My name is Chris Crim and my family and I have recently become members at PLC. I wanted to share with you my experience attending the Alpha Course. This course in my opinion is a must do and has had such a dramatic impact on my life. My wife Janice and I found out about Alpha at our New Member class. With our daughter, Faith, in her first year of confirmation here at PLC, and some wonderful new friendships made at our New Member class, The Alpha Course seemed like a good opportunity to explore together a deeper relationship with the Lord. Our daughter was making a commitment to learn more about God, so I felt the need to make a deeper commitment to following God. I was surprised at where the journey led me.
In his weekly sermons and throughout Alpha, Pastor Sean speaks about having a deeper relationship with God with a passion and confidence I wanted to replicate in my own Christian walk. Alpha helped set me in the right direction. At the very beginning of Alpha, Sean talked about developing a relevant relationship with God, urging each of us to take a step in the direction of God, just a step. For me it was more of a leap.
As the topics of each week were explored, first by a talk from Sean and then in our group discussions, I learned to trust God, to let go and give Him control over everything each day, not just at night at prayer time, or blessing a meal, or Sunday morning. I started realizing how God was taking care of me every day and what Jesus’ work on the cross truly represented. I was feeling more connected to God and more grateful than ever.
The tipping point for me was the Alpha Day Away. We spent an entire Saturday gathered with other churches, learning about the Holy Spirit. I came away from that experience feeling so connected to the power of the Holy Spirit and the important role the Spirit plays in my everyday life. The answer again was relevance.
My relationship with God has become more personal, more practical and much more real. Studying scripture now is not acquiring knowledge from the Bible as a historical document, but how what I read can be applied to my everyday life. I am reading God’s Word more regularly than at any other time in my life. Alpha has also exposed me to authors and books on a variety of topics from proving Christ’s existence from a non-believer’s perspective to setting spiritual boundaries and other inspirational writings. I engage in prayerful reflection more often in my day now than ever before. God is relevant in my life.
Comments are closed.