The Story of SEAN: Study by Extension for All Nations

26.05.2025 / SEAN

Established in 1971, SEAN has developed ‘TEE’ Bible courses which are now done by well over 200,000 people every year, in many different countries and languages worldwide…

The seeds of the idea for SEAN came and were developed initially in a rural area of southern Chile by Tony Barratt working for SAMS, the South American Mission Society. Tony saw the need to set up a Bible institute / agricultural training centre for local indigenous Mapuche Christians with leadership potential. The Mapuche Christians were intelligent, able and keen but, with their minimum primary education (and that in Spanish, their second language), it was impossible for them to meet the entry requirements of the national church for standard theological training. Also, in their poverty, they could not leave their smallholdings and families to go away to an alien environment for a year or more of theological education.

Recognising potential

Tony recognised the potential in the students – and that it was impossible for them to pursue traditional training.He experimented with new methods and courses, also using them in a Christian Missionary Alliance Bible Institute and in another mission’s Theological Institute in a nearby town, Temuco. Both here and later, when he transferred to Paraguay and then Argentina, Tony gathered a team of teachers to develop programmed self-study materials combined with weekly group tutorials.

Take the training to the churches

At that time, TEE (Theological Education by Extension, nowadays also known as ‘Tools to Equip and Empower’) had emerged from Guatemala and Tony quickly realised that the only way to prepare people for leading the growing numbers of congregations was to use TEE methods to take the Bible college training to the local churches. Gradually, the new SEAN team developed TEE courses – initially ‘Abundant Life’ and ‘Life of Christ’. These were tested in-depth with different groups in the city and in rural areas. And it worked: leaders were trained and began to take on the pastoring of churches. Tony and his team continued to write special programmed courses and leaders’ manuals which were first field-tested, then used for preparing pastors and leaders in the local churches and, later, in other denominations too.

Increasing demand

On testing with volunteers, whenever a section was found to be ambiguous or deficient in any way, that whole master page had to be re-typed and, if the change was radical, usually all the subsequent pages had to be re-typed too. It has been calculated that it would often take up to 600 hours to produce one study / lesson before publishing! Initially, everything was done in Tony’s home. Writing, testing, duplicating hundreds of copies, collating, stapling, storing, distribution etc. involved the whole family, even visiting bishops and dignitaries were not spared their shift of collating books! From the very beginning, SEAN (then known as the Seminario por Extensión ANglicano) has always run on a modest budget. Gradually news spread about SEAN, creating an ever-increasing demand from potential users all over the world. Printing, storage and distributing material became a nightmare for the small team. Eventually, the idea for SEAN to concentrate only on writing courses and to license others to print and use them saved the day. When Tony and his wife Peggy returned to the UK, SEAN (subsequently called Study by Extension for All Nations) became an international foundation and registered charity.

100 countries, 70 languages

Currently SEAN courses are used in over 100 countries and 70 languages. Tony died in 2010, but the small SEAN team continues. Modifications and updating are still in progress and new courses are in the pipeline. From the age of the typewriter to computer, internet and e-learning, SEAN continues to expand. SEAN is a mission society – but without missionaries; it is a ministry – without many ministers. It does not send people overseas to teach and train local people for ministry. Rather, it provides missions and churches with the means – TEE tools (SEAN courses) – for enabling the local church to evangelise, nurture and disciple, to teach, and to train leaders. In fact, to do mission and ministry themselves. Using SEAN, local programmes train students where they are.

If you would like to find out more about SEAN’s range of 24 Bible courses for evangelism and discipleship / basic teaching for new believers / foundational training for Christian workers and leaders / practical training / advanced training, please visit the SEAN website at: www.seaninternational.org

A 2-minute video animation about SEAN Bible courses is available on the SEAN YouTube channel at: www.youtube.com/SEANInternationalTV

The book ‘The Hummingbird Nest’ tells the story of the Barratt family who founded SEAN – the book can be purchased at: www.seaninternational.org/the-hummingbird-nest