CONWAY, Ark. – Central Arkansas students came together to worship over the weekend in Conway for Unite 501.
The weekend retreat for students in the 501-area code was full of worship, encountering Jesus through the services and family group times, games, and much more.
“The vision of the weekend was to be able to unite students across the area code to be able to worship Jesus,” said Jason Malkiewicz, student pastor on Second Baptist Church’s Conway campus.
“They go to school with all their friends but may not go to the same church. This gave them the opportunity to be able to worship Jesus together with all of their friends. That’s really been the vision behind it. It’s not about the church, it’s about the name of Jesus.”
Malkiewicz said they had more than 300 people attend Unite 501. Churches participating in the student weekend were Second Baptist in Conway, Conway First Baptist, Summit, Central Baptist, Woodland Heights and Fellowship Bible.
They reported 10 salvations.
The speaker for the weekend, Feb. 16-18, was Adam French of Hendersonville, Tennessee. There were three services where all the churches came together. The first night, French focused on Ephesians 2, discussing sin and the need for Jesus. The second service centered on dealing with sin and having accountability, knowing you can overcome sin by submitting to Jesus. During the final service, they shared the vision of what could happen when united in sharing God’s Word.
“We prayed for individual churches and closed the night by linking arms together and praying we would be able to reach this community for the gospel,” Malkiewicz said.
If anybody is interested in partnering or being involved next year, Malkiewicz encouraged them to reach out to him.
“The goal is to reach students all across the 501-area code. If somebody wants to put on an event in their area, I’d love to help and pray and help start that,” he said.
“At the end of the day, we’re just trying to reach people for Jesus starting with students and families and getting them plugged into the local church. There are a lot of great churches. We just want to see students plugged in to their local church wherever that may be.”