On Sale this May!
| Special May 2012
Offer If you order a Bongo Loves the Bible CD and
any ONE OTHER CD on the same order (or at least 2 Bongo CDs), you
will receive a FREE COPY of Bongo's new
80 Questions Expansion Pack CD!
"Offer good while supplies last"
--and right now they are lasting! |
Elijah and Jonah CD
Galilee Flyer
CD
PLUS....get
a free copy
of Bongo's new
80 Question Expansion Pack CD when you
order 1 copy of Bongo Loves the Bible CD plus
at least one other CD of your choice on the same order.
Have you seen the new FREE
Bongo Vacation Bible School curriculum? Use it for Summer Sunday School
too! Learn more
A Birthday Story
from Neil MacQueen, Sunday
Software
March
16, 1996 is the official incorporation
birthdate of "Sunday School Software Inc", but the idea for the company
actually began a few months earlier.
I had no intention of starting a
software company. In fact, early on, I didn't even like computers.
I had begun teaching with software in November
1990 at the Presbyterian Church in Barrington Illinois where I was also the
Associate Pastor. I had never seen my students so engaged and anxious to
learn. By 1993, I was leading seminars, writing articles, and
passing around a couple of handouts and a list of software I was using.
By 1995, PCs were becoming more
commonplace in church offices, schools, homes. And word had spread to those
having the same inkling that "there was this minister teaching
with software" (and that he was also talking about a new model for Sunday School
called "Workshop Rotation"). By then I was getting lengthy phone calls at my church
and requests to do more seminars. That's when I turned to David, a
friend in the congregation who was in-between jobs. He agreed to help me
organize my materials and the requests. And in the middle of all this
activity, I started to hear the whisper of a call.
In
January 1996, in order to pay David, and the bills for phone, printing and
postage, I decided to take a box of floppy discs on consignment from the
publisher of Captain Bible!
and Bible Builders software. Wisdom Tree, another early publisher of
Christian software games, was willing to do the same, and they sent me a box
of their titles.
But none of them sold that first
month.
Thanks to my recommendations, most of my seminar friends already owned these
programs! Was this God's answer? I thought about sending them back.
As a last ditch effort, I created a mailing
list and sent out a flyer to a couple hundred churches. Within
two weeks every copy of my handbook and every consignment copy of
software was sold.
Was this really happening? As a test, we
sent out another couple hundred flyers, and got the same encouraging response: "What a great idea!" "I've been thinking
about this too!"
I now had a tiger by the tail
(which isn't where you want to hold a tiger, btw). The appearance of a
company and source for software and support created MORE phonecalls, more
interest, and more requests for software.
An accountant and lawyer in my church pulled me
aside and said I better form a corporation. And
that's how on March 16, 1996 Sunday School Software Inc was born.
Little did we know then that within six
months, Sunday Software would take our lives and my ministry in a whole new
direction.
Following a national conference that winter,
interest in the Workshop Rotation Model and computers in CE took
off and I had a dozen out-of-state seminar invitations. Then oddly enough, I
was approached by the Personnel Committee at my church to sign a contract
promising to stay through the Senior Minister's retirement ---2 years away.
I thought, "God, is this you
calling, or are you clarifying?"
My wife and I had been thinking of "how" and "when" we might move back to
our hometown. We wanted to raise our daughters around our families. ...And
now the prospect of this 2-plus year waiting period began to weigh on us.
It would probably mean the beginning of the end of Sunday Software, and doing
seminars, --as I would have my hands full at the church until they replaced the Sr.
Minister.
I didn't sign.
That summer we traveled to Ohio to lead a seminar
and it was a huge hit. Buoyed by the response, on the drive back home we decided to
move later that year and try Sunday Software full-time. My wife
would work full-time while I figured out if Sunday
Software could become something. We figured if it didn't work out, I
could look for a church to serve. It was a huge risk, but I felt the call. Back in Chicago, we announced our leaving
with a heavy heart, and by October 1996 we were living back in our hometown.
And then for a moment, Sunday
Software Inc. almost didn't happen...
Just as we were getting ready to move back home and start Sunday Software
full time, my denomination's publisher flew up to meet me and offer me a
job. They wanted me to bring Sunday Software and my Rotation Model expertise
under their imprimatur. The thought of having a paycheck and benefits
appealed to me for sure, but when I asked them if they were willing to
guarantee new software development, they balked, and I said, "then no thank
you." (In hindsight, it was the smartest dumb thing I ever did. I doubt a
stuffy denominational publisher would have ever let me produce "Cal and
Marty" or "Jesus in Space", ...and they certainly never would have let me
create rotation.org to give away thousands of free lessons.)
A funny but true story:
That fall back home, I had to get my new
call approved at a meeting of Presbytery. When it was announced what I was
requesting, I'll never forget what the fellow
sitting behind me said in a loud whisper to his pastor and everyone else
within earshot,
"What the hell kind of ministry is this?"
I've often asked myself the same question! In
fact, I wrote the guy's quote on a banner over my desk, ...a desk that
was HUMBLY in my mom's basement -who's house we were living in until we found a home.
His slight became my touchstone.
My ministry being officially "validated", I hit the road, speaking at two to three seminars a
month. I handed out catalogs and lesson helps, returned phonecalls, and
packed the few orders that trickled in each month. Then I started
www.sundaysoftware.com, posting everything
I knew about the software I was recommending for anyone who came looking.
(AOL was still king, and Google was just a startup.) I wrote articles
for magazines and continued to speak and mail catalogs. Gradually, we
grew.
I
sold enough software in those first few years to keep the company afloat.
Eventually, we had enough customers to get ready for our next step:
developing the kind of software we wanted to see. The early stuff was
either too dry or too "gamey" or required too much technical know-how. I wanted
software that looked like it had been designed by a Sunday School teacher
for Sunday School kids. So in the winter of 1999, I started
sharing my ideas for new software with experienced customers and in seminars. The result was an
outline for Good Sam the Samaritan CD version 1.0.
"Good Sam" 1.0 was embraced by nearly every
single customer I had. "More like this!"
they asked... and we obliged. In many ways, Good Sam became the
program that turned Sunday Software into the company you see today... a
major producer of the kind of Christian software TEACHERS wanted to teach with.
Since then we've produced 18
different software titles for Christian education, and carried the best of
what other developers have made.
And God willing, there's more to come.
<>< Neil MacQueen
Sunday Software
P.S. This is the first time I've told this
full story. The only thing I've left out are all the people who were part of
the decisions and success we've enjoyed. They include many friends and
family members, lots of great customers and cheerleaders, a few naysayers
who spurred me on, and most of all my wife Malinda, who never second-guessed
the dream, and who went to work while I traveled, talked and typed from my
basement desk.
|
In
celebration of our Sweet 16, I've put the first four programs
we ever made
ON SALE
at about 30% Off:
These are all "version 2.0" of
the original releases.
Look for the
on our online order form. |
And yes... we still have a few
more Bible Story Clip Art CDs discovered during our recent stockroom
relocation
This is one of my all-time favorite clip art CDs.
It's been out of print for several years. During our recent move from Ohio
to Florida, we found a stack of them hiding. The CD features black and white line drawings
of Bible characters, scenes, kids, and Bible objects. Great for making
handouts, signs, coloring pages, decorating bulletins, walls, and importing
into Kid Pix. $5 !
The CD is a collection of
images so it works on any computer system. Windows 98/Me/Xp/Vista/W7 and Mac
compatible.
See sample images below...
