One of the most common questions we get from course administrators is how many guests to plan for on the first night of Alpha. We reached out to the experts to help us answer this question.
Nicky and Pippa Gumbel recommend estimating that there will be three times as many guests as members on the Alpha team. If you have 50 team members, estimate 150 guests. Pippa explained that “it isn’t an exact science by any stretch of the imagination. It is very linked in to the people [on your team] and we try to get as many people [to help] who are new to Alpha because they have all the friends.” For this reason, HTB always goes “for quite a big team.”
Beth Pryor, Director of Alpha in Los Angeles typically estimates based on the number of guests who pre-register. “It’s normally around the number who register as they don’t all show up, and then you get the people who just show up on the night.”
After your church runs Alpha for the first time, you should be able to have a better estimate for the following course you run. Just remember that as you continue to run Alpha Courses, momentum builds and the number of guests typically increases. So look for patterns such as Nicky, Pippa, and Beth found in their churches.
