162: Marketing God: With Nicky Gumbel - Pioneer of the Alpha Course
Money Maze Podcast
Money Maze Podcast
4.8 • 216 Ratings
🗓️ 12 December 2024
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Everybody's looking for three things in life. |
| 0:02.0 | Everyone's looking for love. |
| 0:04.0 | Everyone's looking for purpose and everyone's looking to belong. |
| 0:08.0 | And one of the things that happens in the small group is people have this deep connection. |
| 0:14.0 | Because we think we'll impress people by our strengths. |
| 0:17.0 | You know, we say, oh, I've been so successful, da-di-da-da-da. |
| 0:20.0 | That might impress people, |
| 0:22.1 | but we actually connect through our vulnerabilities. |
| 0:27.0 | Welcome to the MoneyMays podcast. This is your first time joining us. I'm the host, Simon |
| 0:32.4 | Brewer. And in this show, we talk to proving leaders and thinkers from the worlds of business investing from beyond. |
| 0:39.2 | Money talks and money moves. What direction would you choose? It's the money mate to pay the way. |
| 0:48.7 | To stay up to date with every episode, please do sign up to our newsletter via moneymasepodcast.com. |
| 0:55.1 | Episodes are also published on our YouTube channel and we're active on all major social |
| 0:59.6 | media platforms. Thank you for listening. Very occasionally, one individual can have a |
| 1:07.5 | disproportionately powerful impact on a group or collection of people. |
| 1:11.6 | But very rarely does that person's impact grow in time and reach and expand beyond anyone's expectations, |
| 1:18.6 | and for millions be responsible for enhancing their lives. |
| 1:22.6 | Having explored education with Sir Anthony Selden last year, we decided to pivot again and wanted to examine |
| 1:28.8 | the topic of Christianity. And we found the individual whose immense impact has not been trumpeted |
| 1:34.4 | from the rooftops, and yet whose reach has been prudely profound, helping to engage over 30 million |
| 1:40.5 | people since his odyssey began. So the Reverend Nicky Gumbull, welcome to the Money |
| 1:45.4 | Mays Pog. Oh wow, Simon. I didn't I can't possibly live up to that introduction. |
... |
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