A message from the Executive Director
As I reflect on 2024, I can’t help but be encouraged by how we have seen God move through Alpha across Europe and MENA in the last 12 months. Our region is not without its challenges: political instability and protests are rife; severe storms and flooding seriously affected parts of South-West Europe in the autumn; we continue to pray for an end to conflict in Ukraine and across the Middle East. But despite these and other challenges, one thing is clear: we are building momentum.
This year we have seen a 26% increase in Alpha participants across EMENA. This means over 66,000 more lives impacted by the Gospel of Jesus Christ – individuals who not only have encountered Jesus but now have the opportunity to tell others about Him. Alpha Germany has seen an increase in Alpha courses of 20%, steered by young leaders with a vision for their nation. God is moving in and through His Church.
As Alpha grows across the region, we are also breaking new ground: developing resources to encourage and reach a new generation with the upcoming launch of the Alpha Youth Series 3.0; contextualising Alpha for the Orthodox Church with the ‘Alphabet of Faith’; creating a new MENA Alpha Film Series specifically to connect with those from an Arabic background.
We are also increasing our collaboration, both internally within and between Alpha teams, and by developing stronger partnerships with other organisations across the Global Church. Our NAO Strategy Cohorts – of which six took place in 2024 – are not only bringing greater strategic focus but developing leadership, building teams and increasing mutual support. Partnerships with organisations such as The Chosen are multiplying opportunities for people to find out about Alpha or explore more afterwards.
We continue to celebrate all God has done across EMENA over the last 25+ years, and it was a joy to join with Alpha Austria and Alpha Spain this year for their 25th anniversary gatherings. Faithful teams with passionate leaders continue to innovate and share the Gospel through Alpha across our region, but I am reminded that ‘neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow’ (Corinthians 3:7). We have a desire for even greater reliance on the Holy Spirit as we seek to build God’s kingdom across Europe and MENA.
My prayer is that, as you read on below, you are inspired and encouraged by the momentum we are building, and the opportunities before us in the next season. Thank you for your continued prayers and support for this region.
Alpha’s vision is for ‘everyone, everywhere’ to have the opportunity to hear the Gospel through Alpha by the 2000th anniversary of Jesus’ resurrection in 2033. In Europe and MENA, our dream is for the Good News of Jesus to be accessible through Alpha to over one billion people, across our 80 countries, with everyone engaged in their own heart language and culture. We know that this ambitious goal cannot be reached without equipping the Church to reach young people, building strong collaborative partnerships, developing our National Alpha Offices and laying a strong foundation of prayer and reliance on the Holy Spirit in all that we do. We are encouraged by the progress made in these key areas in 2024.
The eagerly-anticipated launch of the new Alpha Youth Series 3.0 in November was a powerful testament to God’s provision and the hard work of so many. This new resource, designed to connect with and inspire Generation Z and Generation Alpha, was introduced to young people, youth leaders and teachers in Ireland, the Gulf and Sweden at various events, from watch parties to webinars and workshops.
“I thought it was really authentic, and that really stuck out to me watching the video – keeping it real, asking good questions and having good conversations,” commented a young woman in Ireland, one of hundreds who attended one of the three premieres in Cork, Dublin and Sligo.
In the Gulf, the new series was launched at two events: at an online gathering for youth leaders across Lebanon and the Gulf; and at The Big Weekend conference in Ajman, in partnership with Youth For Christ UAE.
An exciting first for our region was the launch of a translated Alpha Series alongside the English launch: having participated in a pilot for a new translation process, Alpha Sweden launched AYS 3.0 in Swedish in November.
“This was beyond my expectations, and my expectations were high to begin with,” commented a youth pastor after the watch party in Stockholm. Shortly afterwards, a Christian school group confirmed that they planned to start running Alpha Youth in their schools in the next few weeks. Alpha Sweden is also planning an extended AYS 3.0 launch over the summer.
We cannot wait to see the impact of this new series as it launches in 17 more EMENA languages in 2025!
As well as partnering on a national level with key organisations across EMENA, we have been hugely encouraged by the development of global and regional partnerships in 2024.
Our Director of Strategic Partnerships, Arnd Herrmann, has been building relationships, initiating collaboration projects, and representing Alpha at several important gatherings, including the Lausanne World Congress on Global Mission in Korea, Biblica’s EMENA Partnership Gathering, the Beyond Success conference in Kenya, and Youth for Christ’s EMENA conference in Albania in October.
