About Sunday Software

OUR STORY SO FAR…

How we started
What we do
Who we are

I started teaching with software in my suburban Chicago church back in 1990 where I was serving as Associate Pastor. We quickly realized we had a teaching tiger by the tail, and soon other churches were asking how we did it. To meet growing interest in our project, in 1996 I formed “Sunday School Software Inc.” with two other church members. And that’s when things unexpectedly took off. 

Sometimes you look around and wonder “who will do this?” And you realize, the answer is you.  In the case of Christian education software I decided to say, “Here I am, Send Me.”

So in the Fall of ’96 I moved from full-time parish work to full-time work on Sunday Software to see what we could do with this exciting new teaching medium. In Presbyterian terminology, I’m classified as a “validated ministry” doing “inter-denominational work”. To fully launch the company, our family moved back to our hometown in Ohio, and that’s where we were through 2007.

Many people know me from my work with the Workshop Rotation Model for Sunday School. Prior to starting Sunday Software, in 1990 I helped create the Workshop Rotation Model, -a model which has spread to thousands of churches. That’s the model in which I started teaching with software.

In 1997, I founded the Rotation movement’s website (www.rotation.org), organized a board of directors to run it. In 2015, I became their webmaster and Lead Writer.

In the early 2000’s we began to develop our own software, while continuing to carry other people’s good software.  Sunday Software has now released more Bible story and Bible game software programs than any other company.

In 2008 my family and I moved from Ohio to St Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands for a “great adventure.” While there I served as the Parish Assistant in a Reformed Church. In 2012 we moved to Florida to get medical help for one of our kids. I served as an Interim Pastor for Chihldren and Youth in a Bradenton area church.

In 2018 we followed our grown kids and new grandkids back to Columbus Ohio where they had settled.

We are a small family company. Over the years I’ve had help from several highly skilled independent service providers, programmers, artists, sound recordists, voice and video talent, and family members,  -most of whom have been working with us for many years. They go above and beyond the call every time. 

WHAT WE UNIQUELY DO:

• We are the ONLY catalog of Christian software that’s reviewed, tested and proven for use in Christian education. If we/I don’t like it, you won’t see it in our catalog. We have no contractual or denominational ties that force us to carry inferior products.
• We are {trumpets please} “the most prolific developer of Bible story & Bible games software in the known universe.”  Nobody has put out as many different Christian software programs as we have.
• Our ministry is independent, ecumenical and entirely supported by the sale of our resources.
• We’ve made it a point to know our software IN DETAIL. I teach with this stuff too and can help you pick software, as well as, discuss lesson ideas, theology, and CE ministry in general.
• We write and distribute free teaching materials to go with the software. We also give personal support to teachers, pastors and Christian Education directors. In fact, we publish free lesson sets on our site that use lots of other creative techniques, including software.
• We provide personal tech support and training.
• We have been written up (positively) in various denominational, educator magazines and newspapers, including ALERT, Parish Teacher, The Lutheran, Evangelizing Today’s Child, Presbyterians Today, Church Educator, Scroll, Disciple, Group’s Children’s Ministry magazine, Christian Computing, The Dallas Morning News, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Columbus Dispatch, Clergy Journal, Your Church, and many others. Several curriculum publishers use us or recommend us as their source for CE software, including Augsburg’s Firelight, Sparks, Cokesbury’s PowerXpress, Leader Resources, the curriculum folks at PCUSA, Cornerstones, and Potter’s Workshops. Being available, knowledgeable, honest (not just telling/selling you what you want to hear) are things I take seriously.
• Our customers include Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, Southern Baptist, Mennonites, American Baptists, Moravians, Episcopalians, AME, UCC, Roman Catholics, –even Canadians. (We ship software overseas to every continent and even quite a few islands.) As a seminary grad, teacher and minister I can help you sort through any theological needs or cautions you may have about software choices. Because a second opinion is always a good thing, I have a page of Customer Quotes posted here.
• “Rotation Spoken Here” –We’re involved with a grassroots movement to revamp Sunday School called the Workshop Rotation Model. I actually co-authored “the” book on that Model, so go ahead, ask me questions!
• From time to time we also add other cool CE products to our catalog. I’m always on the look-out for good Bible DVDs and classroom resources and use our site to lampstand what we find.

OUR SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TEAM

We have worked with a number of independent multimedia guys to develop our software. This talented team includes: Colin MacQueen (SoundWrangler), Ben Diehl (PupuPlatters.com),  Deni Yagci (Divine Games), Gilbert Arcand (Montreal Models), Philip Williams (Staircasestudios), Mike Gale (Sonsoft), Tregg Duhigg (Mojomedia), and Marc Ankermann (Ankermann Solutions).

THEOLOGICALLY SPEAKING…

I was raised in the Presbyterian Church USA, got my M. Div at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and I am an ordained Presbyterian minister. Along with my publishing ministry, I have served in two full time pastorates and three Parish Associate positions. I consider myself progressive and open-minded. Our titles reflect the broad middle.