1 SU Bar, 8 Sessions and 40 Students

Swansea, Wales

“Everyone enjoyed the chance to discuss the talks afterwards.”

James Creswell is 22 and studies Maths at Swansea University. His CU recently ran Alpha. Here he tells us how SU bars, comfy chairs and lots of pizza add up to a great Alpha…

After an excellent Missions Week with CU, where we reached out to our campus, we started to look at how we could run some ‘follow-up’. We wanted to make sure that those who had just become Christians, and those who were thinking about it, had a place where they could ask questions and people they could ask. We decided that Alpha was the best tool.

We ran Alpha in the coffee shop side of our local Student’s Union bar so that it was a chilled event in a familiar location. We had sofas, tea, coffee, food, and a great atmosphere. We had saved enough money from our Missions Week budget to be able to provide a meal for everyone who came, equalling lots of pizza and happy students! After everyone was fed, we had a talk which lasted around 20-30 minutes followed by a fascinating time of discussion. We ran the sessions twice a week, starting the Monday after Missions Week, which seemed to go down well!

The sessions were great and it was noticeable that everyone enjoyed the chance to discuss afterwards. There was a really good turn out with around thirty to forty people attending, half of whom weren’t Christians. By the end some of these guys had become Christians while some are still searching. 

Even though it was our first time of doing it, we found it really simple and saw some great results! 

Find out more about how you can run Alpha with students.