Nicky Gumbel Addresses the First Ever Taiwan National Alpha Conference

The Alpha Course, one of the most successful world renowned evangelism initiatives, which was first established in England, has finally spread its reach to Taiwan. It was marked by the first ever Taiwan National Alpha Conference running from 6th to 7th December.

The pioneer of the Alpha Course, Rev Nicky Gumbel together with a team of English ministers, flew to Taipei to celebrate the victorious occasion with local Alpha ministers and church leaders. In the grand hall of the Taipei Methodist Church, Rev Gumbel's vivid and passionate address greatly strengthened the attendants.

Later, Gumble invited the audience to pray together to receive the Holy Spirit, and the English ministers also prayed for some of the leaders so that their spirits would be renewed.

In addition, Rev Nicky Gumbel introduced to the audience the Alpha Concept. There are in total six main points, including "The most efficient evangelistic ministry is based on the congregation", "Evangelistic ministry is a continuous process", "Evangelistic ministry is universal", "The Three Modes of New Testament evangelistic ministry", "Evangelistic ministry by the authority of the Holy Spirit is vivid and effective" and lastly "The Holy Spirit is the source of strength in evangelistic ministry".

Rev Gumbel shared his personal experience in evangelism, and spoke about what in fact stimulated him to develop the Alpha Concept. Rev Gumbel said he first began to evangelise people around him since he was a university student.

At that time, he told how he was not very successful because he didn't care much about the thought of those who was being evangelised. He humbly reflected that he was not a "gifted evangelists", and that is how he has developed the Alpha Course, through which he is able to reach out to many more unbelievers in diversified ways.

Rev Gumbel said he was surprised by the amazing work of God in that He has allowed the Alpha Course to develop into an international ministry. Nowadays, the course has been translated into over 50 different languages and over 6 million people have joined the course.

In an exclusive interview with The Gospel Post in Taiwan, Rev Nicky Gumbel, who talked of his vision for world mission and his expectations for Alpha in Asia.

When asked about his views on the spiritual atmosphere in each country around the world, Rev Gumbel commented, "Each country is so different. For example, in Africa, there is a great spiritual revival, there are so many thirty souls, that's why there are more and more people that believe in God these years. However, in some Christian countries, America is very different from Europe. In America, over 40% of people attend churches compared to only 7.5% in Europe."

"Although most of the European countries are Christian countries, the evangelism is even more difficult. In addition, I think there is higher openness and room for development in Asia. Nowadays, the Alpha Course has been introduced into many Asian countries," he continued.

Rev Gumbel expressed his great hope for the future of the Alpha Course in Asia particularly. "In Asia, I think in India and China, obviously they have very big room for development. Also, Malaysia and Singapore are also advancing very rapidly recently. For Korea, Alpha has been going since 1998, and now it has been implemented in many churches. Even in the Philippines, the Catholic churches have started the Alpha Course."