faq
Q. Is there a video/DVD set for Youth Alpha?
A. No - Youth Alpha is presented by 'live' speakers and doesn't have a video set. There are many reasons for this, some of which being that we believe the relational approach is important, but also cultural relevance, cost, and the danger of any DVDs being outdated very soon after production.
Q. Are you going to put all the recommended movie clips on video and DVD?
A. No, for copyright reasons we can’t do this. To show clips from DVDs you will need to check that your church or group has the right license. In the UK you can do this through CVLI.
Q. Can churches charge a fee for people to come on Youth Alpha?
A. It’s very important to us that people are not charged for coming on the course. Evangelist Billy Graham has always said it’s really important that people can hear the gospel free of charge.
Q. Is it possible to run Youth Alpha without the weekend or day?
A. No - it wouldn’t be Alpha. We’ve found that the weekend or day with teaching on the Holy Spirit is one of the most crucial parts of the course. Interestingly, the Methodist Church did a survey a while ago of all the churches that were running Alpha, and they found that there were a handful of churches where Alpha was not working that well, and there were also a handful of churches that had cut out the weekend or the day on the Holy Spirit. It turned out that they were the same churches.
Q. Can we use bits of the ‘Tech’ stream in a schools talk?
A. Of course! Feel free to interchange bits from each stream so that the course is tailored best to your group.
Q. Do we have to have sung worship each week on Youth Alpha?
A. There are other ways of including a 'worship' element - look in the Leaders’ Guide for some creative ways to do worship.
Q. Who should lead the small groups on Youth Alpha?
A. We’d suggest that maybe for the first time you do it you use your youth team to model how to lead the group, with a couple of your youth being helpers in the group. Then the next time you run the course you can ask a couple of more mature Christian young people to lead it with two people from the last course (ideally any who might have become Christians) acting as helpers, and keep the cycle going.
Q. Should older teenagers do the regular Alpha course as opposed to Youth Alpha?
A. It’s up to your discretion as to what is most appropriate. If they might feel patronised coming to a 'youth' Alpha course, then perhaps you could have a ‘youth’ group on a normal Alpha course for them. But in most situations teenagers seem to respond best to the Youth Alpha style of presentation.
