Peace Baptist Church sits on twenty acres along Covington Highway in Decatur, Georgia, where a 160,000-square-foot building now houses a congregation that began in 1993 with fourteen adults gathered around a table in Pastor Tyrone Barnette's home. Today, more than three thousand members call Peace home, and an average Sunday attendance of roughly fourteen hundred fills the main campus, while six daughter congregations across metro Atlanta, plus churches planted in Brazil and South Africa, share the same four-part rhythm: Building Families. Growing Faith. Making Disciples. Meeting Needs.
From 14 Members in a Living Room to Twenty Acres on Covington Highway
In 1992, Pastor Tyrone Barnette sensed a call to plant a new church in the Atlanta area. On February 7, 1993, he and his wife Tabitha gathered fourteen adults in their home to launch Peace Baptist Church with the goal of restoring broken lives and mending a broken community. The early congregation met in homes and grew steadily, eventually moving into a forty-six-thousand-square-foot building on Austin Drive across the street from where the current campus now stands.
By 2014, the church had outgrown that facility. Peace purchased the twenty-acre, one-hundred-sixty-thousand-square-foot property at 4000 Covington Highway for $400,000 - a deeply discounted price offered by the bank because of the congregation's track record in community development. After extensive renovation, the church moved into its new home on February 8, 2015 and has been growing ever since. The old Austin Drive building and forty acres on Miller Road were sold so the church could concentrate on developing the current site, where eighteen thousand square feet of unfinished space has already been renovated and plans are in motion for more.
Those plans include immigration services, housing programs, a health clinic, homeless services, legal aid, a senior day center, employment services, a church-planting and leadership center, and athletic and youth arts programs. Land on the property has been cleared for a future ball field and a residential women's and children's center. Peace is also working with a developer to bring a grocery store and other businesses to the former Cub Foods building next door.
Building Families. Growing Faith. Making Disciples. Meeting Needs.
Those four lines are more than a slogan. They are a working summary of how Peace organizes every program, every sermon, and every outreach. Underneath them sits a purpose-driven framework built on the five purposes Pastor Barnette draws from the Gospel of Matthew: worship, ministry, evangelism, fellowship, and discipleship. "Love God with all your heart" is worship. "Love your neighbor as yourself" is ministry. "Go and make disciples" is evangelism. "Baptize" is fellowship. "Teach them all things" is discipleship. Every ministry on campus is designed to fit somewhere in that grid.
The pastoral team that carries this out includes Senior Pastor and founder Tyrone Barnette and First Lady Tabitha Barnette, who also directs the SYNC Learning Center. Executive Pastor Darron Randolph, Discipleship Pastor Carl Johnson, and Online Campus Pastor Erica Fields round out the senior leadership, while Erika Ware leads worship and arts, Tallia Crosby directs children's ministry, Jaye Wallace serves as student pastor and young adult director, Chris Davis leads middle school, Hope Milline-Banks coordinates pastoral care, Ellis Maryland directs media, and Sonji Pass oversees missions.
Sunday Mornings at Peace
Peace holds two Sunday worship services each week - one at 8:00 a.m. and another at 10:30 a.m. - both in person at the Decatur campus and streamed online through ThisIsPeace, YouTube, and Facebook. Children's programming and the student service run only at the 10:30 gathering.
The atmosphere is warm and casual. Visitors are greeted at least five times before the sermon begins, often by people they have never met. Dress runs the full spectrum - jeans and t-shirts sit alongside suits and ties, and the church encourages newcomers to come exactly as they are. The music blends the latest gospel praise songs with foot-stomping hymns sung by the choir, all led by the Worship and Arts Ministry's singers, musicians, dancers, and actors. Song, dance, and drama prepare the congregation for the message.
Sermons are biblically based and often illustrated with impromptu skits and demonstrations. Pastor Barnette's preaching is life-application teaching rooted in Scripture and delivered with conviction, frequently drawing laughter, tears, and conviction within a single thirty-minute message. The Word of God is the highest priority of the Sunday gathering, and members are growing in their walk as they learn to apply Scripture to daily life. Sermon notes for each week's message are posted online, and a sermon archive goes back several years.
