Last summer, as Polly Tjihenuna sat with the ORU Chaplain team, the conversation turned toward a difficult question: How could they strengthen discipleship and spiritual formation on campus?
Ideas bounced around the room, but for Tjihenuna, the answer lay in fostering open, honest discussions about faith.
“Alpha is something that pokes at the big questions in life,” Tjihenuna said.
Alpha Meetings have been held worldwide since 1990, providing a space for open conversations about faith. .
Alpha Meetings were held every Thursday during the spring semester in GC 4116. Their purpose was to help students grow in their understanding of Christianity and equip them with the knowledge to share and defend their faith with confidence against skeptics and unbelievers.
“We want to leave little to no room for doubt as to why they believe what they believe,” Tjihenuna said.
Ashtyn Iser, a prayer partner in the Wednesday prayer set, believes college is often the first-time students truly claim their faith as their own.
“For so long, we believed what our parents believed, and we always say, ‘Oh, we’ll just trust in the Lord.’ Or we’ll trust in our mom’s faith or our dad’s faith or our grandparents’ faith,” Iser said. “But when you know who you are in Christ and your authority, then you can change someone’s heart or someone’s mind.”
While prayer sets focus on spiritual discipline, Alpha Meetings create a space to explore foundational Christian beliefs in depth, Iser said
To create an environment where students can wrestle with deep questions, Alpha Meetings follow a structured yet open-ended format. Discussions cover a wide range of topics, from “Who is God?” and “How do we pray?” to deeper inquiries about the reliability of Scripture, the problem of suffering and how to live out faith in a secular world.
A common misconception is that Alpha Meetings are only for new believers, Tjihenuna said, but she stresses this is not the case. Alpha Meetings are for anyone who wants to strengthen their understanding of Christianity, whether they are long-time believers, skeptics or somewhere in between.
“We must encourage students to do their own research and grow as scholars of the Bible,” Tjihenuna explained.
Each meeting began with a time for fellowship, followed by a short video introducing the question for the week, based on a pre-made plan designed by the Alpha Course organizers.
Students then broke into small groups, where open discussions took center stage. These conversations were guided by members of the Chaplain Program selected for their ability to foster respectful and meaningful dialogue.
Rather than simply providing answers, facilitators challenged students to think critically, share their perspectives and wrestle with faith’s biggest questions together.
