PROJECT UPDATE
We are pleased to report that thanks to a $77,100 grant from the Maclellan Foundation this project was a great success!
We rejoice in God's provision and ask all to pray for results over and above our expectations!
Alpha Course Prayer Requests
That the Christians who took part in this initial invitation continue to invite colleagues, friends, and families to the next meetings and that there are larger and larger numbers of attendees.
That those who came to the Paris Invitation attend all ten meetings.
That the excellent quality of all the meetings (speakers, praise, atmosphere, activities) continue.
Summary
This project will provide the Alpha course and technical assistance to 100 Christian churches of all denominations in the greater Paris area to invite their non-Christian neighbors to explore the Christian faith in the non-threatening context of a dinner. The guests attending this initial Evangelistic dinner will be subsequently invited to participate in a local Alpha course - a 10 week introduction to Christianity which has already reached millions of seekers worldwide and is used by more than 450 churches in France.
The Paris Invitation will be supported by an advertising campaign reaching over 2 million people including radio, television and internet advertising spots, and press articles - all geared at giving the local churches and Christian communities more positive visibility in society.
The projected outcomes are:
Paris Invitation - Initial Results!
The following is based on questionnaires made via phonecalls to course leaders from 40 churches.
The three major trends are:
Many guests: The majority of participating teams were overjoyed at the fact that they had doubled or quadrupled the number of guests to their intro dinner compared to last year. Many had filled up their church or room to the limit. They all underlined the quality of the atmosphere of the evenings (fun, good food, laid back); A pastor in his church full of non churchgoers said “why don’t we do dinners like this every month ?”
Many non churchgoers among the guests: All those questioned said that this time they had reached a far greater number of people outside the church than what they usually achieve. This is especially the case of Catholic and Reformed churches, that usually find it hard to reach people outside of their church network.
The impact of advertising much greater than expected: in some churches up to 50% of guests came because of the one page ads in the free newspapers given in the Paris metro (subway) and suburb trains. This is totally unexpected; We thought the advertising would encourage the Christians to be more daring in their invitation effort, but did not expect the ads would attract people. We were very blessed because we could only afford three full pages in the biggest free newspapers, but we got offered two additional pages, which means Alpha was really seen during the week before the event;
We got more media exposure in the press than expected for a first invitation in a relatively small number of churches (100). The room was totally full during our press conference and the reporters stayed for one hour and a half afterwards to chat with the team, which, we were told, rarely happens. The most important articles published so far are in Le Parisien (very popular regional press), Metro (1.5 million readers, free newspaper given in the Underground) and Le Monde, (the equivalent of The Times in the UK and the New York Times or Washington Post in the US ) whose journalist attended a launching dinner.
Christian and non-Christian radios covered the event (Radio France International was enthusiastic, it is widespread in the French speaking world). Two TV programmes were shot during the dinners: one for KTO, the Catholic TV channel, one for a local TV station that intends to broadcast the whole of the Alpha course given in two different churches: a Catholic parish and an Evangelical house Church.
Click here to visit Alpha's site for the articles written about Invitation 2007.
The Christian Press gave massively positive coverage, which should lead to more Alpha courses in the future, as they are read by many church leaders. Especially La Croix, one of the major French daily papers, with a three pages very positive article, La Vie (monthly), Famille Chrétienne (8 pages on Alpha !) Réforme (the main French protestant paper), Christianisme aujourd’hui (main Evangelical monthly in France and Switzerland).
All in all, about 2 million people have read an article on Alpha because of the invitation! (This does not take advertising into account). It makes it much easier for Christians to invite their friends in that context.
Although this project is complete, as a CCFOF partner ministry, Alpha Course France can still benefit from your gift.*
To send a gift in U.S. Dollars, please click here:
To send a gift in Euros, please click here:
To send a gift by mail, please address all checks to "CCFOF" with "Alpha Course" in the Memo section and send them to the following address:
Christian Community Foundation of France
829 Stansbury Drive
Marietta, GA 30066
*The Christian Community Foundation of France is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. As such, all gifts are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
Paris Invitation 2007 - Project Details
Alpha Course Background
Alpha was developed 20 years ago in an Anglican church in Central London - Holy Trinity Brompton. Since 1992, around 38,000 churches from around the world have adopted it as an evangelism program. It is estimated that over 8 million people worldwide have been on an Alpha course. In France, the impact of Alpha can be summarized by the following table:
|
People who have been on an Alpha course |
Churches who run Alpha |
Total number of Christians trained to run a course |
1998 |
150 |
5 |
- |
1999 |
1 050 |
30 |
3 000 |
2000 |
3 750 |
90 |
3 500 |
2001 |
8 250 |
150 |
3 500 |
2002 |
14 850 |
200 |
4 100 |
2003 |
22 350 |
248 |
4 850 |
2004 |
32 010 |
322 |
6 050 |
2005 |
43 410 |
380 |
7 900 |
2006 |
42 008 |
420 |
9 800 |
2007 |
53 258 |
480 |
10 790 |
In just 7 years, Alpha has had the type of impact in France that successful Christian movements have had in 20 years. This is measured in terms of number of people reached by the Good News, number of Christians trained, level of support or acceptance from Christian leaders and good coverage in Christian media.
