In 2024 we’re celebrating
40 years of promise.
“Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: ‘I have led you for forty years in the wilderness. The clothes on your back have not worn out, and the sandals on your feet have not worn out.’”
Ken Sehested & Ken Medema address peacemakers at Peace Camp in 1986.
In the spring of 1984, a group met in Louisville to form the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America. “Kicking and screaming,” as Paul Dekar describes them, these Baptists were not always in agreement on how to coalesce, how to organize, or what to do. Ultimately, individuals from Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. came together with a “purpose of nourishing, empowering, and training people to act with courage and imagination in their local contexts.”
Through the next 40 years, our movement has stretched throughout North America and beyond in pursuit of peace rooted in justice. Learn about some key moments of our history below.
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1980
Students & faculty at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary publish the first Baptist Peacemaker.
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1984
BPFNA is founded at Deer Park Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky.
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1990
Peacemakers take a friendship tour to the U.S.S.R.
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1991
Leaders write to U.S. President George H. W. Bush & U.K. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney opposing the Gulf War.
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1995
Victor & Eileen Gavel establish a fund to provide resources & funding to global peace projects.
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2000
BPFNA publishes Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth, a resource equipping churches to welcome & affirm LGBTQ people.
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2009
Volunteers help monitor elections in El Salvador.
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2019
BPFNA organizes the Global Baptist Peace Conference in Cali, Colombia.
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2023
The first Peace Camp since the pandemic “moves mountains” in Puerto Rico.
Our 40 years of peacemaking has been a little bit like wilderness wandering of the Hebrew people in the Bible: an achievement, a promise fulfilled, the beginning of a bold new covenant. While our movement does not have a Moses, we do have a George Williamson. He gave tirelessly in the early days as president. Today he continues to offer unwavering support.
“At the moment of BPFNA’s founding, we had not a penny or any realistic hope of finding more than a few. In forty years we've never had much. Our passion and promise has always outstripped our purse. But lots of people, lots of churches, lots of friends have, year after year, been moved by God's Spirit to give what they could, and this work has continued. Now it's up to us.”
For some, at times, the journey has torn our clothes and worn our sandals thin. The wilderness is not always exhilarating. Yet the path’s stumbling stones as well as its campfire memories have shaped us and formed us to develop a more comprehensive understanding of God’s shalom, peace rooted in justice.
Our members keep these memories alive. These foundational stories sustain us for continued peacemaking in a time such as this. Listen below to peacemakers as they recount precious memories from years past.
George Williamson
April Baker & Deborah Lynn
Beth Myers
George Williamson
Ken Sehested
Dick Myers
Like the Hebrew people, we look out on a world of possibility. We must continue to recommit ourselves to the work of peace.
Here are some ways you can join our next chapter with a renewed legacy of peacemaking:
BPFNA Sunday
Designate a Sunday in your church to highlight our partnership in worship. Below you’ll find several elements from prayers to an invitation to a special offering and bulletin text to help your community participate.
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English
Today we celebrate BPFNA Sunday in acknowledgment of our partnership with BPFNA~Bautistas por la Paz. During the worship service, we’ll learn a little about the organization, pray for peace, and collect a special offering in support of peacemaking around the world.
Spanish
Hoy celebramos Domingo con BPFNA en reconocimiento de nuestra colaboración con BPFNA~Bautistas por la Paz. Durante el culto, aprenderemos un poco sobre la organización, oraremos por la paz, y colectaremos una ofrenda especial en apoyo de la construcción de la paz en todo el mundo.
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English
Living God, who plants your wisdom in our hearts as seeds in a field,
we pray for a just peace to take root in your creation.We confess at times we have not properly tended the garden:
our hearts rocky with indifference to the suffering of others,
our actions thorny with desire for praise and power.
Forgive us, we pray.Grant us ears to hear, hands to till,
the grace of your Son to care for others and ourselves;
the courage of prophets to confront powers and principalities.Holy One, there are many peacemakers
bearing fruit in arid soil,
sharing good news and life abundant with those who need it most.
Bless their witness and ours, that
captives may be freed,
the lowly may be lifted up,
the hungry may be filled with good things, and
all flesh may know your glory.
This we pray in the name of the risen Christ.
Amen.Spanish
Dios de vida, que siembras tu sabiduría en nuestros corazones como semillas en el campo,
te pedimos que una paz justa arraigue en tu creación.Confesamos que a veces no hemos cuidado bien el jardín:
nuestros corazones pedregosos por la indiferencia ante el sufrimiento de las demás personas,
nuestras acciones cubiertas de espinas por el deseo de elogios y poder.
