Alpha Youth Ignites Teen’s Faith, Evangelistic Fervor

When the Rev. Peter Tepper and his family first came to know Gigi, then 7, she had just moved to their neighborhood. They maintained what he described as an “on-and-off relationship” with her through the years, and near the end of 2022, Tepper became rector of St. Peter the Fisherman, New Smyrna Beach. No one could have anticipated that as a teen, not only would Gigi encounter the truth of Jesus Christ but, along with the Teppers’ daughter Sophia and other students, she would co-lead an Alpha Youth course at Deland High School.

In 2024, Sophia and Gigi, then both 14, began attending DHS, and the Teppers became reacquainted with her. They had previously invited her to church, and she attended services on Christmas, Easter and other occasions, but it never stuck. That was true until she encountered what Mrs. Michelle Tepper, Father Peter’s wife and national director for denominational engagement for Alpha USA, called “Holy Spirit hospitality.” Father Peter explained that along with prayer and dependence on the Holy Spirit, this radical hospitality is one of the three main values of Alpha.

“I was prompted by the Lord to start giving Gigi a ride to and from school, as I was already taking my daughter,” Michelle said. “That meant we would be alone with her for a little while in the mornings and in the afternoons and would provide transportation for her because we didn’t want her to take the bus. We restarted a relationship with her, and she would come into our home to do homework with Sophia and to have dinner.”

In the spring of this year, when St. Peter the Fisherman decided to run Alpha Youth for the first time, it seemed only natural that Gigi would attend. “We were sharing life with her, and we invited her to come,” Michelle said. “We invested in her, and we loved on her, and she said yes to a commitment to come to Alpha Youth regularly.”

All it took for Gigi to fall in love with Jesus was that invitation and her weekly attendance at Alpha Youth, which, like the adult Alpha course, offers participants the opportunity to view brief videos on various aspects of the Christian faith. At each session, the video viewing is followed by casual, facilitated conversations in a safe, welcoming environment that encourages questions.

“When I was watching the Alpha Youth episodes, I was amazed by their [the students’] experiences with Jesus,” Gigi said. “It seemed so amazing how much he loves people. That’s when I knew I wanted to feel that love and live out the faith they shared.” At the end of the church’s course, she asked to be baptized, and Father Peter and Michelle baptized her at Bethune Beach in New Smyrna.

Sophia, who had already been baptized and confirmed, made a commitment of her own at the end of the course, sensing God’s calling for her to lead Alpha Youth at DHS. St. Peter the Fisherman partnered with three other area churches to help support the course, and Sophia, Gigi and six other teens serve as “hosts and helpers,” or primary leaders, for the course. Academic sponsor Mr. Jason Mackey, an ordinand in the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida and youth minister at St. Peter the Fisherman, helped with the planning over the summer. In early September, the group of nearly 60 students began meeting each Monday for the course, held in Mackey’s classroom during a lunch period.

“The cool thing about the way Alpha is designed is they give you all the resources for free,” Father Peter said. “So the girls created a little log-in, they downloaded all the videos, they got all the discussion guides, and they’re running with it.”

The churches take turns providing the lunches for the students, but “It’s all student-led, student-driven,” he stressed. “They’re doing it all themselves. We’re not doing any of the work. We can train them up on how to do it, but they came up with the idea and want to do it. We just trained them up and cut them loose, and they’re doing such a phenomenal job.”

“It’s amazing … Gigi is totally on fire for Jesus,” Father Peter said. “When she encountered this amazing, caring Christian community and she discovered who Jesus really is, she said, ‘I want in on this.’ By nature, she’s an introvert, but it’s been really amazing to see her grow and to be in a place that she loves. She wanted to know what it was about Jesus that these people were so drawn to, and that brought this introvert out of her shell. She’s now running Alpha Youth, and she’s inviting all of her friends to be a part of it.”

“A lot of students have come to know Jesus, and they have a wonderful time,” he said. “Alpha Youth, now rebranded as ‘What’s on Your Mind?’, is best run when it is run by these kids’ peers. They have great conversations about life, faith and purpose.”

Gigi’s uncompromising love for Jesus and the gospel has fueled her fire to bring as many students to the course as she can. She summed up her experience with one sentence: “Alpha Youth creates a great community where you can have many thoughts and opinions without being judged while being introduced to Jesus.”