Gun violence prevention faculty and schedule announced for Sept. 15-18 Atwood Institute

The Presbyterian Peace Fellowship announces the schedule and faculty for the Sept. 15-18 James Atwood Institute for Congregational Courage, to be held at the Heartland Retreat Center near Kansas City, Missouri.

For three and a half days, participants will move through workshops, presentations and hands-on training by pastoral, public health and community leaders who bring decades of expertise on gun violence prevention. That expertise is beginning to pay off.

“We are finally seeing the highest levels of gun violence begin to turn around,” says the Rev. Dr. Harry Eberts, Interim Director of PPF and member of the Atwood Institute planning team. “Now we need more communities to apply the strategies that are working. And that’s what the September event will focus on.” Certified in trauma care, Eberts will present strategies to help participants learn how to respond when gun violence impacts their communities. 

The deadline for registration for the Atwood Institute is Aug. 25. Learn more here, including scholarship information. Find Frequently Asked Questions here.

Even with progress to reduce gun violence, 43 Americans died over the July 4th weekend from gun homicide, plus a not-yet-reported number of gun suicides. July also saw an incident in East St. Louis, Illinois, with teenagers accessing an unsecured firearm to shoot seven family members.

One workshop at the Institute will offer training in the Be SMART program for secure gun storage that churches can offer in their communities. Another workshop will provide some of the very first training on the role of clergy in states that have extreme risk protection orders (red flag laws). These laws can intervene before family, domestic or suicide gun violence occurs.

The Institute faculty includes the current and past directors of Public Health for Kansas City, Marvia Jones, MD, and Rex Archer, MD, respectively. Jones and Archer will share how urban centers in the Midwest are steadily driving down gun violence with a public health approach and a 360 community-wide intervention. The innovative programs Omaha 360 and Kansas City 360 are models for bringing together community-wide resources, including congregations and clergy, to disrupt both mass shootings and the daily violence that devastates children, youth, families and communities.     

In addition to offering the Sept. 15 keynote address on the biblical and theological grounding for gun violence prevention, the Rev. Dr. Jer Swigart will lead training in de-escalation, with participants learning how to turn situations of conflict into conversation. From an evangelical Christian background, Swigart leads Global Immersion, an international peace training organization. 

Additional workshops will include educational resources and strategies to help congregations move into action, as well as helping leaders talk effectively on the difficult top of gun violence from the pulpit to the public square. Volunteers from Colorado Faith Communities United will share the story of how local church members organized to achieve safer gun regulations and a Colorado State Office of Gun Violence Prevention. The Rev. Aaron Stauffer, Associate for Congregational Vitality in Heartland Presbytery, will lead a workshop on using  community organizing to position congregations in effective gun violence prevention coalitions.  

And, of course, there will be Guns to Gardens training. From hands-on practice on chop saws to using forge, anvil and hammers to transform the leftover parts, each participant will learn what is needed for the permanent disposal of unwanted firearms. A Quaker blacksmith from RAWtools South, Scotty Utz, will guide participants through a mock safe disposal event where they will play the roles of gun owner, tool operators, gun safety team and other volunteers needed for Guns to Gardens in a church parking lot. 

Scholarships are available thanks to generous sponsors. 

Named for the Presbyterian prophet of gun violence prevention, the late Rev. James Atwood, the institute is an ecumenical program, open to all denominations. Its goal is to bring the power of Christian faith to transform the painful crisis of gun violence, one congregation at a time..

A video here shares what prior Atwood Institute participants took home to their congregations for gun violence prevention efforts in 2025.

Learn more and register here. Scholarship applications are here.

About the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship

Founded in 1944, the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship is an independent national organization that works to encourage, equip and connect people of faith to engage in nonviolence, justice, and peacebuilding in their communities and throughout the world.

For questions about the 2026 Atwood Institute, contact [email protected].