The announcement of a new global partnership with The Chosen also presents a significant opportunity for our region, opening up fresh ways for people to encounter Jesus through both Alpha and the award-winning TV series. (Watch this video of Enora, who was ‘so moved’ by watching The Chosen that she went on Alpha and became a Christian.) We are also hugely excited by the goal of the Come and See Foundation to translate The Chosen into 600 languages, including many spoken in EMENA!
Our ongoing partnership with Divine Renovation, a Catholic ministry focused on parish renewal, also continues to bear fruit. In November, more than 1,000 EMENA delegates were among the nearly 3,500 people who attended a webinar entitled ‘Re-presenting Jesus’, jointly hosted by Alpha, Divine Renovation and The Chosen. Featuring Nicky and Pippa Gumbel (pioneers of Alpha), Father James Mallon (founder of Divine Renovation Ministry) and Jonathan Roumie (Jesus in The Chosen), we were so encouraged by this example of multiplication through partnerships in terms of reach and impact.
In November we were delighted to welcome around 300 guests to Alpha Collective at Holy Trinity Brompton church in London. With 18 EMENA countries represented it was the largest Alpha Collective event we have ever held!
Alpha Collective provides an opportunity to connect with church leaders from around the world who have been running Alpha and want to extend the impact of Alpha within their churches and beyond.
“For me, the biggest take aways were how we should soak everything in prayer, and about the importance of youth ministry,” commented one attendee from the Middle East.
We are excited to see the multiplication effect of our partnership with these churches in the next season, particularly with the upcoming launch of the new AYS 3.0.
In 2024, six National Office Strategy Cohorts took place, gathering NAO teams in sub-regional groups to invest in strategic planning and leadership development, learning alongside one another. With the Nordic countries having completed a pilot for the programme in 2023, the other four sub-regions began their cohort journeys this year. It was wonderful to see 10 teams from DACH and South-West Europe come together in Ireland for their first cohort in October, seeking God’s heart for their nation and building a compelling dream to work towards in the coming season.
“For us as an office, it has been the push we needed,” comments Emma de León Fernández de Córdoba, Alpha Spain National Director. Emma and her team have already implemented an objective identified during the cohort in October – creating a pool of volunteers to help them with tasks they weren’t previously able to achieve. “This is proving to be a great success, radically changing the way we work,” she shares.
“A big highlight of 2024 is that every NAO in EMENA has started the journey,” says Arnoud Drop. As Global Director of NAO Development (alongside his role as Director of Alpha Netherlands), Arnoud is passionate about helping NAOs to maximise their impact so that more people can encounter Jesus through Alpha. In 2023, he began leading a cohort-based development programme for NAOs, which takes place across four 48-hour retreats over 18 months. By the end of 2024, a total of eight sub-regional retreats had taken place, with planning underway for six more this year.
“Alpha’s big dream is ‘Alpha for Everyone’ by 2033, so we start by helping NAOs to define their dream and their part in this big global dream,” says Arnoud. “Different offices are at different stages – some have just sparked off a dream, while for others the dream is well-developed and they are making ministry choices to keep their focus on that.”
“I love the bold dreams being developed in many nations, and the clarity around mission and multiplying impact,” comments Paul Davie, EMENA Executive Director.
We look forward with anticipation to the fruits of the cohorts still to come in 2025!
The teams within the sub-region of Eurasia began the National Office Strategy Cohort programme this year, gathering in Poland for ‘EEST#1’ in March and in Hungary for ‘EEST#2’ in September. Having met initially to identify their dreams for their nations, over 30 Alpha coordinators and team members gathered for the second cohort to focus on problem-solving.
Many offices operate with small volunteer teams, but we were so encouraged to see the collaboration and mutual support between offices, as well as creative problem-solving. “The enthusiasm and willingness of our NAOs to participate proves that we need each other,” says Stanisław Cinal, EMENA Director of Eurasia. “Building know-how together, having a common tool for delivering goals, measuring effectiveness and dealing with challenges is so beneficial.” We look forward to the fruits of cohorts three and four in 2025.
