The Alpha USA Fellows Program is a 9-12 month long paid leadership training program for college students or recent graduates who have a strong desire to engage our church's cultural moment and grow in a work experience.
What is Alpha?
Alpha is an opportunity to explore life and the Christian faith in a friendly, open and informal environment. It’s a ten-week course run in churches, bars, coffee shops, prisons, and homes worldwide. Essentially, Alpha is a safe place to explore life’s biggest questions and discuss the basics of the Christian Faith in a friendly, honest, and non-judgmental environment.
Alpha creates an environment of hospitality, where people who might not call themselves Christian can discover and develop a relationship with Jesus. No two Alphas look the same, but they generally have three key things in common: food, an Alpha talk, and good conversation.
Each talk looks at a different question about Christianity and is designed to facilitate discussion. The talks can be delivered live through downloadable scripts and personalized stories, or through one of the globally-produced, documentary-style film series options available for free. All of the training is provided online, equipping local church leaders to run the Alpha program. As they do, the lives of guests are transformed, and churches are renewed. Often, a new culture of evangelism, hospitality, invitation, and prayerfulness develops, new leaders are released, and congregations grow.
Alpha creates a culture of invitation within the church and is a great front door for people exploring faith. In 1990, Nicky Gumbel took over running Alpha, which was developed as a short course at HTB in London, and found that many people outside of the church wanted to explore the Christian faith. Alpha now runs in every part of the global Church, including the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church and all mainline Protestant denominations.
You’ll thrive as an Alpha Fellow if…
- You believe in and support the Alpha mission with a desire serve and support churches in making disciples of Jesus Christ, while we play our part in the revitalization of the Church, re-evangelization of the nations and the transformation of society.
- You enjoy collaborating and dreaming with a team.
- You work best in a shared, public and high energy work space.
- You have an all-hands-on-deck mentality and are willing to step in and meet needs wherever they arise.
- You’re passionate about creatively and thoughtfully communicating content and equipping churches to make disciples.
- You’re ready to be challenged to grow in the ways you think, act and communicate.
What makes this internship different?
The Alpha Course is created to emphasize the essentials that all denominations agree on. We believe that what unites us is infinitely greater than what divides us. The Alpha Course is an effective form of evangelism when done by and through the local church. By focusing on the essentials of the Christian faith, it opens the door for Alpha to be used in almost any context so that everyone has the opportunity to see their friends’ lives transformed by the gospel.
Our goal is to continually support the church with resources and tools that help create a space where people are excited to bring their friends for a conversation about Jesus.
This hands-on fellows program gives you the chance to be exposed to a diverse array of content and individuals as well as churches and organizations that are committed to evangelism of the Christian faith.
As an Alpha intern, you will be exposed to church leaders who are experts, authors and innovative and respected practitioners advancing the Gospel.
The Alpha team in the U.S. is a small, yet highly collaborative with a global team of Alpha offices from all over the world that you will have the opportunity to interact with and join through multiple avenues. You will have access to high-level discussions of vision as well as be given the unique responsibilities in owning the creation and implementation of specific projects.
What will you walk away with?
We’ve designed the program with your future in mind. When you are finished with your time at Alpha, in addition to growing in knowledge, work experience, key networks, and moving the organization forward in tangible ways, you will be mentored and challenged to expand your capacity to look at the church from different angles. Our hope is that you will leave with a fresh desire for engaging our cultural moment.
Requirements:
- 9-12 month commitment to Alpha beginning late summer
- Around 20 hours a week remotely.
- Commitment to work full days at The Alpha Conference (July 23-25)
- Commitment to participate in the fall 2024 Vision and Call Retreat (October 4-6)
- Provide own transportation, housing and laptop computer
- College senior or recent graduate preferred
Opportunities:
- Intentional personal and professional development through regular meetings with Alpha Chief Operating & People Officer, Sean Hogan, Director of Alpha Volunteer Network, Audrey Hayes, the Alpha Team and outside key partners.
- Participation in both The Alpha Conference and other national events
- Additional outside learning opportunities/workshops
- Monthly financial stipend of at least $1000
We are currently seeking the following positions:
Volunteer Coordinator
- Empower and serve our Volunteer Network by working with new and current volunteers to extend Alpha in their communities and nationally. Our Volunteer Coordinator will work to see that every person who serves with Alpha USA is connected to the story of Alpha and has the tools to lead in their context.
Ministry Partnership Coordinator
- Empower and serve our National Engagement Team by working with new and current Alpha Youth and Alpha University leaders to help equip them for Alpha in their context, build relationships, and create new resources to extend Alpha nationally.
Multilingual Alpha Specialist
- Empower and serve our National Engagement Team by working with new and current Alpha administrators to help prepare, equip, and run Alpha in multilingual contexts. This coordinator will build relationships, help solidify culture, and connect with leaders in multiple spaces to extend Alpha nationally. Fluency in Mandarin or Spanish is a plus, but not required.
Event Specialist
- Dream, plan, program and execute beautiful events that embody Alpha’s culture and values. Work alongside the Events Team and multiple ministry departments at Alpha USA to create events that will help churches, individuals and organizations catch the vision for a way of evangelism through listening, radical hospitality and dependence on God.
Prayer Coordinator
- Get up close to what the Lord is doing through Alpha! Work with our National (and Global) Director of Prayer to coordinate a movement of prayer around the USA, organize online events with prayer leaders from around the world, and help organize the filming of three new prayer training videos filmed in summer of 2024!
Training Coordinator
Training Coordinator
Work alongside the Training Director and Training Specialist to help plan, execute, and follow up with trainings online and in person. The aim of the training team is to help Churches, Organizations, and Individuals run best practice Alphas that attract more guests, recruit more volunteers, and are run more frequent courses. This includes Run Alpha Training, Grow Alpha Training, Creating an Invitational Culture Training, and other One-off Topical Discussions as needed.