Target Population
Through this project, Alpha France is serving the needs of two populations: local churches and non-churchgoers.
Churches in France struggle with reaching non-church goers with the Good News of Jesus Christ. Catholic parishes generally lack practical evangelism programs. Evangelical churches have to confront the common fear that they are cults and find it difficult to grow. The lack of unity among churches also prevents them from having more of an impact in French society. We are therefore targeting churches of all denominations, who realize the need to evangelize but have very little practical ways to reach out to the un-churched, especially in the Catholic Church.
We have decided to focus on the Parisian area because it is the region with the highest concentration of Alpha courses in France, which means that churches working together in close coordination are more apt to make an impact on the local population because of their numbers as well as their familiarity with the course. This familiarity also yields itself to quicker implementation and a higher chance of success in impacting our second target population – non-churchgoers. By opening the doors of traditional denominations and evangelical churches towards non-churchgoers in a spirit of unity, we fully expect that Alpha will create a long-awaited and measurable growth in local churches.
Alpha is a “B2B2C” type charity - Business to Business to consumer. This is a very complex business as it needs to address the needs of business entities which in turn need to focus on their final customer. Practically, this means that in most of our communication, Alpha France needs to address both the Christian leaders and churches as their primary target whilst delivering a message which is also effective with the « end customers » - non church goers).
Alpha France is ultimately affecting the lives of many non churchgoers who cannot find ways to explore the Christian faith within the current Christian landscape in France. This is a huge portion of the French population. Out of 63 million people, 45 million are baptized in the Catholic Church, yet only 5% of the population (including Evangelicals) goes to church every Sunday. Figures are only 1-2% as regards the French youth.
Spiritually, people are turning more and more to Astrology, Numerology, Eastern religions, Buddhism, and the occult. Many high ranking civil servants and semi-public business leaders belong to Freemasonry networks. The general hostility and ignorance surrounding Christianity in France, fuelled by the negative coverage of national media, makes people very suspicious towards the Church at large. This population sees the Catholic Church as an authoritarian and rigid institution and Evangelical churches as cults. This project was born out of two observations reflecting how the Church works with this population: a) the thing people find most difficult in evangelism is to invite non-churchgoers somewhere to hear the Gospel; and b) the experience in a dozen of countries has shown that a concerted date and mobilization has doubled the number of people attending the Alpha course.
Alpha, with its non-threatening, hands-off approach, is effective because it is based on friends inviting friends to an initial dinner and subsequent discussion groups. This approach is very well adapted to French culture’s practices of meal-time discussion and debate. Nationwide, approximately 45,000 people have already been to an Alpha course. 10,000 people per year go to an Alpha course, of which 25% come from the Paris Region.
Project Overview
The project strategy can be summed up this way: 100 churches working together to invite the Paris area inhabitants to explore Christianity, supported by prayer, training and advertising.
This project will mobilize 100 churches in the Paris region to invite the inhabitants of the greater Parisian area to come to a dinner on September 26th and to explore Christianity in the relaxed and non-threatening context of an Alpha course given in a local church. Churches have been encouraged to organize festive or special evenings such as multicultural evenings, barbecues, or inter-denominational dinners. After dinner, the first Alpha talk will be given on the subject “Christianity: boring, untrue, irrelevant?”
The goal of the project is to increase the number and scope of Evangelistic efforts of the 100 new and, in some cases, already existing Alpha courses of the region by inviting hosting churches to work and pray together and to mobilize every member of their congregations to invite a friend to the opening dinner.
Based on the experience of other European countries who have launched similar campaigns (UK, Switzerland, Netherlands), we expect a 50% growth in the number of people attending the launching dinner. The potential is thus for 8,000 to 10,000 guests attending the 26th of September event. We expect 4,000 to 5,000 of those guests to sign up for the subsequent 10-week Alpha course organized by the participating churches. This is based on the observation made in the past 7 years that 50% of guests who participate in the first dinner end up following the whole Alpha course.
The project involves Catholic, Evangelical, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Reformed and Baptist churches. It is the first time in France that so many different denominations will use the same tool to proclaim the Good News. This is a major milestone in a country where divisions between Christians have historically led to bloodshed and where suspicion and ignorance still prevail among the different denominations.
Already we have seen 92 churches from 9 denominations such as Anglicans, Assemblies of God, Baptist, Evangelical, Lutheran, Reformed and Roman Catholics sign up to take part in this outreach. We believe that this initial reaction is representative of the response of a large majority of the Christian community in Paris and the Parisian region.
