Alpha “Invite Australia” will kick off in 2017, supporting the churches, business lunches and prison groups that run Alpha.

“We are aiming for 1,000 courses to run in the first half of 2017,” says Daryn Sutton, the Alpha communications manager. “That’s an increase over the 1300 which will have run this year.”

Tough guy Grylls has agreed to be the face of the Alpha campaign – he found his own Christian faith through an Alpha course. Grylls has become known as the face of adventure and outdoor survival. He has climbed Mount Everest and ventured to Antarctica.

With 1.5 billion viewers worldwide, he is recognised from New York to New Delhi, and his fastest growing market is now China. His show Man vs. Wild was the No. 1 ranked reality show in the US last year and he’s also authored six best-selling books.

“I’ve crawled onto the roof of the world,” says Grylls. “But finding a simple faith? That’s been my greatest adventure yet.”

The Grylls campaign, which has already kicked off in the Northern hemisphere, aims at what Sutton calls “Alpha’s toughest demographic” – males in their 20s.

Any church or organisation that would like to get involved in the “Join the Adventure” campaign for can join at inviteaustralia.com

All Alpha resources are free, including training and promotional materials. 

The Alpha campaign is only one of the evangelistic campaigns which Australian churches will run in 2017. The Presbyterian Church of Australia is planning an evangelistic campaign to mark the 500th anniversary  of the Reformation.