the audience they’re wanting they can’t do much different.
Video 4: How to have faith
Our fourth video talks about how people can have faith in Christian claims. It begins by making a number of false claims about faith: That faith doesn’t come from one’s parents (when in fact most Christians are raised in the faith), that it’s based on facts (nope), that it’s just like marriage (LOL NO), that it’s not just feelings (when it completely is), and that Jesus will, without question or doubt, possess anyone who asks him to do so (but without any tangible signs of that possession, so we’re back to feelings).
Our hosts offer two main reasons for having strong faith in Christian claims: The Bible itself and Jesus’ supposed historicity. Unfortunately, the Gospels are not historical documents, and we already saw how nothing in the historical record during that 0-35ish CE period supports anything the Gospels say about him.
These guys really don’t understand how faith works or why it’s gained—or more importantly, why it’s lost. And because they don’t, they can’t really inspire faith. All they do is make it more obvious that they lack a foundation for their faith. It’s like they’re using a really bad recipe to make something complex for dinner—nothing’s going to work the way it should.
I wrote a followup post about this fourth video, too. In it, I focused on the video’s omission of something in a much-older teachers’ guide I have to the course. In the guide, it lists a third reason for having faith: “the Witness of the Spirit,” which is Christianese for wanting to Jesus the Jesus-Jesus 24/7.
Video 5: Why and how to pray
The fifth video covers the absolute necessity of prayer. Of course, no study ever has indicated that prayer does anything supernatural. It has some personal benefits similar to meditation, for some practitioners. In group settings, it can make group members feel closer.
This video promises all kinds of benefits beyond that, though: Miracles, dramatic life changes, and more. And when those results don’t appear, its hosts then offer all the asterisked terms and conditions that Christians have had to develop to explain unanswered prayers.
It couldn’t be more obvious that Christians have all those asterisks around prayer because their claims about prayer don’t work. That was the very last bit of faith I had, the night I deconverted. Reading the Bible showed me what Jesus is supposed to have said about prayer, and I could see that reality didn’t conform to those assurances at all!
(See also: Ray Comfort tells Christians how to ALWAYS get an answer.)
Video 6: How and why to read the Bible
This episode won’t make any flavor of Christianity happy. It offers nothing but the worst reasons possible to read and study the Bible. Hosts appeal to the Bible’s popularity, longevity, beauty, etc. And look, Dune is an incredible book and so is The Lord of the Rings. They’re both hugely popular and contain fascinating insights about the human situation. But that doesn’t guarantee that every person who picks them up will love them.
Undeterred, the hosts offer tons of testimonies from people who hold the Bible in high esteem.
Yes, this must be why heathens tend to know more about the Bible than Christians do. Yes.
Video 7: How and why does God guide us?
In this video, we realize that literally nobody at Alpha Course has any idea in the world how their god guides them. It’s glaringly obvious that they interpret things after-the-fact as divine guidance, retrofitting them into whatever it was they wanted divine guidance for. Any strange coincidence can qualify as a sign from Jesus.
And some of these coincidences are downright mystifying. One older guy explains that Jesus wanted him to upgrade his estranged dad’s train ticket home, and then a few weeks later his dad died. This seat upgrade was obviously the result of divine guidance.
And while Jesus is so busy giving his followers difficult hints about what they need to do, he’s not rescuing them from disasters or curing cancer globally.
Videos 8-10: The hilarious Alpha Course pivot about the Holy Spirit
In the 8th video, we hear about the Holy Spirit. We get a lot of words, but very little information. Basically, it’s the “doing” part of the Trinity. But because none of the Trinity is real, these guys can’t actually offer a “p or not-p” definition of it. So we get lots of non-definitions instead. At one point, Nicky Gumbel tells us that the Holy Spirit is responsible for the greatest works of art in European history. He also claims that the Holy Spirit is responsible for huge personality changes in converts. Neither claim is testable, of course.
They’re also trying very hard not to talk too much about speaking in tongues and other showy, dramatic “gifts of the Spirit.” Alpha Course is extremely Charismatic in origin and nature, but its owners want the course to be something any church could offer—even non-Charismatic ones. So they’re really trying to please two entirely different trains of Christian thought here.
Video 9 continues the theme by (not) telling us how the Holy Spirit actually operates. Again, without a solid definition of the thing, they’re not going to be able to describe its processes. It’s full of deepities—deep-sounding blathering that is actually pretty dumb.
And Video 10/11 is supposed to be about getting filled with the Holy Spirit, but it’s absolutely incoherent because of that two-step the series has to do around Charismatics. It all sounds exactly like what it is, either way: Just a huge emotional rush of catharsis. Nothing wrong with that. It just isn’t supernatural, that’s all.