2024 was a significant year for our work across Eurasia. We set up a new Alpha Balkans office, led by Director Grozdan Stoevski, six new co-ordinators were identified for key offices, and we began to see doors open in Central Asia. We are particularly excited for the launch of AYS 3.0 in Russian in Kazakhstan at the Sozo conference in summer 2025, where over 2,000 young people will be gathered!
As we play our part in ‘Alpha for everyone, everywhere’, a landmark new product is already opening doors for Alpha in Orthodox contexts. The Alphabet of Faith – a book containing specially-adapted scripts of the Alpha Course – was launched in November at the International Orthodox Conference in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The fruit of three years of work, it has been welcomed with great enthusiasm by church leaders, catechists, theologians and army and navy chaplains who see it as a powerful resource for sharing the Gospel in their communities.
“This is exactly what we need!” enthused a senior officer from the Bulgarian Naval Academy. “The Alphabet of Faith will be very applicable and good to use with our midshipmen and officer cadets.”
The book includes an endorsement by His Eminence Bishop Sionij from Bachkovo Monastery, Bulgaria, as well as icons and quotes by Eastern Church fathers across its 206 pages. It is available in Bulgarian, with other languages in the pipeline.
For more encouraging stories from Central Eastern Europe and Central Asia please click the links below:
Despite the continued war, suffering and instability, we saw God bring light out of the darkness in MENA in 2024. Close to 18,000 people learnt about Jesus through Alpha – an increase of 38% from 2023.
In November, the MENA team celebrated a significant milestone as over 30 leaders gathered for the first time in person, attending the first National Office Strategy Cohort in Egypt.
“It was a week of profound spiritual growth, heartfelt prayer, deep fellowship, and shared joy in the Lord as we sought God’s guidance for the future of each nation in the region,” shares Dalia Nassar, MENA Operations Director.
The team returned to their countries renewed and empowered, carrying a mission of revival and a commitment to fulfill the plans the Lord has placed on their hearts.
With the vision to reach ‘everyone, everywhere’ with the Gospel through Alpha, we are passionate about creating resources to connect with people in a way that speaks to their hearts and meets them in their context. We are delighted that plans are now underway for a brand-new MENA Alpha Film Series in Arabic, which we believe will be transformational for the MENA region and the diaspora. In autumn 2024, the project team began gathering to pray, plan and begin scriptwriting, and we look forward with anticipation to seeing this ground-breaking product developed further in the coming years.
Five years ago, just three churches in the Gulf were running Alpha, reaching a handful of people. In 2024, Alpha Gulf passed the milestone of more than 100 churches running Alpha, welcoming over 9,000 participants.
In a region like the Gulf – a global melting pot with people from nearly every nation on earth, rich and poor, working there and returning home – the potential impact of this is exponential.
“We chose the dandelion as the symbol of our mission because its seeds, carried by the wind, reflect how participants will spread the message of faith during their stay in the Gulf and as they return home or move onto their next assignment,” says Arnd Herrmann, Alpha Gulf National Director. “Each seed symbolises an individual touched by the Gospel, bringing transformation and new life wherever they go.”
More than half of Alphas are run online, as it enables many people to participate safely and anonymously.
Read some encouraging stories from MENA below:
Alpha Germany, one of the largest National Alpha Offices in the region, experienced a 20% increase in Alpha courses, with 61,258 people taking part in 2024. Johanna Weddigen, 34, who, together with Dominik Sandles, leads the team of 14 staff members, shares some insights behind the growth and what inspires her in her ministry with Alpha.
“A verse that really inspired me in 2024 is John 13:35: ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’ The German translation uses the word ‘unity’, and how that points people to Jesus. I love that Alpha is for all churches, and for everyone, whatever their background,” says Johanna.
The unity that Alpha embodies, she believes, is partly what lies behind the significant ongoing growth in ministry.
“The Catholic Church really picked up Alpha this year, mainly through our partnership with Divine Renovation,” she smiles. “And we’ve seen great growth with Protestant churches, too, through a new product we created for them: a one-year programme using Alpha Youth as part of their two-year confirmation programme.”
To promote the new Alpha Youth confirmation programme, Johanna and the team worked with a 23-year-old influencer who was crowned Miss Germany. More than 2,500 young people in 85 churches across the country took part, with many more signed up for 2025.
This new programme is one of the fruits of an intentional investment in developing the Alpha Germany team, notes Johanna, leading to more innovation and growth.
