HTB Vicar Nicky Gumbel spoke to 650 members of KingsGate Community Church, Peterborough, last night.

He was guest speaker at a midweek event at the Cambridgeshire mega-church founded by Dave and Karen Smith in 1988. The purpose-built church building, with an auditorium which is now being expanded to accommodate 1800 people, was opened in 2006.

Nicky was welcomed on the stage by Dave Smith, who said, 'We have been running Alpha for 18 years and hundreds of you are here because of going on that course.' He spoke of how the church is now running Alpha in many locations.

He said, 'We wanted to take the whole Alpha thing to another level this year. We have been praying for many months now and so as well as a central Alpha here with many tables, we've also got 24 other home Alphas....'

The church has a congregation in Cambridge city centre with a number of other Alpha courses running.

He said, 'We are so excited at what the Lord is going to do. Tonight is an opportunity for us to get fired up for the new Alpha season. What better way than to welcome Nicky Gumbel, who heads up HTB, which I think is one of the most outstanding churches in the whole of Western Europe.'

Nicky then spoke on Luke 5 and led a time of ministry.