Alpha Leadership Conference – encouraging and inspiring!
A group of 24 leaders from the diocese travelled to the recent Alpha Leadership Conference in London’s Royal Albert Hall, including Bishop David, Archdeacon Mark Harvey and Archdeacon Jim Cheshire who coordinated the trip.
“We got to hear so many encouraging stories of growth and life in the church and we all came back really inspired by what God is doing,” said Jim.
The two-day conference gathered around 5000 Christians across generations, traditions and cultures for worship, teaching and to hear powerful testimony of God at work around the world. Roughly half of the delegates came from the UK and half from abroad.
One of those testimonies came from Mike Donal, a parishioner of St Mary’s Ballybeen. Mike was invited along by the organisers and shared onstage how he met Christ through the Alpha Course and the change that has happened in his life as a result. Mike is pictured above with Archdeacon Jim and Nicky and Pippa Gumbel.
Another highlight was the opening address given by Nicky Gumbel which set the tone for the rest of the conference with a clear call to mission shaped, Bible focused, Holy Spirit filled communities. Nicky called the church to be united in Christ but also to stay true to Christ, saying that “Those who marry the spirit of the age will find themselves widowed in the next”.
There were general leadership lessons shared but also on leading with a view to seeing growth in the church.
Here are some comments from the Down and Dromore group:
It was pretty incredible. The scale of it didn’t detract from the intimacy in prayer, worship and teaching which was wonderful.
The meeting of brothers and sisters from multiple nations and hearing their stories. There was a sense of all being part of the same family and being on the same team.
Jasper a 17-year-old, shared his story of how he ran Alpha in his local school - just amazing to hear how God moved in his school and his boldness to train and then release other young people into leadership.
Incredibly encouraged and inspired by all God is doing, especially in so many different contexts. Looking forward to hearing some of the talks back again when they’re released!
There are so many standout moments for me but one in particular was seeing how big and alive the global church actually is and hearing stories of how God is at work around the world.
A lot of us have heard the statistics about a ‘quiet revival’ that’s happening, but we saw evidence of it through the stories that were told of lives being changed.
The stories were very inspiring. I think that a quiet revival is also possible in NI.
When you go to things like this together, you realise that you’re not in it alone and that there are like-minded people in the church.
The plan is to make the trip to next year’s Alpha Leadership Conference which is from 4-5 May 2026. Find out more at THIS LINK.