Special memories of Sunday school with Jimmy Carter

During my graduate school days at UNC-Chapel Hill, before my ministerial career, I became somewhat involved in local and regional mission endeavors associated with the Chapel of the Cross Episcopal Church, located then as now adjacent to the UNC campus on East Franklin Street.

To be sure, I mostly attended a small Baptist church in rural Chatham County, a few miles south of Chapel Hill, and was even more involved as a layman in the life and work of that church.

But in early March 1985, I went on a mission trip to Koinonia Farm, near Americus, Ga., with a group of mostly UNC graduate students connected with the Chapel of the Cross.

Clarence Jordan, who was a first-class Biblical scholar, as well as an ordained Baptist minister and an expert in scientific farming, had co-founded Koinonia Farm in 1942 as what he called a “demonstration plot” of New Testament principles of social justice, Biblical economics, and racial equality. (“Koinonia” is a Biblical Greek word meaning “community,” “partnership,” among other words.)

My Episcopalian friends and I stayed at the farm for a week, working hard primarily in the pecan orchard there while learning about the history and many programs and ministries associated with Koinonia.

We also worked in the housing ministry of Koinonia, which is famous for having been the seedbed of what became Habitat for Humanity. In the mid-1960s, Jordan had a huge impact on a young businessman named Millard Fuller and his wife, Linda, who stayed at the farm for a period of time and went on to found Habitat, based on principles they had learned at Koinonia.

The first Sunday our group was at Koinonia, we decided to go into Americus to attend early service at the Episcopal church there. My Episcopalian friends felt right at home for about an hour in pervasively Baptist South Georgia!

But then, as planned, we all went over to the nearby town of Plains to visit Maranatha Baptist Church there, which was Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s church and site of Mr. Carter’s famous Sunday School class.

I remember gathering for that class there in the church fellowship hall along with about 100 others, mostly, like our group, visiting from other parts of the country.

I recall Mr. Carter walking in, accompanied by two Secret Service agents, his famously bright smile practically illuminating that room. He first welcomed us and then took the time to hear where everyone in the room was from.

Then, having made sure that everyone in the room had access to a copy of the Bible, he proceeded to teach the Sunday School lesson, based that day, I seem to recall, on a portion of one of the Apostle Paul’s letters.

I was completely impressed with Mr. Carter’s encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible, his very personable way of teaching, and what struck me then as his incredibly commanding presence.

The latter impression surprised me a little due to what I had perceived, rightly or wrongly, during his term in office as his occasional struggles connecting with television audiences and the press.

But I will never forget how eloquently and powerfully Mr. Carter taught that Sunday, revealing the depth of his Christian faith and seeking earnestly to enhance our own.

Following Sunday school, we attended the worship service in the sanctuary of Maranatha. He and Mrs. Carter stayed well beyond the conclusion of that service to meet visiting attendees personally and even to spend some time with our group.

I seem to recall that he discussed with us briefly the great legacy of Koinonia Farm and the work of Habitat, to which he and Rosalynn were so deeply committed for so many years.

Then, on the front porch of the church, the Carters lingered even longer to take photo after photo with every visitor who wanted a picture with them that day. Another member of our group and I had our own “photo op” with the Carters.

I have wished many times since that I still had that photo, but at some point, after our group returned to Chapel Hill, the other person in the picture asked for it, and, in the spirit of lessons learned at Koinonia, I gave it to her.

The mission trip to Koinonia Farm had a great impact on me. It was during the very next month, in April 1985, that I experienced a powerful personal call to vocational Christian ministry, which changed the course of my life.

The visit to Mr. Carter’s Sunday school class was not a primary factor in my call experience, but it certainly inspired me greatly.

Whatever one’s impression of Jimmy Carter’s Presidency, encountering him as I did that Sunday almost 40 years ago taught me an unforgettable lesson in the meaning and value of Christian integrity.

As Christians, we must always strive, never perfectly but most sincerely, to walk what we talk. Jimmy Carter certainly did.