{"id":3922,"date":"2017-04-20T00:05:09","date_gmt":"2017-04-19T23:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/burnheadchurch.ddns.net\/?p=3922"},"modified":"2017-04-20T00:10:15","modified_gmt":"2017-04-19T23:10:15","slug":"alpha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/?p=3922","title":{"rendered":"Alpha"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: justify;\">Starting on Thursday 9th March, Burnhead Church are running an Alpha Course, a practical look at the Christian faith for believers, non-believers and seekers alike. Alpha is open to all and you are encouraged to bring a friend, a neighbour, a family member or whoever God may lead you to invite.<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Please note that each week stands alone and as such should you miss a week or two or even wish to attend at any time throughout the run of the course you can in the knowledge that you can pick up at any stage of the course.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h1><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">What is Alpha?<\/span><\/h1>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: justify;\">Alpha is a series of sessions exploring the Christian faith, typically run over eleven weeks. Each talk looks at a different question around faith and is designed to create conversation. Alpha is run all around the globe, and everyone is welcome. It runs in caf\u00e9s, churches, universities, homes \u2013 you name it. No two Alphas look the same, but generally they have three key things in common: food, a talk and good conversation.<\/h4>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Who is Alpha For?<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: justify;\">Alpha is for anyone who&#8217;s curious. The talks are designed to encourage conversation and explore the basics of the Christian faith in a friendly, open and informal environment. No question is out of bounds and you are free to discuss as much or as little as you wish.<\/h4>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">How Does It Work?<\/span><\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<h2><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">First Up There&#8217;s Food<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: justify; padding-left: 60px;\">Whether it&#8217;s a group of friends gathered around a kitchen table, or a quick catch up over coffee and cake, food has a way of bringing people together. It&#8217;s no different at Alpha. Most sessions start with food, because it&#8217;s a great way to build community and get to know each other.<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<h2><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Then a Talk<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: justify; padding-left: 60px;\">The talks are designed to engage and inspire conversation. Usually around thirty minutes long, they can be given as a live talk or played as a video. They explore the big issues around faith and unpack the basics of Christianity, addressing questions from <em>Who is Jesus?<\/em>\u00a0and <em>How can we have faith?<\/em>\u00a0to <em>Why and how do I pray?<\/em>\u00a0and <em>How does God guide us?<\/em><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<h2><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Followed by Discussion<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: justify; padding-left: 60px;\">Probably the most important part of any Alpha: the chance to share thoughts and ideas on the topic, and simply discuss it in a small group. There&#8217;s no obligation to say anything and there&#8217;s nothing you can&#8217;t say (seriously). It&#8217;s an opportunity to hear from others and contribute your own perspective in an honest, friendly and open environment.<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/burnheadchurch.ddns.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Try-Alpha-960x350-02.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3919\" src=\"http:\/\/burnheadchurch.ddns.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Try-Alpha-960x350-02.jpg\" alt=\"Try-Alpha-960x350-02\" width=\"960\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Try-Alpha-960x350-02.jpg 960w, https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Try-Alpha-960x350-02-300x109.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h1>\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\">My Greatest Adventure<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<h2>Bear Grylls<\/h2>\n<p>Over the past few years Bear Grylls has become the embodiment of adventure and outdoor survival in the public imagination. A former reservist in the SAS, Bear has climbed Everest, navigated the Northwest Passage and Paramotored over the Himalayas.<\/p>\n<p>As well as being an adventurer, writer and television presenter, Bear is a former guest on Alpha and is sharing his story with the world as part of our global invitation to explore faith.<\/p>\n<p>Whether it\u2019s from the streets of the Philippines or the sidewalks of New York it\u2019s great to be reminded that everyone\u2019s journey is different, and everyone\u2019s story is unique.<\/p>\n<p>Here at Alpha we get the privilege of hearing stories from all around the globe \u2013 just a few of which are featured here in this Blog. From Tekila in London, to Jos\u00e9 Henriquez Gonzalez in Chile there\u2019s no shortage of tales of hope, faith and exploration that we stumble across.<\/p>\n<p>Bear\u2019s is one of millions of different stories of exploration\u2014of asking life\u2019s biggest questions without knowing what will be found. Despite a life characterised by risk, danger and the unknown, it is this exploration that he describes as his \u2018greatest adventure\u2019. Watch Bear&#8217;s story:<\/p>\n<div class=\"responsive-embed\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"880\" height=\"495\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XLQZM1QwuUs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div class=\"responsive-embed\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"880\" height=\"495\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UrsLNBbfKko?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Starting on Thursday 9th March, Burnhead Church are running an Alpha Course, a practical look at the Christian faith for believers, non-believers and seekers alike. Alpha is open to all and you are encouraged to bring a friend, a neighbour, a family member or whoever God may lead you to invite. Please note that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3922"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3922"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3998,"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3922\/revisions\/3998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}