For the first time ever, Alpha has released a video series for teenagers. Youthwork’s Jamie Cutteridge caught up with one of the film ’s presenters – Jason Ballard – and Alpha UK’s youth coordinator Tom Clark, to hear why they made it happen.
JC:Tell us about the Alpha youth film series…How did it come about?
JB: I live in Canada, and youth workers in Canada are similar to other youth workers around the world – they love young people, they love Jesus and they want to get the word out, but they struggle to find resources, community and tools. There was a point where we said, ‘Well, Alpha has got to have something that we can promote and use.’ I was shocked to find out that Alpha had never made a film series for young people, because I think it’s an incredible opportunity. So it was just a process of advocating to Alpha that it was worth doing. The primary response was that it couldn’t be done because it was too expensive and that it would go out of date really fast. And they were 100 per cent right. It was really expensive and it is going to get dated in a few years - but we felt that it was still worth it, as there are so many youth workers who we know this would be helpful for, which means that there are so many young people who can be reached. And because we live in the digital age we knew that the platform would be bigger than ever. When we launched it in Canada we actually had well over 500 courses running before episode three was released.
JC: What makes the films distinct from other expressions of Alpha out there?
JB: The biggest change that a viewer will experience from traditional Alpha is that it is out of the pulpit. Traditionally Alpha is something that is done in the pulpit, where you see the speaker filmed in front of a live audience, but we travelled the world. Another key change is that with the questions you don’t wait until the end of the talk to have discussion - it’s broken into three sections. So, the guest is part of the conversation; their thoughts matter right away and you don’t have to wait 20 minutes to get a word in. High school students, who are like me with a short attention span, aren’t going to wait around; the longest a young person is going to have to sit there watching the screen is seven minutes, before they jump in and get to have a chat.
JC:How does the film series connect to the rest of what Alpha UK, in particular with young people, is doing?
TC: Alpha just wants to reach the next generation and this provides that opportunity. The youth film series gives us a unique tool for 11-18 year-olds, and I think others will use it. It also provides another tool in the toolkit for young people to use with their mates as well. It’s a game changer in the UK in terms of seeing thousands of CUs and young people setting up Alpha for their mates and telling them about Jesus. I think the most exciting thing is that a youth worker can now say to their young people: ‘Here it is, it’s online. You can just log in and it’s free. Go and show it to your friends.’
JC: Is there a danger that it disempowers young people and that it takes the onus off them a little bit?
JB: Everyone who is a follower of Jesus can have a conversation with someone about Jesus. But we’ve sometimes put pressure on people, leading them to think that being a Christian means you have to be a good public speaker or leader, and neither of those is true. In fact, a centralised gathering on Sunday mornings is not the fullness of the Church. The fullness of the Church is when that centralised gathering scatters to the corners of society. You don’t have to be a good worship leader to witness to your friends at school or in the workplace. I think the myth of empowering young people is the thinking, ‘let’s get them doing church-y things’. But that’s wrong; empowerment is saying, ‘Hey, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, with your gifts and skills, you can engage your friends.’
So, if one of these students is a good public speaker, they should be the first person to say, ‘I’m going to give these talks.’ For the other 99 per cent who aren’t good public speakers, engage their friends and they get to help on every single level of it. I think way more students are going to be equipped because it’s a reproducible, safe model - it creates a context in which young people can participate in a healthy way. It’s also a leadership development model because we’ve got everyone sitting in a small group, so the first couple of times they are co-hosts, then they are hosting a table and by the fourth time they’re running it in their school with their friends. In Canada, in a city called Edmonton, a volunteer youth worker ran it with a small group of 10-12 Christian high school students, who in turn ran it in ten different schools representing 300 students. So the youth worker had time to train these students to lead and every single one of them, no matter what their skill set, took the files on a USB and ran it in their schools. We’re seeing this happen across Canada.
JC: In terms of the UK , how is it taking off?
TC: I think people are really excited about it. 518 groups pre-registered to run it in about two months. That’s pretty significant for the UK. Within that space of time people are already running it. We’ve had some amazing feedback so far, it’s really making an impact. There was a girl in a school who wanted to know if she could buy it in HMV because she loved it so much! I think what’s happened is that we’ve just made it even easier for people to tell their mates about Jesus. The content of an Alpha session hasn’t changed – it’s still fun food, short talk and small groups, just with an added video!
