Unity Church sits on Charles Boulevard in Greenville, North Carolina, just minutes from East Carolina University, and it has spent years pouring into the families, students, and neighbors who walk through its doors. Affiliated with the National Association of Free Will Baptists, the congregation describes its calling in a single line: to lead neighbors and the nations to become fully devoted disciples of Jesus. That mission is visible in two Sunday morning worship services, a packed kids and youth wing, a thriving college and young adult ministry, and an unusually deep commitment to people with disabilities through Accessible Disciples and Beyond Capernaum.
Sunday Mornings on Charles Boulevard
Worship is offered twice on Sunday morning at 9:00 and 10:30 am. The Connection Team, recognizable by their lanyards, greets visitors from the parking lot to the sanctuary door, and a Connection Center near the entrance offers coffee, doughnuts, and a small gift for newcomers. Dress runs the full spectrum, from Sunday best to jeans and a t-shirt; the church makes a point of saying either is welcome.
Each service is led by a live band and a team of praise singers under Worship Pastor Kevin Justice, who weaves music, prayer, scripture reading, and preaching into a single flow designed to give every worshipper space to encounter God and His Word. Lead Pastor Dr. Jeff Manning preaches most Sundays, and his expository sermons lean on solid Bible teaching with real-life applications; he is also usually available in the Fellowship Mall after service to welcome anyone who would like to meet him. The service is livestreamed on YouTube for those who cannot attend in person.
Visitors who want a personal touch can text the word "welcome" to 252-591-5656 so the church can connect digitally as well. Nursery care is available during both services and most Life Groups, and check-in runs through a secure system that prints matching child and parent tags with allergy information.
Unity Kids: From Nursery Through Fifth Grade
Children's ministry is treated as a frontline ministry at Unity. Children's Pastor Ti Barnhill oversees a layered program that begins in the nursery and continues through elementary school.
Three nursery classrooms care for the youngest attenders: an Infant Nursery for newborns through six months, a Crawler Nursery from six months onward, and a Walker Nursery for children on the move. Preschoolers gather in Tot Time (ages 2 and 3) and Kids' Korner (ages 4 and 5), where Bible-based, age-appropriate lessons combine with songs, prayers, games, crafts, and a snack. KidsMin Worship is designed for elementary grades 1 through 5, giving children their own dedicated space for worship, mid-week activities, and special events.
Each Sunday, parents check children in at a computer or iPad station, receive matching name and claim tags, and present the claim tag at pick-up so teachers can verify the codes before releasing any child. Parent resources are drawn from Youth Ministry 360 to help families keep faith conversations going at home. Unity also runs a Vacation Bible School each summer, with highlights from the most recent VBS featured on the church's children's page.
Unity Youth: Middle and High School
Student Pastor Jorden Hoffman leads a youth ministry that takes its short window with teenagers seriously. Unity's stated goal is to help 6th through 12th graders understand the gospel, develop real faith, and take their next steps with Christ over the four to six years they have with them.
On Sunday mornings, students attend the 9:00 worship service together and then move into the Youth Life Group at 10:30. Midweek groups meet on Wednesdays from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. Discipleship, community, and small groups form the core of the approach, with worship, teaching, mission trips, and summer camp layered on top. Each Christmas, the youth take donated funds out into the community and surprise people by paying for gas, groceries, meals, and more, a tradition the ministry counts among its favorites.
College and Young Adults
Unity's College and Young Adult ministry is built for the season between dorm life and settled adulthood. The ministry gathers for a Life Group on Sundays at 10:30 am and a small group on Sundays at 6:00 pm, creating regular touchpoints for college students, young professionals, and twenty-somethings navigating friendships, work, and faith. The aim is to build a community where young adults can be real, be encouraged, and find their place in God's bigger story through Bible studies and hangouts.
Unity Women
Terri Decresie leads the women's ministry, which serves women of all ages and seasons of life with encouragement, support, and inspiration. The ministry hosts events throughout the year, including retreats, nights of worship, and community outreach gatherings. A recent Women's Brunch brought women together to hear about a mission trip to Guatemala and to learn about local mission opportunities. The ministry keeps women in the loop through a quarterly newsletter, a Facebook page, and an Instagram feed under the handle @unity.women. Comfort and Joy, the church's senior fellowship, recently marked its tenth anniversary with a seafood meal, music from a guest performer, and a message reflecting on God's faithfulness over the decade.
Unity Seniors
The senior ministry gathers older adults for fellowship, prayer, service, and laughter through several regular rhythms. Seniors are part of the same two Sunday morning services as the rest of the church, and they are folded into the Life Group system alongside younger adults. The signature gathering is Comfort and Joy, a senior adult fellowship luncheon held on the third Thursday of each month, with food, fellowship, fun, music, and encouragement from God's Word.
Accessible Disciples: A Church Within the Church
Few things set Unity apart more than its special-needs ministry. Julie Barnhill-style leadership is provided by Julie Brickhouse, who directs Accessible Disciples, and Lisa Jordan, who directs Beyond Capernaum. Together these ministries provide opportunities for elementary-aged through adult individuals with disabilities to participate in Bible study, missions, worship, and fellowship within age-appropriate, inclusive, and separate setting options. Trained teachers and volunteers from special education and related backgrounds lead the work.
