Leading Foundations Invest in Fuller Seminary Effort to Establish Christian Peacebuilding Network

Fuller Seminary is excited to share that the Henry Luce Foundation and the Imago Dei Fund have committed support to Fuller’s effort to help launch a network of Christian peacebuilders. As churches, communities, and institutions wrestle with increasing polarization, social fragmentation, and declining trust, a growing number of organizations are working to advance peacebuilding and conflict transformation. Through Fuller’s Center for Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation, Fuller will serve the network in a backbone role, fostering collaboration, shared learning, and stronger connections across the field.

The effort builds on conversations among peacebuilding practitioners, ministry leaders, scholars, and funders who have increasingly recognized the need for deeper collaboration. During a recent gathering at Rose Castle in the United Kingdom, leaders from a range of organizations collectively identified that while peacebuilding efforts have expanded significantly in recent years, many organizations continue to operate independently despite addressing similar challenges. Fuller believes that deeper collaboration can accelerate learning, reduce duplication of effort, surface promising practices, and increase collective impact.

“Across the country, remarkable organizations and leaders are helping communities navigate conflict, rebuild trust, and pursue reconciliation,” said Dr. David Emmanuel Goatley, president of Fuller Seminary. “The opportunity before us is to strengthen the connections among those efforts so that learning, innovation, and resources can flow more freely. We are grateful for partners who recognize the importance of this work and share our commitment to share Christ’s hope and healing to the church and the world.”

Christy Vines, founding executive director of the Fuller Center for Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation added, “Lasting change requires more than individual programs or isolated efforts. It requires trusted relationships, shared learning, and the ability to build on one another’s strengths. Our hope is to help create the conditions that allow the peacebuilding field to flourish.”

For leaders already engaged in this work, the network represents an opportunity not only to strengthen collaboration but also to cultivate the relationships, trust, and shared imagination needed for lasting change.

“The challenges facing churches and communities today are too complex for any one organization to address alone. Fuller’s leadership in strengthening the peacebuilding and conflict transformation field is a gift—not only because it connects practitioners and scholars but because it helps cultivate the trust, everyday practices, and spiritual imagination this moment requires,” said Michael Gulker, president of The Colossian Forum.

“Fuller is creating something we have long needed: a trusted table where leaders, scholars, practitioners, and organizations can build relationships, share wisdom, and imagine possibilities that none of us could create alone. In a fragmented world, the way we work together is itself a witness to the reconciliation we hope to see,” said Lisa Jernigan, co-founder of Amplify Peace.

The support from the Henry Luce Foundation and the Imago Dei Fund reflects growing recognition that peacebuilding and conflict transformation are essential to the flourishing of churches, communities, and public life. It also signals confidence in the potential of a more connected field, one in which organizations can work together to address the complex challenges of polarization, conflict, and social fragmentation. By helping strengthen relationships across the peacebuilding ecosystem, Fuller hopes to contribute to a future in which leaders and organizations are better equipped to build trust, navigate difference, and foster more resilient communities.