190: Marketing God. With Nicky Gumbel, Pioneer of the Alpha Course

In this Christmas special, we reshare our conversation with Nicky Gumbel! 

Very occasionally one individual can have a disproportionately powerful impact on a collection of people, but very rarely does that person’s impact grow in time and reach, and expand beyond anyone’s expectations and for millions, be responsible for enhancing their lives.

In this episode we explore a slightly different realm: religion. Our guest, the Reverend Nicky Gumbel, talks of his own odyssey from barrister to clergyman, before widening both awareness and access to Christianity to those outside the church via the Alpha Course. 

Alpha - a term which we usually employ in a very different context on the podcast - effectively rebranded and modernised Christianity for a new generation in the 1990s, with tens of thousands of courses being run by the end of the decade. The programme has now been translated into 112 different languages, and 30 million people have taken part. 

In this interview he explains his own pivot to faith, how he was asked to take charge of the Alpha Course development, and in the subsequent years how its reach was extended globally.

He explains how he built it into a global brand, how charismatic leadership can be relevant to all fields, the changing relationship between faith and secularism, the role of religion for prisoner rehabilitation, as well as thoughts on morality, money and giving!

The Money Maze Podcast is kindly sponsored by Schroders, IFM Investors, World Gold Council and LSEG.

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