Hi Rob We've using it for the past eight weeks at Keiraview Uniting Church.
It is very much like an Australian version of Alpha, but with some important differences. The format of the evenings is the same as Alpha - dinner - talk - open discussion, however the material is different. IG claims to be more post-modern, and uses more multimedia than Alpha, but in reality is a series of linear talks, taking one position, which I do not believe is very post-modern, but there you go. It is conservative theologically - God made the world, we stuffed it up, God sent Jesus, Jesus took our punishment on the cross, God raised Jesus, we need to respond. It uses a chapter of the bible each week from Gen 1 to Rev 22. The talks are about 30 minutes in length and well presented. Our group are enjoying it. The format of discussion is open, so if you don't happen to believe in substitutionary penal atonement, then there is space and freedom to do so. Unlike Alpha, there is really nothing about church, or prayer or any of the other being Christian stuff. There is little on the Holy Spirit (again, unlike Alpha). Both use the premise that most people come to faith through relationship - and that the table discussions are the most important part. In them relationships are built, and Christianity modelled. I think it has been a good thing to do - we have only one 'guest' left (but then we only had two at the start). We haven't decided whether or not to run it again, but I think we should. The real problem is the start - people actually need to know people to invite. And are we very good at that? Or do we stay in our Christian safe areas? Andy Carlisle > Has anyone seen the full set of DVDs/VHSs for "Introducing God"? See > www.introducinggod.org. It seems to be an Australian version of Alpha. > The free online introductory video looks okay. I wonder if this is > something the UCA can recommend as one option for the first phase of > the Becoming Disciples process? (See http://assembly.uca.org.au/TD and > click on Becoming Disciples.) If anyone has first hand experience of > this, I'd appreciate hearing about it. Thanks. Rob (Bos) UCA National > Assembly Theology and Discipleship > ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm ------------------------------------------------------