“Over the past few years we have been investing in a younger team, giving them responsibility and fostering a culture around building, measuring, learning, and not being afraid to try new things,” she explains. “This has really enabled us to grow, particularly as we work to bring Alpha to the next generation.”
We continue to be encouraged by the faithfulness of our Alpha teams across EMENA, and by the innovative ways that they serve the Church in their nations and contexts.
In October, we were delighted to celebrate alongside Alpha Spain as they received an award for their “contribution of the dissemination and implementation of the Gospel in everyday life to make God’s love visible.”
The award was presented by Religion en Libertad, a well-known Catholic digital news agency that is part of the New Evangelisation Foundation for the 21st Century, set up in 2012 in response to Pope Benedict XVI’s call for a ‘new evangelisation’.
The award is a wonderful recognition of Alpha Spain’s fruitful work over the last 20 years, and a huge encouragement to the team. We are excited to see what God will do in and through them in the next season as they continue serve the Church in their nation.
Alpha is helping to bring churches in Sweden together to reach out to their communities. In summer 2024, 31 churches of different denominations in Gothenburg joined together to place adverts on the sides of buses and trams, inviting people to Alpha. They also co-ordinated their efforts to run Alpha on different days of the week, to offer people as many options as possible.
“It all started when I prayerfully invited one of the Vineyard pastors to Experience Alpha a couple of years ago,” shares Marie-Louise Nilsson, Alpha Sweden National Director. “At HTB the Lord spoke to her to focus on Alpha. A year later He spoke to her again to make the Alpha question mark well known in Gothenburg as a way to reach the city with the Gospel. And 31 churches united to fund and organise the campaign.”
As a result of the campaign, the number of Alpha courses in Gothenburg grew from around 10 to more than 50, more churches started running Alpha, and every course saw people come to faith in Christ.
The campaign also increased the unity among churches in Gothenburg. “There was such a buzz in the room when we led Alpha training with all 200 leaders from these churches,” says Marie-Louise. “Catholics and Pentecostals in the same room, praying for our city – this has never happened before. We have found unity when we have focused on mission.”
The campaign was so successful that the churches in Gothenburg have decided to run it again at the start of 2025.
Pope Francis’s message to the almost 5,000 leaders gathered for Leadership Conference 2024 in May remains a highlight of the year for many. As he spoke of the leadership example of Jesus, he encouraged: “Millions of people in the world urgently need to hear the Good News: Jesus is alive! In 2033, the 2000th anniversary of the resurrection of Christ will take place. May He find us better, more just. May he find us celebrating, all together, united, and then may we be able to share what Jesus did in us during that time.” We are so encouraged that 33% of courses in EMENA were from the Catholic context in 2024, largely from the South-West Europe sub-region. We continue to pray and work towards greater unity in our region as we serve the Church in its mission to reach people for Jesus.
Click here to register and join us for LC25!
The Marriage Courses (TMC) continued to grow in 2024, with around 1,500 churches running 2,795 courses in 37 countries across EMENA. There are so many ways that this ministry is changing the lives of couples, families and churches across the region.
“When I received the box I cried. It was the first time we’ve ever received a token of appreciation.” This is a quote from one of 200 pastor couples across our region who benefited from The Marriage Course Experience (TMCE) in 2024.
Held online for wider reach, flexibility and privacy, TMCE enables church leaders and their spouses to experience all seven sessions of TMC, plus an additional eighth session called Marriage and Ministry. Couples who lead ministries in both Protestant and Catholic churches took part.
“Many of these couples’ marriages suffer because ministry always comes first,” says Willem van de Pol, who coordinates TMC in Spain along with his wife, Sonja. “This extra session helps them discuss specific issues like the pressures of ministry, marriage as part of ministry, and how to establish priorities together.”
An extra touch that the couples loved were the gift boxes sent before each session.
“Ministry couples give of themselves all the time, so receiving boxes containing candles, chocolates, a bottle of wine – just small things to help them create a special atmosphere together – meant a lot to them,” says Dagmar Guttnerova who, together with her pastor husband Jakub, coordinates TMC across EMENA and in the Czech Republic.
For Ulrike Mohring, who oversees TMC in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, where more than 100 ministry couples did TMCE, the value of the programme is clear: “I don’t know of anything comparable being offered for pastor couples that is so uncomplicated, discreet and for free. We can’t wait to offer the course again in 2025!”
