Todd Hunter New Alpha President

Following his tenure as National Director of the Vineyard Churches, Todd spent several years taking a close look at the Emerging church movement, his most recent position being with Allelon based in Boise, Idaho. That organization made some changes, which freed Todd up to look for new opportunities. One of the organizations that contacted him was Alpha USA. He accepted the offer to lead Alpha USA this past week.

For those unfamiliar with Alpha, could you give us some background?

Todd
Alpha is a program that started about 20 years ago in an Anglican church in London called Holy Trinity Brompton. Founded by a Barrister (Lawyer), now curate, Nicky Gumbel, it was designed originally to provide a safe place for British churchgoers to learn more about their faith. It evolved into a 10-week course. People gather for a meal, get to know each other socially, watch a video of Nicky Gumbel talking about spiritual matters and then follow up with discussion at each table.

So, Alpha came out of a non–evangelical setting?

Todd
Yes and no. It was written and nurtured by a succession of curates (assistant pastors) previous to Nicky Gumbel. It was fist used as a way to help unbelieving church-goers to understand the basics of the Christian faith. Holy Trinity Brompton, while certainly a traditional Anglican church, is definitely evangelical within its own tradition. By the way, Holy Trinity Brompton was the primary host church for the Vineyard renewal meetings in the early 80s. That is the connection with the Vineyard and why I had a relationship with them for the past 20 years.

Nicky Gumbel says that John Wimber was the most influential
person in his life?

Todd
Yes. Apparently, when Nicky was a young man he attended some of John’s meetings and not only had his theological world, but also his experiential world rocked. During a clinic time, the Holy Spirit came powerfully on Nicky and John turned and said the Holy Spirit was going to use him to talk to the lost

Then from Nicky’s perspective, this was a discipleship program that happened to appeal to lost people?

Todd
Right, he was simply trying to provide a place and a process where Christians could come and learn more about the faith they already espoused. He never imagined it spreading to 140 countries and touching millions of non-Christians. That just happened. They saw it and went with the flow of the Spirit and the Alpha program we know today came into being.

So how many churches in the US are currently participating
in the Alpha program?

Todd
I’m just learning numbers myself, but I think it is in the neighborhood of 7200. There is no geographical “center,” but the majority of participating churches would be Methodist, Episcopalian, Vineyard and Presbyterian. Interestingly enough, two of the fastest growing new Alpha user groups are Pentecostals and Baptists. Traditional evangelical churches have been slower to adopt the Alpha course.

Ok, that’s great background on the organization you are about to begin leading. Now give us some personal background. What kind of changes have you gone through over the past few months that led you to make this rather surprising (at least to some) choice?

Todd
Much of my spiritual history has been rooted in the practice and study of evangelism. My motive for exploring the emerging church scene closely was at least in part an attempt to see if they/we had an alternate answer for what many of us perceive as modernity’s artificial and non human ways of going about it. And, if you could get a bunch of us emerging church types alone and honest, we would have to admit that we ourselves are not doing so well at talking with the lost either.

I realize that there is dissonance around this issue (evangelism) for many, if not most, of the emerging church types – they wonder not only about bad models but also whether evangelism is even a necessity. For me, implicit in being human, and what it means to be the people of God is that life is otherly and intentional. God didn’t just say to Adam and Eve – Go and relate, he said go create, work and serve.

An invitation like that requires a response, and while I favor multiple and creative approaches to evangelism, one option we are not given is to do nothing. As I like to say, the answer to “misuse” is not “no use,” it’s “right use.” Jesus and the Apostles used words and works as ways to persuade people to come and follow him.

How would you respond to the critique that in your passion to “get something done” you are selling out to a program?

Well, I understand that thinking, and am actually looking forward to continued dialog with my friends in the emerging church movement about this dilemma. The viewpoint is typically expressed in the following way. Programs are inherently mechanistic or “modern.” and the apologetics part of something like Alpha are also off-putting for those who have a high value for mystery. Again, I am very interested in dialoging about these issues with my more postmodern friends.

Because I also had some of these same concerns, I asked the Alpha board if they would give me 5-6 weeks to travel and observe Alpha events and programs so I could see for myself before I decided to take the position of President. They graciously agreed

And… ?

Here’s what I found. Alpha is communal – they eat dinner together and share normal social time together. It was also relational; you are encouraged to be real and even assert things that are counter to Christianity, and the Alpha “insiders” are trained to listen and ask more questions. I observed a huge trust in the work of the Spirit. All of these are the selfsame values I would often discuss with emerging church leaders. While Alpha is certainly intentional, it was never manipulative. No one was forced to believe or shunned for not believing. What I observed was that people were respected and engaged in thoughtful and authentic dialog. Everything was an invitation; nothing was compulsory.

Tell us a story

Well, just last month when I was in London observing at Holy Trinity Brompton, I saw hundreds of twenty-somethings participating in an Alpha course. I was surprised by the age since I have been so focused on trying to reach this age group. I have heard scores of stories of self described atheists and agnostics who have come to faith through Alpha. In New York at St Barts, where over the past 8 years 1500 people have taken the Alpha course, the average age of that group was 26. We’re not talking Atlanta or Orange County where you still have a Christian culture; we’re talking about the secular center – New York City. That’s impressive.

So what I’m trying to say is that I think I see in Alpha a way of being able to speak meaningfully and naturally with not only a post modern, but also a truly post Christian audience.

So Alpha and Postmodern are not oxymoronic in your mind?

It’s only a program and all programs have problems, but in the right hands, it can be helpful. I think I see in Alpha the potential to respectfully engage post Christian/modern people in dialog, which translated means we listen to them. I think you’ve heard me say before that if we were to ask Jay Leno to do one of his word on the street video interviews and he said “Evangelical,” the last thing we would ever hear people say is “great listeners”. In my view, Alpha helps Christians become better listeners and I consider that to be significant and worthy of my investment as a leader. Alpha knows how to create a listening culture.

Why would Alpha ask someone with no Alpha history to come in to lead Alpha at this time?

Interestingly enough, I think they liked the fact that while I am personally fascinated with evangelism, I have never been a big time Evangelist (I would’ve like to have been, but just didn’t have the magic). I think they also wanted someone with pastoral and local church experience

Where will you be living and what will you be doing for the next year?

My office will remain in Boise where we have a home. I will personally be on a steep learning curve trying to grasp all things Alpha and I will continue to travel and speak in emerging church events and Off The Map events since not only I but Alpha has asked me to continue in my contacts with the people and groups I currently work with. They aren’t requiring that I move into Alpha Land and never see my old friends again. I still get emails from young church planters every day and I answer them and will continue to do so. My commitment is to continue to stay in the conversation.