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By Lloyd Mackey
UNIVERSITY of Victoria students could be joining their
counterparts at close to 50 ‘host’ universities or colleges
across Canada, in the development of Alpha Campus Introduction to
Christianity programs.
That is according to Elwood Mean, director of Alpha
Canada’s Alpha Campus program, which has been catching fire around
many schools throughout the country.
Alpha likes to encourage churches closely linked to
university or college campuses to sponsor the programs in their particular
areas. In Victoria, the two sponsoring groups are Arbutus Christian
Fellowship (ACF), pastored by John Schaper; and Synago, a
‘mini-church’ at UVic led by David Funk.
Schaper, at press time, was in Central America leading
a short term mission. His wife Lynne said ACF’s interest developed
when Mean presented an Alpha Campus video to a Victoria pastoral group last
spring. “It spoke to both John and I. We passed on the video to
the church council and they were all completely excited about it,”
she recalls.
Plans were made to stage a barbecue August 23 to
introduce the idea to students who were already around the campus in prep
for the fall semester. The idea of a partnership with the on-campus Synago
made sense as well.
ACF is a congregation of 160, about 70 percent of them
students, and is associated with the Canadian Baptists in Western Canada.
It meets in Montessori Academy, within walking distance of the UVic campus.
Alpha will join a number of other outreaches.
Emmanuel Baptist Church, a congregation of 400 meeting on the UVic
campus, has been hosting regular meal nights for several years, drawing
several hundred UVic students at a time. And Lambrick Park Church has used
regular Alpha courses for years, adapting them to students.
Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF), as well, has
had a strong chapter on the UVic campus for several decades.
As for Alpha Campus, it all began at the University of
New Brunswick eight years ago, when Mean, a former forestry business
executive, arranged for the distribution of 1,200 boxes of Tim
Horton’s ‘timbits’ in student residences.
Along with the ‘bits’ was an invitation to
the popular Alpha ‘Introduction to Christianity’ (IC) course,
adapted to a format which would fit student interests. Some 132 students,
either from UNB or Catholic-affiliate St. Thomas University turned up for
the program, and it has continued strong since.
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A video documenting the program began circulating, and
soon Mean found Canada-wide interest. He took to the road seeing what might
happen if church leaders in university cities would take on the challenge
of setting up Alpha Campus programs. After nine months, the national
initiative has resulted in commitments on 40 campuses, which will start
programs in September or January. The original aim was to get 50 campuses
in five years.
The interest was strong, Mean says – cautioning,
however, that the amount of activity across country has meant that it has
been hard for Alpha to keep up with the demand.
Mean notes Alpha’s partnership preferences in a
community are local churches – although, in some cases, they also
work with existing campus organizations like IVCF, Christian Catholic
Outreach, Navigators and Power to Change.
“The ‘Introduction to Christianity’
program is unique and pretty basic. Other ministries are well equipped with
programs and approaches to take people forward, who have taken IC,”
Mean points out, adding: “On some campuses, we encourage web page
links with other Christian organizations, as a way to develop
continuity.”
The effect of having churches involved in Alpha Campus
partnerships is that IC alumni can continue an association long after they
leave university, he says.
Contact: 250-592-7632.
September 2008
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