The numbering system for the videos went a little haywire here, so there isn’t a #11. That retreat I mentioned earlier, Spirit Weekend, happens around this part of the series, and it throws off numbering. We got all of them watched, but sometimes you’ll see videos with the same content and same titles but with different numbers.
Video 12: Making the most of the rest of your life
Now that we’re past Spirit Weekend, Alpha Course assumes they’ve scored the sale. They’ve converted the viewer(s). In Video 12, we learn what to do next. Mostly, the instructions here are to act like a true-blue Christian and model salesperson. Be kind, authentic, obedient to the law, and don’t have unapproved sex, whatever else you do.
Gotta wonder why people possessed by a living god need to be told how to behave.
Video 13: How to resist evil
Video 13 is easily the worst video of the entire lot. It’s supposed to teach viewers how to resist evil, now that they’re possessed by a living god. Yes, because they’re still tempted to do evil things!
And to avoid those evil things, viewers get the usual broken roadmap that evangelicals like to shove at people: Believe correct doctrines, acting “righteous,” always evangelizing, maintaining strong faith somehow, knowing you’re safe from Hell, and wielding the Bible.
None of that actually works. They’re substitutes for the discipline and personal qualities needed to not even want to do off-limits stuff.
Video 14: Why and how to tell others
In video 14, we learn about the vast importance of personal evangelism. That’s the kind done by amateurs on the spur of the moment, usually with targets who are at least acquaintances. The hosts try very hard to make personal evangelism sound mandatory.
Of note, this is the video where Nicky Gumbel reveals that he is a vindictive asshole with road rage. He tells this extensive story about chasing a taxi through traffic, riding on his bike, to yell at the driver for doing something minor that he didn’t like. At the end, the driver recognizes him as the leader of Alpha Course! It was a shocking story to tell, and it definitely completely destroyed Nicky’s claims of having been transformed through faith. If you’re wondering what it has to do with evangelism, the taxi driver had a passenger all through that traffic chase. I guess Nicky considered the passenger as getting evangelized.
This video made absolutely no coherent sense.
Video 15: Does God heal today?
In Video 15, we learn all about magic divine healing. The hosts categorically insist that their god magically heals people all the time. Except when he doesn’t. And that’s fine too, because really when you look at it, all healing comes from Jesus anyway. If no healing happens at all, at least Christians go to Heaven, which is the best healing job of all really.
Determined Christians can turn literally any injury or illness mending into a miraculous healing from Jesus. And oh, they sure do. One lady offers a testimony that tries very hard to sell us on the idea of a fungal brain infection dissolving on its own. But an alternate testimony I found on her church site reveals that she was on a super-powerful antibiotic.
The answer seems to remain: Not that anyone’s ever found. And nothing this video offers can challenge that simple conclusion.
Video 16: What About the Church
And now, we arrive at the last video. Remember I said that churches put on this program? Now Alpha Course needs to direct new converts to those churches. In this video, the hosts try very hard to make church attendance sound amazing and essential to all Christians.
But millions of Christians get along fine without church affiliation. The main thing frequent church attendance does for Christians is making them more fervent and devoted. If they stop attending, all too many will find that they don’t miss it. They’ll soon find other things to be fervent and devoted about.
In America, the UK, and Europe, churches continue to close one after the other. So obviously plenty of Christians do not find church attendance that rewarding. And there isn’t much the hosts can do about the situation but insist that churches are just like families, just like the bestest friends ever, and just the best fun anyone can possibly ever have.
If they were that great, they wouldn’t be closing like they are.
Alpha Course is a dismal failure, but what else are they gonna do?
After we finished the series, one of the folks at the watch party—a lifelong atheist—asked if Alpha Course was supposed to give great reasons to convert. He wondered if this series was persuasive in the least.
Literally nobody there thought so. We had a nice mix of beliefs present there, and nobody had ever once felt any need to look again/more into Christianity as a result of anything we saw in Alpha Course. And we doubted that the discussion groups would have welcomed any of us or our concerns with Christianity. This series was made for people who were raised Christian but lapsed, or who are otherwise very primed to buy into the claims.
As I catalogued each video here today, I kept thinking about that lack of objective research into the benefits of Alpha Course. It’s like that with every single Christian program, whether it’s fake marriage advice (Fireproof/The Love Dare) or evangelism (“Who’s Your One?”). If it sounds Jesusy enough, it rides. And Alpha Course sounds very Jesusy, so it must do what its creators say it can.
Without making church affiliation more rewarding in and of itself, this series is probably about as good as it gets for worried church leaders.
I’m just flabbergasted that this is literally the best that Christendom can do in terms of an evangelistic video series.
NEXT UP: The great danger, for literalists, in conceding anything in the Bible isn’t literally true. See you soon! <3
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