The Building

Where Jesus Changed My Life

On December 22, 2024, I heard a song that I have thought about for the last month. This song was performed by the Voices of Mobile (University of Mobile) at Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Dothan, AL. This song is called “The Building” by Emily Ann Roberts. Before reading the rest of this post, I strongly encourage you to listen to the song posted above.

As I heard this song, I became overwhelmed with various thoughts and emotions. I couldn’t help but to place myself in the very story of this song. I began to think about the building where Jesus changed my life. The very building that I was sitting in when I first heard this song. As the song was ending, I had a friend and coworker text, “This one gets you in your feels.” Another said, “Bruh I’m struggling over here…” This was my very thoughts when listening to the words of this song. Over the last few weeks, I have had time to think about the building where Jesus changed my life. Today, in this post, I want to share it with you.

I want each of you to picture the building where Jesus changed my life. This building is located at 1231 Fortner Street in Dothan, AL. This building is categorized by some as a large place, but to me it is much smaller. This building is Ridgecrest Baptist Church. This brick church with white outlines and a beautiful steeple has been home to many of God’s Faithful in the Wiregrass Area. This church was established in 1951 and began in the home of a faithful follower of Christ. While this building has changed over the years, it has stayed constant my whole life. While this is just a building, it cannot be misunderstood the faithful who have come and gone that have made this place more than a just a building, but a home.

When talking about this building where Jesus changed my life, I want to start where this building changed my whole families life. This story goes back to my grandparents. When my grandparents made the big move from Hartford, AL to Dothan, AL, they were invited to church by some neighbors. These neighbors have been known as PawPaw and KK to me for as long as I have been alive. PawPaw and KK attended Ridgecrest Baptist Church (and still do). They invited my grandparents to church. As a result of this, my grandparents came to know the Lord in this very building that I am writing this in. Because of the faithful in this building, my grandparents accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. This is the building where Jesus changed their life and as a result, the lives of generations to come.

Once my grandparents came to know Christ, they made it a point to attend church as faithful members. They raised their children in this very church and even won Super Family of the Year on several occasions. Because of how Jesus changed their life, I got to see how it impacted everything that they did. My dad often likes to brag about having perfect attendance to Church for many years as a child. Even as they would camp, they would visit a local church where they stayed and bring back a bulletin as proof. This instilled in my father just who Jesus is. It is because of this building and those in it, that he also came to know the Lord as his personal savior.

This building is where my parents met. My mother, just graduating from Auburn University, took a job in Dothan, AL. She was invited to Ridgecrest’s College and Career group. It was here that my parents would meet and eventually marry. This very building, they would pledge to be with one another for the rest of their life. This very building where they would dedicate my brother and I to the Lord. As one can imagine, there are many memories for them in this building.

As I mention how Jesus changed the lives of my parents and grandparents in this building, I would be remiss not to share my own experiences. In this very building, I began to understand who Jesus is. I began to understand that Jesus was God in human form, lived a sinless life, and was sent to Earth to die on the cross for the sins of the world. But dead he would not stay as he was resurrected three days after suffering a gruesome death on the cross as a sacrifice to cover the sins of man. It is in the fellowship hall of this building at a Royal Ambassadors event that I truly understood just what this meant. I still remember being in my brother’s room with my mom and brother saying our nightly prayers and telling my Mom that I wanted to follow Jesus. A few weeks later, I would be baptized alongside one of my closest childhood friends. This is the building where Jesus changed my life.

This building would also change my brothers life as he would come to know the Lord here as well. This building is special to me. This very building is where I was wrestling with “What God was Calling Me to Do”. After graduation from Troy University, I began a job at an insurance agency here locally. I was praying and asking God to reveal to me where he wanted me to be. It was in this building where someone asked me a very important question: What are you doing with your life? God would just a few short weeks later place upon my life a call to ministry. This calling is being lived out in this very building where Jesus Changed My Life.

As I was following God’s Call on my life, I was interning with the Student Ministry at Ridgecrest Baptist Church. In the Christmas Season of 2019, I would meet someone in this building who would change my life forever. As an intern, I got tasked with painting room D-202 above the Welcome Center. In this very room, doing this very mundane task, I would meet my future wife Samantha. We would later get married in the summer of 2022. This very building is where we are now getting to raise our son, Jeter. My prayer is that Jeter will come to know Christ at a young age and to live for him. Lord willing, unless he calls elsewhere, this will be the building where Jesus changes his life also.

It is in this very building where Jesus changed my life that I get to work every single day. It is in this building where I get to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with my Middle School and Preteen Students. It is in this very building where I get to come and worship the God of the Universe. It is in this very building where I have memories of my grandparents sitting in the pew in front of me. It is in this building where we had my grandfather Billy Joe’s Funeral. It is in this building where we have had some of our greatest memories and some of our hardest times. IT IS THE BUILDING WHERE JESUS CHANGED MY LIFE!

In closing, I want to ask you this question: Is there a building where Jesus has changed your life?