Thousands of College Students Respond to the Gospel, Hundreds Baptized at Unite Cincinnati

On Wednesday, Nov. 5, UniteUS, the movement that has reached thousands of college students for Jesus, held an event near the campuses of the University of Cincinnati, Xavier University, and Cincinnati State College.

Over 5,500 people attended the event that took place at Heritage Bank Center, which is directly located next to Great American Ball Park—home of the Cincinnati Reds. As they entered the arena, attendees were met with three pickup trucks filled with water in preparation for spontaneous baptisms that would follow the event inside.

ChurchLeaders witnessed Dove Award-nominated worship group Elevation Rhythm starting the night off leading worship. That was followed by Bible teacher, author, and podcaster Jennie Allen pleading with the students to follow Jesus.

RELATED: ‘Truly Indescribable’—10,000 Texas A&M Students Praise Jesus at Unite US Event

Allen told the thousands in attendance that they didn’t have to carry the weight of their sin and encouraged them not to be fearful of confessing their sins to God and to one another. She asked people to confess their dark secret sins to God and then asked them to get into small groups and confess those sins out loud to each other.

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Jonathan “J.P.” Pokluda, who is the lead pastor of Harris Creek Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, then took the stage and gave a clear gospel message. Pokluda asked everyone in the room to rate themselves on a scale of 1-10 on whether or not they believed that when they died they would go to heaven—1 being unsure and 10 being confident. Most of the room responded by acknowledging they were somewhere in the 7-9 range, but a lot of hands went up sharing they weren’t sure.

Like Allen, Pokluda was vulnerable during his message, sharing about his past sins, which included drug, alcohol, and pornography addictions. Pokluda taught about the rich young ruler and how there is nothing anyone can do, apart from Jesus, to save us from our sin.

According to UniteUS, thousands of people in the arena responded after Pokluda led a prayer of salvation, either acknowledging they rededicated their lives to Jesus or made a first-time decision to follow him.

The night inside the arena ended with Elevation Rhythm leading more worship and then people making their way outside in the 50-degree weather to get baptized. UniteUS told ChurchLeaders that the number of baptisms was in the hundreds.

RELATED: Forrest Frank, Sean Feucht, and Lauren Daigle React to Hundreds of Ole Miss Students Getting Baptized at Unite US Event

With Unite Cincinnati being the 22nd event for the organization, ChurchLeaders sat down with Pokulda before the event and asked him to share how he got involved.

Pokluda shared that he was actually hesitant to speak at the first UniteUS event at Auburn University’s Neville Arena on Sept. 12, 2023. “It was in Auburn,” he said. “I was invited to speak at Auburn. At first I was like, ‘No,’ because it was going to be planned in six weeks, and I was like, ‘Man, what’s going to happen in six weeks?’”