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It started so quietly.
A Friday evening, a small group from Winstanley Free Methodist Church, and someone showing them some Bible study material - all the potential, in fact, of a wet weekend in Scarborough.
Until, that is, they had their first ‘hands on’ taste of a SEAN home study unit.
Initially, as the ‘frames’ were viewed for the first time, there were the predictable and almost imperceptible murmurs about the ‘easiness’ of the material - surprise? even disdain? But a few minutes later it was apparent that, once again, the impact of SEAN’s ‘easy’ methodology was making its mark. Comments were escaping from around the room, like bubbles from a kettle coming up to boil:
‘Mmmmm!’
‘Oh, I never realised that before.’
‘Ah, so that’s why Simon...’
‘Wow, that’s interesting!’
Winstanley Free Methodist Church was excited. Maybe this just what they were looking for - material which brought the word of God right into their lives, which produced some much lively discussion, and which really worked its way under the skin.
Fortunately it didn’t stop there.
As the workshop proper progressed on the Saturday, six different churches (from a range of denominations, and from as far away as Cambridge) were shown how a properly implemented course, such as SEAN’s six-book Life of Christ (a compendium of pastoral theology), could equip a church with the practical tools of discipleship and evangelism. Here, they discovered, was an ongoing source of study and discussion material suitable for all levels of maturity - from a post-Alpha to leadership training. SEAN, it was stressed, is by no means an end in itself, but simply a tried and tested tool to be used in the overall process of discipleship training.
Following the afternoon session in which three groups experienced the small group discussion dynamics of a SEAN unit for real, one church leader from Sheffield remarked, ‘SEAN enables the Bible to be put back into the hands of ordinary people.’
If, at the beginning of the workshop, some had wondered why they had come, by the end of Saturday doubts had been transformed into convictions - for the need to equip, at grass roots levels, ordinary Christians with the tools to become kingdom workers.
Special thanks go to Mark Johnston, pastor of Winstanley Free Methodist Church - and, of course, to Flo for all those cups of tea!
Finally, one of the more significant comments was. ‘Why haven’t we heard about this material before?’ Well, this is exactly why SEAN is so willing to hold workshops like Nov 16 at Wigan at venues up and down the country. The UK, it seems, is at last taking seriously the need for church-based discipleship and training programmes. So if you’re reading this and would like to invite one or two nearby churches too, SEAN would love to come to your area to show you a way forward - a way that is deeply effective, as borne out by the fact that SEAN is used in about 85 countries and in over 50 languages.
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Of course, there were some at the workshop who needed no introduction to SEAN for themselves, and Beryl Loy (pictured here) and Jane Orbiston from Warrington enjoyed the privilege of being presented with their Basic Diploma in Pastoral Theology**Being awarded certificates and diplomas is not, in any way, the purpose of studying SEAN material, and in the UK are used only as and when required by the programme of which they form a part. However, they serve as valuable ways of recognising the significant depth of training that has been achieved. In some countries, though, they enjoy accreditation status. |
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