Te pedimos que nos perdones.Concédenos oídos para escuchar, manos para cultivar,
la gracia de tu Hijo para cuidar de las demás personas y de nuestras vidas;
el valor de las y los profetas para enfrentarnos a potestades y principados.Divinidad Santa, hay muchas personas pacificadoras
dando fruto en tierra árida
compartiendo la buena nueva y la vida en abundancia con quienes más lo necesitan.
Bendice su testimonio y el nuestro, para que
quienes viven en cautividad tengan libertad,
las personas pobres sean enaltecidas,
quienes tienen hambre se sacien de lo bueno, y
que toda persona conozca tu gloria.Te lo pedimos en nombre de Cristo resucitado.
Amén. -
English
BPFNA started with a shoestring budget of $50,000. While our budget has increased since then, it’s still on a shoestring. We do not measure our impact on peacemaking based on a budget or fundraising numbers. Our efforts for making peace in our world have been strong, and we seek to continue to grow them. But to this very day, we still need financial support from dedicated peacemakers.
This year, we invite you to join us by becoming a part of our Forty Years of Promise campaign. Please consider pledging your support in 2024, 2025, and 2026. Your commitment will help us grow to where we need to be to continue our work for peace. We invite you to give now to support our work and pledge to our efforts for peacemaking in the future.
Spanish
Bautistas por la Paz comenzó con un presupuesto reducido de 50.000 dólares. Si bien nuestro presupuesto ha aumentado desde entonces, todavía es muy reducido. No medimos nuestro impacto en el establecimiento de la paz basándonos en un presupuesto o en cifras de recaudación de fondos. Nuestros esfuerzos para lograr la paz en nuestro mundo han sido sólidos y buscamos continuar haciéndolos crecer. Pero hasta el día de hoy, todavía necesitamos apoyo financiero de pacificadores dedicados.
Este año, lo invitamos a unirse a nosotros y formar parte de nuestra campaña Cuarenta Años de Promesa. Considere prometer su apoyo en 2024, 2025 y 2026. Su compromiso nos ayudará a crecer hasta donde necesitamos estar para continuar nuestro trabajo por la paz. Le invitamos a donar ahora para apoyar nuestro trabajo y comprometerse con nuestros esfuerzos por lograr la paz en el futuro.
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English Text
An international movement for peace rooted in justice, BPFNA~Bautistas por la Paz gathers peacemakers in fellowship and prayer; equips individuals and communities with resources needed for peacemaking in their local contexts; and mobilizes over 4,000 members around the world in response to pressing concerns. BPFNA lives into its mission through programs like annual summer Peace Camp, Peace Fund grants to grassroots social justice projects, and ecumenical partnerships. It is the first Baptist organization with fully bilingual operations as part of an institutional commitment to multiculturalism, antiracism, and decentralization.
Spanish Text
BPFNA~Bautistas por la Paz, un movimiento internacional por la paz arraigada en la justicia, reúne a pacificadores en comunión y oración; equipa a individuos y comunidades con los recursos necesarios para la construcción de la paz en sus contextos locales; y moviliza a más de 4.000 miembros en todo el mundo para responder a preocupaciones apremiantes. BPFNA vive su misión a través de programas como su Conferencia de verano, las becas del Fondo por la Paz para proyectos de justicia social, y sus colaboraciones ecuménicas. Es la primera organización bautista con operaciones bilingües como parte de un compromiso institucional con el multiculturalismo, el antirracismo y la descentralización.
Membership Brochure
Who Is BPFNA? Video
Strategic Plan
As BPFNA~Bautistas por la Paz celebrates 40 years in 2024, the board of directors has commissioned a group within the board to examine our strategic priorities as we move into the future a movement centered on peace with justice.
Below are some questions we ask for you to complete to give us an idea of where we should be focusing our efforts in the future. Whether you are a current BPFNA~Bautistas por la Paz member, a past member, or curious about joining our movement, we encourage you to participate.
Giving
BPFNA started with a shoestring budget of $50,000. While our budget has increased since then, it’s still on a shoestring. In 2023, with a growing staff and the first in-person peace camp in four years, expenses grew by 60 percent. But we kept asking for support, and you responded generously. Congregational giving stayed steady, individual giving increased slightly, and foundation giving grew to a very strong level. And still, we ended 2023 with a small deficit.
We do not measure our impact on peacemaking based on a budget or fundraising numbers. Our efforts for making peace in our world have been strong, and we seek to continue to grow them. But to this very day, we still need financial support from dedicated peacemakers.
This year, we invite you to join us by becoming a member of our Forty Years of Promise campaign. Please consider pledging your support in 2024, 2025, and 2026. Your commitment will help us grow to where we need to be to continue our work for peace.
Give now to support our work and pledge to our efforts for peacemaking in the future.
Jason Smith