About Us

The gathering you are participating in today traces its roots to a local vision. In April 1935, nineteen business executives in Seattle, Washington met together to face a crucial situation in the life of their city. Looking for ways to deal with the tensions and fractures that often accompany public life, they turned to the story of Jesus of Nazareth at a meal. According to the gospel of John, Jesus invited a few of his friends to join him on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias. At this breakfast, he demonstrated: the generosity of God with an abundant catch of fish, the love of God in his reconciliation with Peter who denied him, and the transcendent importance of gathering together to eat, fellowship, and pray.

As the Seattle executives continued to meet regularly, a new vision of a life of usefulness was born. Their resolve grew to serve as agents of reconciliation in their personal lives and in their business communities. A concern for the poor and oppressed people of their city and beyond developed among them. In 1941, newly elected Governor Arthur Langlie, who had been a significant part of this little group, invited friends from across the state to join him in prayer as he began his first of three terms in office. This unique breakfast became the first of its kind in the country and ultimately became the model for the first National Prayer Breakfast in 1953, with President Eisenhower.

Over the months and years that followed, as they told others how much this small group meant to them, other breakfast groups sprang up throughout the state of Washington, southward to San Francisco, eastward to Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston, and then in 1942, to Washington, D.C. Here, breakfast groups were founded in the United States Senate and House of Representatives. Today, this simple idea of people meeting together for mutual encouragement and fellowship in order to find a better way has become the basis for small groups in over 180 countries.