It's called Alpha and could be described as Christianity 101. Alpha ''softened my heart,'' he says. It changed my life,'' he says. McCray was one of 16 people who testified to Alpha's effectiveness last month when the Vineyard held a two-day conference promoting the program to U.S. clergy and lay leaders. The projected attendance at 42 such presentations scheduled around the country this year is 16,000.
Most responses are less dramatic.
But Alpha has undoubtedly cut a swath in the eight years since the concept spread beyond Holy Trinity Brompton church in London, which had quietly run Alpha courses since 1977. Roughly 3 million people in many Christian denominations have now attended worldwide, including nearly 500,000 in the United States, where work began in 1996. Both those totals have doubled the past two years. Some 17,000 congregations participate. None of this was really planned.