Youth Alpha reboot
Alpha Youth Resource for youth groups
If you’ve never heard of Youth Alpha – maybe you’ve heard of the Alpha course? – the course that debuted in the 70’s out of Holy Trinity Brompton in London by curate Charles Marnham explaining the fundamentals of the Christian faith. It was revised and rebooted in 1990 by Nicky Gumbel, who redesigned it as a course for ‘seekers’ – for people outside the church to explore the Christian faith in an accessible way. In the 90’s the course grew rapidly, going international and adapting to new technologies, including videos and reaching millions worldwide. It was designed as a discussion session with a meal.
It was in the 90’s that the first Youth version of the course was launched and since then it’s had quite a few iterations.
Alpha Youth has recently had another reboot (new in 2025) – there is a new series of videos and material for young people and young adults. If you’ve been around in ministry as long as me you’ve probably seen quite a few reboots! Youth Alpha has been around a long time – when I first started using it, it came with a physical book, printed leaders guide and a DVD disc with videos on and resources online was an alien concept! We’ve come a long way since then! A good resource refresh is is a good thing as it keeps the content relevant for young people and helps keep them as engaged as possible with the content.
So if you have used Youth Alpha before, whats new?
10 episodes run over 8 weeks, New shorter episodes, 8 new Gen Z international hosts making the course created for youth, by youth. New interviews, experts and stories and translations into several languages which are getting released throughout 2025 and beyond.
Alpha Youth is aimed at young people aged 11-18. The target audience is young people outside of church – but we all know every youth group usually contains young people at every stage of faith. You usually have some who have no faith background, some who have been forced their by parents and aren’t sure about a faith of their own, some who have some knowledge of Christianity and some who would call themselves Christians. I’d say covering the Christian fundamentals is always a good idea for any youth group as we can’t (and shoudn’t) assume young people know who God is, how to pray, why they should read the Bible or how to encounter the Holy spirit. Youth Alpha is a great tool to help cover these topics and more. Youth Alpha helps young people explore life’s big questions about faith, purpose, and identity. It gives them a chance to discuss, ask questions and learn new things.
The new Alpha Youth Series consists of 10 episodes run over 8 weeks exploring life’s real questions – made for youth by youth. There’s nothing you can’t say, and you don’t have to say anything at all. And the best part? Alpha is 100% free.
Heres what they say about themselves, “Alpha Youth exists to equip churches across the UK to help the next generation discover and develop a relationship with Jesus. We are Holy Spirit-led and mission focused. Our aim is to empower young people to step into the mission and purpose found in Jesus Christ.”
Every Alpha Youth session includes time to connect, over food and games. Heres the session themes:
Episode 1: Welcome to the conversation
Episode 2: Jesus is?
Episode 3: What does real love look like?
Episode 4: Why would I want a relationship with God?
Episode 5: What does a relationship with God look like?
Episode 6: Who is the Holy Spirit?
Episode 7: How can i be filled with the Holy Spirit?
Episode 8: How does God help us overcome evil?
Episode 9: Does God heal today?
Episode 10: What happens next?
Hosting an Alpha Youth also gives your existing young people the opportunity to invite friends along. You can also start a youth group by inviting young people to a Youth Alpha course first. If you are planning to promote it outside of your youth group it also comes with resources to create flyers and digital ads. You can download social media resources and Canva templates!
You can also use a version of it in schools! Think lunchtime or after school club or maybe even as part of RE. To get access to all the materials for free all you do is sign up on their website, tell them about the group you are hosting so they can make the right resources available to you, and then you get access to the content dashboard online – “MyAlpha” – this is where you can access all the resources you need to run a successful Alpha Youth. You will be then able to access MyAlpha at any time from the Alpha website.
Watch the trailer below for a sneak peek of the new series content.