A joint campaign by Alpha Romania and the government’s Ministry of Family led to more than 1,000 people across the country – the vast majority non-church-goers – signing up for The Marriage Course (TMC) in 35 cities in October.
The initiative included selecting and training churches, producing a website and promotional material and running campaigns on Facebook and Instagram, geo-targeted to cities where churches had committed to running TMC. The online campaign reached more than 150,000 people.
To amplify the reach and credibility of the campaign, Alpha Romania partnered with the Ministry of Family and with the Mateș family – top influencers on YouTube and Instagram.
“We wanted the campaign to have an organic feel, featuring trusted voices,” explains Mitica Craciun, Alpha Romania National Director. “The partnership with the government worked exceptionally well. We designed the project to make it eligible for funding but also ensured that we had full control over the management and implementation.”
The main aim of the campaign was to help churches connect with their communities in a relevant and tangible way. More than 85% of couples who signed up said they rarely or never attend church.
Many churches who took part have been astonished at the results. One church with a congregation of 70 found itself hosting a course for 120 participants. The experience has encouraged churches to start connecting with nurseries and schools, inviting parents to marriage and parenting courses.
“We have seen churches become more deeply connected to society than ever before, and more vibrant in their evangelistic efforts,” says Mitica. “Today, all the campaign resources are available for churches to tap into at any time to organise their own local campaign.”
Ukraine has one of the highest divorce rates in the world, and three years of conflict have only served to further increase the pressure on families. That is why Alpha Ukraine has been working to equip churches to support marriages. In 2024, nearly 50 Marriage Courses were run across the country, attended by 553 couples.
“Lots of families have been forced to split up, with many husbands on the frontline while their wives and children are either at home or in another country,” explains Andriy Kopylash, EMENA Director of Ukrainian Ministry. “Pastors understand that this is a huge problem, and that we need to help couples to work on their marriages.”
Having dubbed TMC into Ukrainian just before the war, Alpha Ukraine already had a tool to offer the churches. The onset of war in 2022 disrupted much of the ministry, but in 2023 Andriy worked with a large church in Irpin, which invited 30 pastor couples to experience TMC for themselves.
“The pastor couples were so impressed by their experience that many of them wanted to run it in their churches, too,” says Andriy. “That’s why we grew from 5 to 35 churches running TMC in 2024!”
In Turkey, the number of TMC participants nearly doubled in 2024, with courses run in three different cities and in three different languages – Turkish, Farsi and English.
“Most participants were MBB [Muslim Background Believer] couples,” says Alpha Turkey Coordinator Tanya Uzunyan. “Many shared that they were facing challenges in their marriages but that the course helped them gain a deeper understanding of each other and renew their commitment.”
One couple in Izmir on the verge of divorce said that they had been reluctant to attend, viewing it as a final attempt to save their marriage. “Not only did they reconcile but they have become key participants and potential leaders of future marriage courses,” says Tanya.
By Nabil Shehadi, EMENA Prayer Director & Pastoral Chaplain
“Achieving our Vision 2033 goal and having burnout on the way would be a fail!” said our new CEO, Miles Toulmin, in his first global call to NAOs. In EMENA, we have been developing our prayer life, aiming to have a spirituality for sustainable mission, focused on the invitation of Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30 to rest with him (come to me) and work with him (go with me – my yoke). Seeing prayer primarily as presence, rather than an activity we do, resolves the tension between contemplation and action, the one we do with him and the other for him (‘the Mary/Martha syndrome’). When prayer is about presence it encompasses being and doing in Jesus.
We have been building this muscle this year, learning to “be still” together in God’s presence during our Zoom prayer meetings. We begin each one with “a minute for the Spirit”, acknowledging and expressing our Alpha value of reliance on Him in all we do.
In the second half of 2024, we also launched two new prayer initiatives. In order to learn from and develop relationships with 24-7 prayer movements, my wife Sarah and I visited several Catholic and Evangelical Houses of Prayer: Loretto in Vienna and Salzburg, Father’s House in Rosenheim and Gebetshaus in Augsburg. We also visited our NAOs in Austria, Hungary and Poland, running prayer workshops and offering pastoral support. Both initiatives were wonderfully encouraging and uplifting and we are contemplating how to continue this into 2025.
Lea Czinki
Alpha Hungary
Budget
