Workbook potential - Calvin Eaton

Calvin Eaton is the son of author, the late Michael Eaton, and oversees Michael’s teaching legacy; this includes the celebrated Preaching Through the Bible commentaries. Calvin is also a member of the Sovereign World Trust Board of Trustees. He was born, grew up and is now resident in Africa (he is currently based in Nairobi). More recently, he has drawn on his extensive experience and knowledge to work alongside Trust Director, Chris Moffett, as together they progress the Trust’s Project Mark. 

Being ‘on the ground’ in Kenya gives Calvin an invaluable insight into the need and relevance of the workbook. Here he updates us on the thinking behind Project Mark and the progress being made with this unique project… 

 "I am encouraged by our PTTB workbook project because I believe we are on the right track. We started the project with the desire to use the resources we have in the PTTB books. These are easy-to-read books with expositional depth, and good for teaching and training and discipleship in general. 

We realised the tremendous need and potential there is, in Sub-Saharan Africa in particular, for clear expositional teaching. Africa is a young continent – the average age is less than 20, with a growing population. It is increasingly a centre of Christianity, given the population growth and relative decline elsewhere. It is imperative therefore to give future African Christian leaders access to depth in handling God’s word. 

One of the issues in distributing books is knowing how effectively they are being used. A key church leader using the PTTB material, who has a wealth of experience in leading multi-location churches in an African urban environment, said recently that he believes the congregational discipleship model is not working in urban situations. As a result, he is developing discipleship material based on the PTTB series for small groups that have practical and accountable application of the Word as the key method of discipleship. 

We started the project from a similar viewpoint but not quite knowing our target audience. Chris (Moffett) began writing workbooks which we initially targeted at a school-going teenage audience, wanting pupils to have exposure to the Bible before leaving school and shortly after. We had some experimental contacts in Kenya but found the format not quite suitable given the heavy academic pressures the pupils already face and issues around every-day language use. 

Through the course of this year, the focus of our attention has changed. I have been involved in a church that does small-group discipleship of mostly young people who live in gritty urban environments. Most discipleship materials deal with topics, with good reason. But at a certain point there is a need for reading God’s word in a regular and systematic way in order to ground people in essential truths. These are people already in discipleship groups. 

I am encouraged as I believe we are getting closer to the people who need this material the most. We are in actual relationship with them and not one-step removed, which gives the opportunity to iterate formats. As a result of the discipleship they are getting in their existing environment there is a potential for all of them to become disciple-makers themselves. These are the kind of people for whom the PTTB workbooks would make more effective in the future if we can deliver the project. We have started with the book of Mark - a good beginning for anyone with the life of Jesus and hope to develop more as we move forward."

Calvin Eaton

We are grateful to the Oswald Chambers Publications Association Limited for a generous grant to continue and develop this resource.

Thanks also to all our friends and prayer partners who are praying for us.