Encouraged by her pastor, Sunday school teacher Mary Carter wrote lessons for her class on the parables of Jesus that grew into a recently published book, a “Layman’s (Laywoman’s) Study of the Parables of Jesus.”
“About a year ago,” said her pastor, Mike Catoe, who serves Mount Arnon Baptist Church in Allendale, “she asked my opinion about writing her interpretation of the parables of Jesus. Since I knew she was a good Sunday school teacher and that she really put herself into it, I knew she would do an excellent job with this project.”
And the book, he said, “confirms my original confidence in her ability,” adding that “the response of her students has been overwhelmingly positive, and attendance has grown in the process.”
The seed for the 259-page book was planted by a student in Carter’s Sunday school class who asked about the teaching of Jesus through parables. “As I wrote lessons for my class,” said Carter, “I grew more aware of the help I was receiving from the Holy Spirit and I watched as it became a larger project.”
“You will really enjoy,” her pastor said, speaking to the book’s readers, “the way Mary puts her life experiences into her interpretations. She does this in a unique way while staying true to the Scriptures. I have learned things about Jesus’ parables that I had never thought of.”
Carter views Christians as “learning together” and believes that “any work that makes us search in our heart for God’s will for our life has to be good. I know he wants us to think about his word, or else he would never have given us the parables to ponder.”
The book, priced at $19.95, may be ordered from WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson, 1663 Liberty Drive, Bloomington, Ind. 47403, or through local booksellers.