Children, Students, and the Next Generation
Peace Kids serves children from infants through fifth grade during the 10:30 Sunday service. Volunteers help kids learn to trust God, make wise choices, and treat others well. Parent guides are available for families walking through questions of faith or considering baptism for their children, and the church offers baby dedications as a separate milestone for parents who want to commit to raising their child to know Jesus.
Peace Students gathers middle and high schoolers (grades six through twelve) at 10:30 a.m. each Sunday in a space called The Loft. Students check in at the main lobby, head upstairs, and join a service that includes games, small groups, worship, and a relevant, Bible-based message. The student ministry also runs a spring break retreat, an annual lock-in, a midweek Bible study on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m., scholarship opportunities for graduating seniors, and college-prep resources. A dedicated student worship team rehearses on Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m.
For young adults moving into the college years, the church runs a College Ministry that welcomes both college students and mentors who want to walk alongside them. The ministry's flagship is SYNC, the after-school educational center managed under a $1.6 million grant to serve DeKalb students in elementary, middle, and high school. SYNC is directed by First Lady Tabitha Barnette and is housed on the Peace campus.
1-800-Pray-4-Me and the Young Adult Movement
Young adults between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five have their own ministry called 1-800-Pray-4-Me. The name comes from a simple idea: prayer is the ministry, and community follows. "Love God. See yourself the way that He sees you, in amazing love. Love others the way that He loves them. That's where Jesus started, that's what Jesus did, that's what we pray to do well together."
Bible study for 1-800-Pray-4-Me meets online every Thursday at 7:30 p.m. EST and in person at the Decatur campus on the second and fourth Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. EST. There is also a monthly gathering on the second Thursday at 7:00 p.m. for worship and teaching. The group reads a new book together each month and uses Philippians 2:1-4 as a regular anchor text. Online platforms include a Zoom line, an Instagram presence, a TikTok channel, and a YouTube channel under the 1-800-Pray-4-Me name.
Beyond the Bible study, 1-800-Pray-4-Me hosts smaller connection groups called HUDDLE UP, Sands of Time, and Beyond Boundaries that meet at varying cadences throughout the month. The ministry's heartbeat is expressed in its mission statement: to help young adults ages eighteen to thirty-five grow in faith, purpose, and spiritual maturity.
Wednesday Nights and the Web of Small Groups
Wednesday night Bible study meets online at 6:30 p.m. EST and offers a deeper, slower look at the passage preached the previous Sunday. It is the entry point for many adults who want to keep moving through the Bible in community.
Around that anchor, Peace runs a remarkable array of small groups. On Sundays at 7:00 a.m., Men's Groups, CoEd Groups, Early Mornings With God, and Man Cave all meet on campus. At 9:30 a.m. on Sundays, Women's Groups, Men's Groups, Married Groups, Singles Groups, CoEd Groups, and Senior Adult Groups meet across the campus. Youth meet at 10:30 a.m. alongside the second worship service.
Other regular groups include Young Adults, meeting in person on the second and fourth Thursdays at 7:00 p.m.; Young At Heart, a hybrid group for seniors meeting Thursdays at 11:00 a.m.; Peace Online, a coed Bible study on Zoom on Tuesdays at 7:00 p.m.; and Get In Where You Fit In, a coed adult group on Zoom on Thursdays at 7:00 p.m. A free RightNow Media subscription, with more than twenty thousand Bible-based videos, is available to members who want to study on their own.
Care for Every Season
Peace runs a Congregational Care ministry that walks alongside members through grief, illness, celebrations, and life transitions. GriefShare is a grief-recovery support group for people who have lost a loved one. Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-centered program for anyone struggling with hurts, habits, or hang-ups. Cancer Care surrounds patients and families facing a cancer diagnosis with encouragement and community. Alzheimer's Support gives caregivers a place to find resources and understanding. Divorce Care helps individuals navigate the end of a marriage, and counseling and pastoral care support services are available for both adults and youth.
