Alpha began in a church called Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) in 1977. It was later taken by Nicky Gumbel in 1990 and repositioned as a course for those outside the church. As a result, the number of people who attended Alpha at HTB grew quickly into the hundreds. The effectiveness of the Alpha attracted the attention of other churches across denominations who were seeking for an evangelistic tool.

Before long, this led to the first Alpha conference in 1993 at HTB where over 1000 church leaders attended to learn about Alpha and how to use it in their congregation. As interest grew, more Alpha conferences were organised internationally and the original Alpha Talks were filmed in 1994 to make it accessible to a wider audience.

Today, millions of people have experienced Alpha and the talks have been translated into over 100 languages. The Alpha Talks have since been repackaged into the Alpha Film Series and the Alpha Youth Series was created to reach a younger generation. Over the years, Alpha continues to be used by churches as an effective tool to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In 2020, Alpha courses were forced to pivot online. However, this became an opportunity of a lifetime. Churches started to equip themselves to run Alpha remotely. Christians all over the world can now run Alpha for anyone across the globe from the comforts of their home. Alpha online opened the doors for even more people who had yet to hear the Gospel. Learn more about Alpha online.