The original Alpha Course presents seekers
with a particular, a digestible, view of fundamentalist Christianity
in a modern setting, using persuasive modern language.
The Course lasts for about ten weeks covering a range of aspects of Christianity,
with a series of slick presentations and directed discussion of the points raised.
Yet these subjects can be covered from a more honest perspective.

Many find this ancient theology sufficient for their future spiritual existence
and so close their minds to the difficult points that do not ring true.

Many thus accept the package, the conservative mantle,
and the firm boundaries of Evangelical Christianity.

Others may reject what is on offer and turn back whence they've come,
whether that is within the Church or beyond the faith community.

Yet, after Alpha, there can be more.
We can look more deeply, ask more questions,
through authorised sources or by branching out
into the Internet, unconstrained.

We may still ask "what is truth?", whilst racked by interim solutions;
faith-filled, yet doubting, for Alpha is a dubious doorway
not a final destination.
Yet I was changed by Alpha.
Though ready to reject the persuasive arguments,
presented with smiling courtroom expertise,
I found an experience of the Spirit
inescapable - convicting.

If that was true, was the rest as well?
How to separate wheat from chaff,
or was even that experience
a religious scam?