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Pastor Uses Boxing to Reach Young People, Community

Alta Vista AG pastor is discipling youth in at-risk neighborhoods and evangelizing the community using a God-given talent he had given up decades ago.
AG pastor Peter Baker, 67, grew up in inner-city Indianapolis and discovered boxing as a means of self-development. When he met the Lord at age 20, he quit competing, but over the past two decades in Bakersfield he has built a county-funded boxing program to train and disciple young people and their parents.

“Boxing is a different kind of fraternity,” Baker says. “It shapes your thinking and teaches you character, skills, and discipline. I constantly talk to kids about life and the Lord.”

His boxing program operates in a sheriff’s sub-station as part of an activity league run under the Kern County Sheriff’s Department. In the space, deputies set up a gym to Baker’s specifications. It includes multiple speed bag platforms, heavy bags, mirrors for shadow boxing and sharpening form, plus medicine balls, protective gear and speed and strength training equipment.

Seventy or more kids participate weekly in training and exhibition matches to showcase what they learn.

“We put the kids in front of a friendly crowd so they can display whatever level of skill they’ve got,” Baker says.

The impact has spread beyond the young. At least 20 of the 100 people who attend his church, Alta Vista AG, do so because of the boxing program.

“All my assistant coaches are people who did not know Christ when I met them,” Baker says. “They have all come to Christ and come to my church with their families and extended families.”

Baker competed in boxing during his teen years, taught by a state champion fighter who coached a local league, and by another coach who had once fought the great heavyweight champion, Joe Lewis. But when Baker embraced Christ, “I just didn’t feel it was compatible,” he says. “The desire to compete left me.”

He maintained a vigorous, private boxing workout while attending Central Bible College and serving on staff at several Midwest churches. He then joined the pastoral staff at First AG Bakersfield and in 2000 took leadership of an AG church property in a very rough part of East Bakersfield. In getting to know neighborhood kids, he realized boxing could be a means of evangelism and discipleship — and when kids found out Baker was a good boxer, they asked to learn from him.

“Boxing teaches you to live with a little bit of pain; you’re not going to get through life without pain,” he says. “It teaches you to live with fear because every time you stand in a corner before they announce your name, you’re scared. Everybody is. You have to push that down and function. I tell the kids I’m intentionally putting you in a stressful situation to see if you perform.”

Alta Vista AG formed a nonprofit and received a grant to fund what Baker calls a “very successful collaborative” with public schools and the county, of which boxing became a key aspect. Later, the effort became part of the Sheriffs’ Activity League, and thanks in part to the popularity of Baker’s boxing program, the center added weight-lifting, honor guard, cheerleading, soccer, crafting, and more to its slate of activities.

Martin Barron retired from the Kern County Sheriffs department as a senior deputy/detective after 26 years and still serves in law enforcement. He partnered with Baker to lead boxing programs for ten years.

“What I really like about Pete is he has such a strong passion to work with at-risk youths,” says Barron. “There is no sugar-coating with him. He lets them know the realities of life. He gathers the kids up together and talks to them and makes himself available to these young boxers to the point that they confide in him. He would have counseling sessions with them and their parents. He has had that kind of impact with the community.”

He says it was Baker’s idea to present Friday night showcases in a nearby park so the community could “take a look at this program,” Barron says. Those events drew 200 to 300 people.

“He made it exciting so people wanted to be involved,” the retired deputy says. “They saw the changes in these young kids, in their mentality. A lot of times these youngsters are limited to their neighborhood and don’t see past that lifestyle. But when they get involved with the sheriff’s league program and a guy like Pete, they are able to see past the troubles of their neighborhood and say, ‘Wait a minute, I could better myself.’”

Baker says safety is his primary goal, so participants wear head protection and the largest gloves they can (16 oz., vs. the 8-10 oz.-gloves most professional fighters use). He also employs experienced referees who “have no problem stopping a contest if a kid is overwhelmed.”

The matches are exhibitions so there are no winners or losers. Both participants receive medals, and opponents place medals around each other’s necks at the end of each bout.

They also start every event with prayer and the national anthem, and sometimes Baker spends a few minutes talking about Jesus. The program has presented exhibitions in fairgrounds, parks, local schools, shopping centers, and private clubs.

“Kids work hard toward the exhibitions,” Baker says. “They have to prove to me they’re ready. I tell them, ‘There’s no way I’m going to put you out there if you’re going to embarrass yourself and embarrass me. You don’t win just because you put shiny pants on. It happens in your practice.’ Those are life lessons: goal-setting, delayed gratification.”

The sport also teaches them how to keep peace because when they’re done sparring, the kids bear no grudges for what happened in the ring.

“They are best friends. It’s amazing,” Baker says. “There’s no animosity.”

Baker’s own specialty is working the speed bag, and his best speed-bag performers tend to be girls.

“Their self esteem goes through the roof when they can do the speed-bag better than most boys,” he says.
Baker remains surprised that God has used boxing in his ministry.

“The amazing thing was I had walked away from boxing, and I realize now I was wrong, and that God could use it,” he says.

Joel Kilpatrick

Joel Kilpatrick is a writer living in Southern California who has authored or ghostwritten dozens of books. Kilpatrick, who served as associate editor of the Pentecostal Evangel in the 1990s, is a credentialed Assemblies of God minister.