LITTLE ROCK – Hillcrest Community Church celebrated the nations and God’s glory on Oct. 27 during their Sunday service.
“Nations Sunday was to celebrate what God has done and pray for more to come. We wanted our faith family to see how God has gathered the nations and given us the opportunity to worship with so many different cultures that we believe reflects what Heaven will be like. What an amazing thing to experience here on earth preparing us for the ultimate worship service in Heaven,” Communications/Ministry Coordinator Sarah Bowen said.
Additionally, they celebrated that they have doors into so many communities in Little Rock through the different nationalities represented.
There are Indian communities, African communities, Arabic communities, Hispanic communities, and more that need Jesus right where they are, Sarah said. And having people who are part of the cultures they gather with regularly gives them unique opportunities to get into those communities, build relationships, and share Jesus.
“We also prayed for more that God can do among the nations and for the Gospel to go out to them. We have two international mission partnerships and prayed for the impact of those partners. We challenged our faith family to continue praying and supporting those ministries, and for people to go,” she said.
The day was celebrated by everyone dressing in their home country’s cultural attire. They worshipped in four different languages and had a missions emphasis sermon and prayer focus for the nations.
Hillcrest Community Church celebrated “who God is and what He has done and what He is going to keep on doing in the city, for the nations.”
“What is today about? Today is not about us. Today is not about you. Today is not about me. Today is about the Lord,” Lead Pastor Jordan Bowen, who along with his wife, Sarah, was dressed in Nigerian garb a Nigerian couple gifted them, said during the nations Sunday service. “Today is not about Hillcrest Community Church. Today is about the church and the unity of when churches come together.”
‘In the City, for the Nations’
Hillcrest Community Church was birthed in 2020 when two congregations – Woodlawn Baptist Church and Oasis Little Rock – came together with the vision of becoming a church “In the City, for the Nations.”
The Hillcrest Community Church building was originally Woodlawn Baptist Church and will be celebrating its 100-year anniversary soon.
Driven by a desire to reach the lost and become a body made up of diverse cultures, languages, backgrounds and ages, this community of believers began their journey of reaching the nations from their surrounding neighborhood.
“Our prayer with the vision of being ‘In the City, for the Nations’ is that our church will be a part of an everyday, everyone disciple-making movement among all people groups both here and there,” Sarah said.
“We want our church to be serving the people around us – whether they are born and raised Arkansans or if they are international students here for just a few years. While they are here, we want to help them discover Jesus and equip them to then make disciples wherever they go.”
For some, they will remain here in Arkansas and see this movement continue locally, she said. For others, it means going back to their home countries and starting a disciple-making movement there.
“It is all with the heart of making disciples wherever we go,” Sarah said. “Our whole story as a church has been only of God. We can’t take credit for one moment.”
Shortly after Hillcrest Community Church began, they saw the Lord starting to bring people of different nationalities together. Their first celebration of this happened after a baptism of a man who was African American. He was the first African American to be baptized since the existence of Woodlawn.
Since then, they have seen people from China, Iraq, Italy, Nigeria, and more be baptized.
Many people in the church are a part of the International Student Ministry team. They are trained and prepared to welcome new international students to Arkansas for school. These team members are the first American person a student meets, and they can provide them with a welcome basket filled with living essentials. They are also able to give them rides, help them set up bank accounts and phones or go grocery shopping, and even host them in their homes for a few days.
Sarah shared the story of a family from Nigeria who arrived in the states last year. Another family hosted them and helped them get settled and connected to their church. Because of the generosity they received from that family, they decided to have the same ministry. This family found an apartment with an extra bedroom specifically so they could host others. They moved into their home in the summer of 2024 and within one month, they had already hosted 20 different individuals and helped them in their transition to the states.
Currently, Hillcrest Community Church is gathering and engaging 31 different people groups from 22 different countries. Sarah said many of those are represented each Sunday for services and others are being reached through intentional events and serving opportunities to connect them to the church. Some of those nations include Iraq, Indonesia, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Italy, Nigeria, Ghana, India, Bolivia, Germany, and Mexico.
“What you see today is just what we desire to do in unity with the kingdom of God and that is to make disciples that make disciples of every tribe, tongue and nation that is both here in Little Rock and around the world,” Jordan said during the nations Sunday service.
According to the International Mission Board (IMB) website, 59% of the world today is considered unreached – meaning Jesus is largely unknown among 4.6 billion people.
Media partnership
Hillcrest Community Church is partnering with LifeWord, a media ministry based out of Conway, to produce media in hundreds of languages to take the gospel all over the world. Most recently, they have partnered through their podcast, “In the City for the Nations.”
In each episode, Jordan and Sarah interview a friend from another country who has understanding and background with other religions to understand how they can have a “nations” mindset.
“We talk about how we can pray for different people groups of other religions and how to love them well to Jesus,” she said.
People can watch the podcast by subscribing on YouTube to Hillcrest Community Church or following them on Facebook.