On Sunday mornings, families can choose an inclusive classroom alongside typically developing peers or an Accessible Disciples classroom that follows its own schedule of mission and music at 9:00 to 10:15 am and Bible study, music, missions, and fellowship from 10:15 to 11:30 am. A sensory room with specialized equipment gives anyone who needs it a calm space to refocus and prepare for learning and interaction.
Beyond Capernaum extends this work into the week for adults. On Thursdays from 6:00 to 7:30 pm, mid-August through late May, adults with disabilities gather with their personal care workers and guardians for Bible study, fellowship, games, and a shared meal. The ministry also hosts seasonal celebrations such as Hot Dogs and Hallelujahs, an outdoor evening of food, bounce houses, face painting, animal encounters, and games designed to bring participants, families, volunteers, and friends together.
Life Groups and Small Groups
Unity believes that life is better together, and the church structures much of its discipleship around small communities. Life Groups meet on Sunday mornings at 9:00 and 10:30 am and cover a wide range of interests and demographics. Adults can join Friendship, Family Matters, Home Life, Encouragers, Men of Integrity, Sisters in Christ, or Women of the Word, and college-aged young adults have their own Core Community group at 10:30. Small Groups add another layer, gathering on weeknights in homes and around the church for more intimate study and friendship, with opportunities for GriefShare and Divorce Care alongside the general groups.
Specialized small groups also support specific needs: a Discipleship team walks alongside new believers, a Special Needs team serves in Accessible Disciples and Beyond Capernaum, and a Garden Team cultivates land near the church to donate produce to those in need around the city while letting members borrow small plots for their own growing.
Worship and Production
Worship at Unity is more than music. Kevin Justice weaves together songs, scripture, prayer, and preaching to give every worshipper a fresh encounter with God and His Word. The Worship Arts Team welcomes vocalists, instrumentalists, actors, and expressive readers, while the Production Team runs the Worship Tech Team and operates cameras, sound, and livestream systems for both in-person and online audiences.
Salvation, Baptism, and Next Steps
Unity teaches that salvation is a free gift from God, made possible by grace through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and sums it up in passages from Romans: that all have sinned, that the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life, that God demonstrated His love while we were still sinners, and that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Baptism is treated as an outward testimony of inward change. Unity practices believer's baptism by immersion in water, symbolizing identification with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and performs baptisms periodically during Sunday services. The Prospective Member Class, hosted by Lead Pastor Jeff Manning on the last Wednesday of most months, walks newcomers through the church's distinctive beliefs and the way ministry operates at Unity.
Beliefs and Convictions
The church holds to the verbal, plenary inspiration and inerrancy of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament, with Scripture as the final authority for faith and life. The pastors and deacons serve as the church's interpretive authority on the Bible's meaning and application.
Unity believes in one triune God, eternally existing as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, coequal in power and glory. The church affirms the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, His sinless life, substitutionary death on the cross, literal physical resurrection, ascension, and present ministry as High Priest at the right hand of God. The Holy Spirit is confessed as the supernatural agent in regeneration who indwells and seals believers, though the church teaches that the sign gifts such as speaking in tongues were temporary.
The ordinances of the church are water baptism by immersion for believers, the Lord's Supper open to all born-again believers present, and feet washing. The church affirms the personal and imminent return of Jesus Christ, the bodily resurrection of all people, eternal life for the redeemed, and everlasting conscious punishment for the lost. It teaches a literal six-day creation, rejects evolution, and holds to traditional positions on marriage as the lifetime union of one man and one woman, the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death, and the spiritual equality but distinct roles of men and women in the home and church, with only men eligible for licensure and ordination. A fuller doctrinal presentation is found in the Treatise of the Faith and Practices of the National Association of Free Will Baptists, Inc.
Missions: Local and Global
Unity's missions philosophy is built on three movements: recognize who you are as a sinner saved by grace, realize your potential as a believer, and run with your mission. Over twenty cents of every dollar given is sent back out to local ministries and missionaries, with a particular burden for student ministries, Bible studies, and small group discipleship that train members to share their faith with neighbors and the nations.
The church supports a long list of national and international ministries, including the Free Will Baptist National Association, IM Inc., the Hanna Project, Compassion International, Team World Missions, Cru, Welch College, Harvest CCM, Dare for More, and others. Missionaries sent from Unity and a network of global partners carry the gospel around the world, while locally the Garden Team donates fresh crops to neighbors in need and the youth team surprises strangers with paid groceries and gas at Christmas.
Staying Connected Throughout the Week
For those who want to keep up between Sundays, Unity offers multiple touchpoints. The Unity Community Podcast, hosted by Tim DeCresie and released every Thursday, shares stories of life change, conversations with ministry leaders, and updates from missionaries, and is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, Overcast, and the Podcast Index. Sermon Notes provide manuscript and outline formats for following along with Pastor Jeff's messages, and a sermon archive collects recent messages from Unity pastors and guest speakers. The Church Center app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play, lists upcoming events, sign-up opportunities, and the latest news. Online giving is available through the church's giving page, with collection boxes also placed at sanctuary entrances.