Stephen's Story

Law firm CMS Cameron McKenna partner Stephen Millar recently ran an Alpha course in CMS’s Aberdeen office.  

But why run Alpha?

‘I suppose I had a kind of early midlife crisis in my 30’s! Having prayed for years about my workplace and for my colleagues I pictured myself working for another 20 years without ever having the opportunity to talk with them about the important issues of life and my faith. Alpha creates a useful space for these important issues to be openly acknowledged and discussed. I knew about Alpha through my local church Deeside Christian Fellowship and was aware that it had run in several large firms like Shell and Mobil.  A couple of colleagues, Frances Reilly and Rachel MacDonald, were also keen to run the course.  So we ran it past senior staff and then sent an open invitation to all of those in the office.’

‘We did the opening session in a local pub and one of the partners, who had been a guest on another Alpha course, spoke about how much he’d enjoyed doing it.  Then week by week we met in a training room next to our social area.  About 6 or 7 staff came, bringing their own lunch.  Some came along because they had relatives that had done the course, others were just curious. What was interesting was that there was quite a lot of chat around the office generally about what that week's topic was – it became quite a talking point even amongst those that were not guests.’

 

‘Some guests started off fairly sceptical - and perhaps a bit angry about God or at least how we were presenting God.  However towards the end of the course their was a definite change. There was more overall understanding and some said they were beginning now to 'get’ what Christianity was about, even if they felt it wasn’t for them.  We ran the Alpha ‘Away Day’ over one evening with a meal.  One guest described the Christian message as ‘Brilliant News’.  When we finished Alpha people were keen to continue, so we organised some church visits in Aberdeen together.  Following a request we are now moving to run through some of the early Alpha sessions again as they want to hear them with the benefit of having seem the subsequent materials’

‘The best thing about running Alpha here is that I have to pinch myself that deep, engaging conversations can take place in the workplace.  I am also struck by just how much enthusiasm there is for these type of discussions.’