Turnout for Carter’s Sunday school lessons dipped during the Great Recession. But the crowds returned after his cancer announcement, with some folks lining up outside the church the night before.

As a Carter admirer who lived only 2.5 hours from Plains, I figured I’d better go check it out since the end of an era was approaching. It was the best Sunday school class I’ve ever attended.

FILE – People wait in line outside Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., to get into a Sunday school class taught by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Aug. 23, 2015.

Former President Jimmy Carter, who died on Dec. 29, 2024, famously taught a Sunday school class at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia.

Carter taught his Sunday school class roughly twice a month to accommodate crowds that sometimes swelled to more than 500. (On the other Sundays, no more than a couple dozen regulars and a handful ...

FILE - Former President Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school class at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown, Aug. 23, 2015, in Plains, Ga. The 90-year-old Carter gave one lesson to about 300 ...

The best Sunday school class I ever attended was taught by Jimmy Carter. How the 39th president taught me that Sunday school doesn’t have to be boring. Jan. 8, 2025, 11:15 AM EST.

FILE - Former President Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school class at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown, Aug. 23, 2015, in Plains, Ga. The 90-year-old Carter gave one lesson to about 300 ...