On any given Saturday, the corner of Central and Pecan Avenue in Charlotte, North Carolina, is bustling with people walking their dogs, grabbing coffee with a friend, or jogging around the neighborhood.
But nine decades ago, this land was filled with a large, wooden tabernacle where a young Billy Graham and hundreds of others surrendered their life to Jesus Christ. When he heard Mordecai Ham preach about God’s love, the teenaged Graham made a decision to follow Christ—sparking a ministry that would reach millions.
On Monday, 70 people gathered to dedicate a marker on the spot where this new, spiritual life began. The crowd got a taste of what Graham encountered that night many years ago. Mark Christian, a worship pastor at First Baptist Charlotte, played the song “Almost Persuaded,” which was playing when the 15-year-old walked over sawdust to the front of the platform.
“Be now persuaded, oh, sinner, hear! Be now persuaded, Jesus is near. His voice is pleading still, turn now with heart and will, peace will your spirit fill—Oh, turn today!” the hymn reads.
At the time, Graham was a lanky teenager growing up on a dairy farm. He later remembered that encounter with God as a turning point in his life.
“No bells went off inside me. No signs flashed across the tabernacle ceiling. No physical palpitations made me tremble,” he wrote in his autobiography, Just As I Am. “All I knew was that the world looked different the next morning when I got up to do the milking, eat breakfast, and catch the school bus.”
That teenager could not have imagined what God was preparing to do around the globe through decades of Graham’s faithful ministry.
“The legacy that grew from this soil on which we stand is God’s story. It’s not Billy Graham’s story; it’s God’s story,” said Will Graham about his grandfather’s ministry.
Today, as hundreds more walk past this site, they can stop and learn about a farm boy who God used to reach the world with the Gospel.
“I didn’t know Mr. Graham personally, but I knew enough about him to know that if he were here today, he would say it’s not about him, it’s about Jesus,” said Bobby Speir, senior vice president of Mixed-Use Investment of Crosland Southeast, which developed the 12-acre site.
When Speir and his wife found out about the significance of the location, they knew why God had answered so many prayers to make the development possible.
“My prayer is that God would continue to use this site for His glory and His kingdom, on Earth as it is in Heaven,” Speir said.
The backdrop for the ceremony featured two prominent brick buildings, which were factory sites for Cole Planters. At the time, it was the world’s largest site for producing seed planters, a valuable farm tool.
“If you’re familiar with Mr. Graham’s ministry, he was often referred to as the sower,” Speir reminded the crowd. “How fitting is it that from the same site the Lord manufactured His own planter—a sower who would plant the seeds of the Gospel all over the world.”
And Will Graham didn’t let the opportunity pass him by to sow more seeds for God’s kingdom, just like his grandfather.
“Billy Graham made his most important decision here. Why don’t you make the same decision?” Will asked the crowd, which included local media. “You can be religious, just like Billy Graham. He went to church, but yet didn’t know God. … This is your moment that you can give your life to Jesus Christ.”
Over his decades of ministry, Billy Graham gave a similar invitation to millions of people around the world—and his legacy lives on as this marker and the many ministries of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association continue to proclaim the Gospel.
“My prayer is that God will fan up the flame in the hearts of men and women around the world to make Christ known,” said Leighton Ford, Billy Graham’s brother-in-law. “To God be the glory.”
Will you pray that many people will come across this marker and hear the life-changing Gospel? Ask the Lord to use the legacy of Billy Graham to continue drawing many to saving faith in Him.
