With the next Alpha course kicking off on March 22, Ella sat down and talked to Ashlee Lala about how she went from a reluctant church attendee to an Alpha advocate.
Ella: Ash, thanks for talking to me! Let’s start at the start, how did you end up at CV?
Ashlee: I had just moved back home to Auckland after 8 years, was living back at home, applying for jobs, but generally feeling a bit disconnected, so after my Mum asking a few times I decided to try church with her. It was a cynical time for me, and I didn’t really take to it, so after a while I faded away. But then one day a friend messaged me and said: “Hey I’ve seen you at church a couple of times, I’ve started going to another church, Central Vineyard, do you want to come along with me?” I thought it was really nice that she reached out to me like that so I decided to give it a go.
I don’t really know what I connected to at CV, but I connected to it enough that I kept coming. I started to really resonate with the values preached, and started to go “okay this is really connecting with a way I want to live my life, I still don’t really get the whole God thing, or this Christianity thing, but I really appreciate where they are coming from with their values”. After a while, my Mum wanted to check out this church that I’d actually committed to, so she started coming along. Still being pretty skeptical she also fielded all of my questions after church, “what about this”, “how can God fit into that” etc. Thankfully for her, this was the time they started advertising the Alpha course, so one afternoon after church amidst my questions she just said: “you’ve got a lot of questions, I think you need to go to an Alpha course”.
Ella: Sounds like she wasn’t perhaps sick of answering your questions, but maybe knew a good thing for you when she saw it.
Ashlee: Oh I surprised my self by signing up to it because I was still in quite a skeptical place but I was curious enough and I was connected enough to something that was being spoken about at church. And I loved the people, I was starting to find a community at Central Vineyard, but I did not have the basics (to faith). So I was like “right I’m going to sign up for this Alpha course and bring all the tough questions” hahaha.
Ella: So what was it like?
Ashlee: Well the first thing I was struck by when walking into Community Hall was this feeling of acceptance. I felt so loved. The facilitators were so easy to talk to. They met you where you were at, and whatever place that was, was totally fine. I must have expected to feel threatened, but I was disarmed by the facilitators’ authenticity. If people didn’t know the answers to your questions they didn’t pretend. Nobody was trying to make anything up, they weren’t trying to prove anything to me. I remember just feeling really seen and heard.
“It’s not so much that all my questions were answered, I still have plenty, but a positive curiosity started to replace my cynicism.”
Really early on I noticed this deep feeling of “I’ve come home”. Walking into Community Hall became this invitation to exhale. God just opens his arms to you when you walk into that space.
The second thing was watching the video on Jesus, maybe the second week in. It struck me that he was a living breathing human being, and there is concrete evidence that he actually existed in our history. That was massive. I remember driving home and being like “wow, this is real”. It sounds cliché but I woke up the next morning feeling joy, happiness, and relief. I didn’t really know what that was, but I knew something had shifted and I felt really excited about it.Then every week since I kept having “aha” moments where things started to click into place. It’s not so much that all my questions were answered, I still have plenty, but a positive curiosity started to replace my cynicism.
Ella: Wow it sounds like it was just the beginning for you. But a really important foundation that you needed to start building for yourself. What happened after Alpha?
Ashlee: Alpha was definitely my turning point. It helped me move past that block where I could get on board with the values but I didn’t get the whole God thing. Believing in Jesus, gave me the confidence to delve into the Bible and into other parts of Christianity. It shifted something for me, and after the Alpha course, it’s been a process of growing more passionate about God. 2019 was a year of going deeper into God with friends from CV and within my Circles group. It was such a great year because I became really cemented at CV, and CV itself became so much more than just something I did on Sundays. I made amazing friendships within the community. I started to connect with other rhythms and initiatives happening at CV, and even became a Facilitator on the 2019 Alpha course which I’m so grateful for. I just became really passionate about following Jesus and about what the Bible has to say to us. At the end of last year, I started to think about being baptised but was hesitant, because I thought I had to ‘be a better Christian’ or ‘know all the Bible stories’ or have some sort of impressive Spiritual Resume to be worthy, but gradually I realised that’s not the case at all. I’m not perfect and I never will be, and I will never know everything there is to know about the Bible. But God loves me and accepts me just as I am right now. At the beginning of this year, I felt a really strong pull to be baptised as I was ready to publicly declare that I call Central Vineyard home, and I’m so super excited to spend the rest of my life following Jesus, striving to be more like him, as well as surrendering and letting God guide me toward the plan that he has for my life.
Ella: What a cool moment that was for us all to share with you. Ash, final question; if you could encourage someone on the fence about Alpha, what would you say directly to them?
Ashlee: Alpha is amazing because you can take from it whatever you want to, and whatever feels right for you in that moment. No one is going to try to change you, or make you believe something that doesn’t sit right with you. It’s just about exploring faith, no matter where you are at on your journey. You only have to be a little bit open and God will find you there, He will meet you there, He will fight for you there.
The next Alpha Course begins March 22, find out more and sign up here.