Measuring Our Success

The second in a series of inspiring, original programs from one of the most important voices of our time.

Jimmy Carter's beloved bestsellers Living Faith, Sources of Strength and Our Endangered Values have established him as one of our nation's most trusted authorities on issues of faith and society. Today, the weekly Bible class he teaches at his home church in Plains, Georgia is attended by visitors from around the world, representing a wide range of faiths and denominations.

Sunday Mornings in Plains gives you the opportunity to share in this remarkable experience wherever you are. Each volume of this extraordinary audio series draws on an extensive archive of recordings to present a month-long sequence of President Carter's Bible classes. Listening to these live recordings, you'll hear the unscripted interaction and unexpected insights that make his classes so popular, as well as the anecdotes from President Carter's life and observations about world events that he infuses into his lessons.

Jimmy Carter has been teaching Sunday school ever since he was a young midshipman in Annapolis; in later years he conducted religious services on submarines on which he served, and even led the occasional class in Washington while he was president. For the last 25 years, President Carter has taught the adult Bible study at his church in Plains, where several hundred visitors join him each Sunday to understand the wisdom of the Bible and apply it to their lives.

Measuring Our Success presents the five classes President Carter taught in March 2003 on the Book of Mark. Exploring the miracles and aspirations of Jesus's early ministry, President Carter highlights elements of Jesus's message that speak to us today, including his challenge to religious leaders who "abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition" (Mark 7:8), and his revolutionary and inspiring vision of a loving God who doesn't measure our success by mortal or material standards.

Recorded at the time of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, these classes open with President Carter's comments on the eve and outset of the Iraq war, imbuing them with significant and lasting historical interest, and offering a dramatic and moving demonstration of the struggle to reconcile spiritual ideals with the challenges and conflicts of contemporary life.