A new Chinese Alpha course could speed up the growth of Christianity in China which is on track to have more believers than any other country.
That’s the view of the founder of the Alpha course, Reverend Nicky Gumbel.
He says the latest version is totally Chinese. It’s filmed in China with Chinese presenters, producers, testimonies and Bible experts. It’s also ideal for the 200 million people in the Chinese diaspora.
Reverend Gumbel told the Church of England newspaper his vision is to see the Gospel and an Alpha course available for everyone on the planet. He wants to achieve that by Easter in 2033 — in time to celebrate the 2,000th anniversary of the resurrection of Jesus.
He noted that while the US currently has the most Alpha courses and the most Christians, China may be slowly overtaking it.
“Alpha is running in every country in the world because people’s basic needs are the same. I’ve found in every country it’s basically the same, everyone’s searching for purpose, everyone’s searching for love, everyone’s searching to belong.”
“The course has been translated into 112 different languages, but I’m not attached to Alpha, I’ll drop out of Alpha and do something else if I find a better way, but at the moment, I haven’t found a better way. This still seems to work.”