This effort is prepared by grass root mobilization work with 15 churches providing a team of 30 volunteers in charge of contacting, visiting, and securing commitments from interested churches.
Much attention is being given to training, with three training events having already been organized in the 12 months prior to the event and with special step-by-step guidelines provided in print and on the web. The best speakers and Alpha practitioners from churches currently running Alpha throughout France have been mobilized to help train the teams of participating churches.
The event is also prepared in prayer, with a network of 500 intercessors and many churches organizing a prayer event or common prayer gatherings in the 15 days before September 26th.
This church mobilization is supported by communication tools developed by professionals from France’s leading advertising agency. The campaign materials have already been tested by interviewing people in the Paris subway. This campaign will give Paris the testimony that Christians are united to proclaim the name of Christ in a loving and welcoming way.
Strategic partnerships have been formed with 4 Christian organizations active on the web, TV or daily press, with a dual goal: i) promote Alpha to church leaders and committed Christians so that they can either invite non Christians to the dinner or launch Alpha in their local church; ii) invite non churchgoers to the dinner.
We are also partnering with TopChretien and their Connaitredieu.com website. This partnership works at three levels. First, we will be able to invite 100,000 church leaders (current circulation of the TopChretien newsletters in France) to invite non-Christian friends to accompany them to the Alpha opening dinner on the 26th of September using a fun viral marketing ad. Secondly, we will be able to reach un-churched people directly through the connaitredieu.com evangelistic website. People who want to know God and pray a prayer on this website will receive an invitation to go to an Alpha course to explore Christianity. And, finally, through articles and ads on the Topchretien.com website we will invite Evangelical church leaders to launch an Alpha course.
The Paris Invitation is not only a concerted Evangelistic effort but also serves as a pilot project before launching it in 6 to 9 regions in 2008 and at the national level in 2009.
Expected Outcomes
Project Outcome |
Evaluation during project |
Final evaluation |
Critical success factors |
800 church leaders of the Paris areas who do not use Alpha are informed on Alpha and invited to learn more about it |
Internal follow up (calls, database management) |
Call Center calls each church leader / church |
Timing |
100 participating churches |
Each church registers individually |
Alpha Regional Volunteers Team call each church for debriefing |
Field mobilization |
At least 10 % new Alpha courses amongst those 100 |
Project coordinator calls each new course |
Alpha Regional Volunteers Team call each church for debriefing |
Information of “non Alpha” church leaders very early on. |
8,000 to 10,000 guests at the opening dinner on September 26th |
Churches to fill paper or on line questionnaire indicating registered attendees |
Alpha Regional Volunteers Team call each church for debriefing |
Church leaders motivation for the project / quality of communication |
4,000 to 5,000 guests participate in the full Alpha course from September to December |
Churches to fill paper or on line questionnaire measuring attendance by the end of December |
Alpha Regional Volunteers Team call each church for debriefing |
Training (quality and availability) so that the Opening dinner motivates guests to stay on for the rest of the course |
Media coverage: |
Media scrutiny – recording of and collection of all media coverage. |
Tabulation of all media appearances |
Timing of event announcement Quality of press relations
|
Double the number of visitors on our website |
Website stat survey |
Tabulation of statistics |
Communication Strategic partnerships with other key websites
|
40,000 invitation cards and 40,000 leaflets distributed, 8,000 posters in church premises and local shops |
Sales of invitation materials to churches |
Sales of invitation materials to participating churches |
Quality of the materials |
10 new Alpha courses launched in the 12 months following project completion |
N/A |
Each church registers individually |
Media impact and word of mouth among churchleaders |
After the number of new Alpha courses and their participants is known after December, these groups are immediately transitioned into the current Alpha Course evaluation process. This process entails regular correspondence via mail and e-mail to participating churches throughout the year to evaluate how many original participants in the Alpha course are still attending and active in a local church. To date, our sampling of the 480 churches running Alpha in France show over 90% of those individuals who completed the course are still active in their churches one year after completion.
We plan on submitting future funding requests to strengthen our evaluation process through adding a call center. We believe that such a center would increase our participation rate significantly and enable us to become even more effective in our future Alpha implementation.
Project Budget
The breakdown of our budget was as follows:
| The Paris Alpha Invitation Project | |
| Project costs | |
| Introducing Alpha and the project to regional church leaders | $21,204 |
| Church teams training | $31,804 |
| Church promotional material (to invite non-churchgoers to their dinners) | $10,412 |
| Communication and advertising | $83,844 |
| Monitoring and evaluation | $2,740 |
| Project coordination | $35,620 |
| Total costs | $185,624 |
| Project Revenues | $108,542 |
| Maclellan Grant | $77,082 |
| Total revenues | $185,624 |