Members can request care online for hospital and home visits, communion for the sick, baby dedications, wedding officiants, pre-marital counseling, and emotional or spiritual support. A Daily Prayer Line connects callers every morning at 6:00 a.m. at 678-496-7600, access code 960607#. Real Life Resources, an online library of faith questions, links seekers to BibleGateway, YouVersion, and GotQuestions for ongoing study between services.
Feed The Need and Peace on the Move
Feed The Need is the church's flagship food-relief program. Volunteers distribute groceries twice a week, helping families experiencing food insecurity in the Decatur area. Appointments are scheduled by calling (347) 309-7686. The church has distributed more than four hundred thousand pounds of food in a single year through this ministry, alongside its Mobile Food Pantry.
Peace on the Move, Inc. is a separate 501(c)(3) nonprofit established in 2000 to serve the Decatur metropolitan area. Working alongside the church, the organization runs community development programs, supports families in transition, and helps connect neighbors with the resources they need to thrive. Volunteers can serve in Care and Support, Facilities, First Impressions, Kidz Ministry, Media, Peace on the Move / Feed The Need, Student Ministry, and Worship and Arts.
A Global Footprint from Decatur
From its Decatur campus, Peace supports missions locally, nationally, and internationally through a method called Faith Promise giving - a personal covenant, made in faith, that funds outreach beyond the church's walls. A separate Life Commitment track invites members to serve locally, regionally, or globally as missionaries and ministry partners.
The annual Global Impact Celebration gathers missionaries, international partners, and members for three days of worship, international food, and service projects. The weekend typically opens on a Friday evening with a welcome reception and international food sampling, continues on Saturday with a service day sponsored jointly with Frontline and Peace Baptist, and closes on Sunday with services at both 8:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
Peace has planted six daughter congregations throughout metro Atlanta and has helped establish churches in Brazil and South Africa. A Faith Promise FAQ and a Prayer Calendar are available for members who want to track the missionaries and projects supported each year.
What Peace Believes
Peace follows a classic Baptist confessional structure: unity in essentials, liberty in non-essentials, and charity in all beliefs. Eight essentials are taught plainly.
God is the Creator and Ruler of the universe, eternally existing in three co-equal persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - who are one God. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, co-equal with the Father, who lived a sinless life, died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for sin, rose again after three days, ascended to heaven, and will return to reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Holy Spirit is co-equal with the Father and Son, present in the world to make people aware of their need for Jesus Christ, living in every Christian with power for daily living, and giving each believer a spiritual gift at salvation.
The Bible is God's Word, written by human authors under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit, and is the supreme source of truth for Christian belief and living - true without any mixture of error. People are made in the spiritual image of God, marred by an attitude of disobedience called sin that separates humanity from God.
Salvation is God's free gift, received by turning from a self-ruled life and trusting in Jesus Christ. Eternal life begins the moment a person receives Christ by faith. Because God gives eternal life through Jesus, the true believer is secure in that salvation for eternity, kept by the grace and power of God rather than by self-effort. People were created to exist forever, either eternally separated from God by sin or eternally with God through forgiveness and salvation; Heaven and Hell are real places of eternal existence.
Plan Your Visit
Peace Baptist Church is located at 4000 Covington Highway, Decatur, Georgia 30032. The church office is open Tuesday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and can be reached at (404) 288-1750 or info@peacebaptistchurch.org. Sunday services are held at 8:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. in person and online. Wednesday Bible study meets online at 6:30 p.m.
There is no dress code. Children and students have programming at the 10:30 a.m. service. Online giving is available through Realm, by text, or by mailing a gift to the church address. Baptism classes are available for adults, teens, and kids, and a new members class is offered for those ready to join the church family. Volunteers are welcome in nearly every ministry area. Visitors who want to get connected can join a small group, take a PLACE spiritual gifts class, or sign up to serve.